Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a former Mexican drug kingpin, pleaded guilty on Monday to drug trafficking charges in the United States and expressed regret for assisting in the import of cocaine, heroin, and other illegal drugs into the country and for fueling deadly violence in Mexico. He will serve the remainder of his life in prison.
Through a Spanish-language interpreter, Zambada, 75, said, “I recognize the great harm illegal drugs have done to the people of the United States, of Mexico, and elsewhere. I take responsibility for my role in all of it and I apologize to everyone who has suffered or been affected by my actions.”
Prosecutors claim that the Sinaloa cartel changed from being a regional player to the biggest drug trafficking organisation in the world under Zambada’s and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s leadership.
Zambada entered his plea in a Brooklyn courtroom. “Culpable,” he said, using the Spanish word for “guilty.”
He recognised the extent of the Sinaloa operation, which included smugglers who managed the smuggling of cocaine across the US-Mexico border, imported the drug to Mexico by boat and air, and established connections with cocaine producers in Colombia. He acknowledged that his employees paid bribes to Mexican military and police “so they could operate freely” and said the cartel made hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
Zambada’s guilty plea was hailed as a “landmark victory” by US Attorney General Pam Bondi, who came to New York to assure reporters at a press conference that he “will die in a U.S. federal prison, where he belongs.”
Bondi claimed, “This guy, ‘El Mayo,’ was living like a king. Now he’s living like a criminal for the rest of his life.”
The anti-cartel campaign of US President Donald Trump was emphasised by Bondi’s visit to Brooklyn. His administration forced the Mexican government to turn over several dozen high-ranking cartel officials for prosecution, designated drug cartels as terrorist organisations, and stationed military assets off the coast of Venezuela.
At the end of the Biden administration, Zambada was arrested in Texas last year after being sought by US law enforcement for more than 20 years. The drug lord had arrived in a private plane with Joaquín Guzmán López, one of El Chapo’s sons. Zambada claims he was abducted in Mexico and forcibly transported to the US.
His and Guzmán Lopez’s arrests sparked violent clashes between rival cartel factions in his native Sinaloa, dividing his supporters against those of El Chapo’s sons, known as the Chapitos, or “little Chapos.”
More involved in the cartel’s daily operations than the flamboyant El Chapo, Zambada was regarded as a skilled negotiator and its strategist. Zambada, according to the prosecution, was involved in the group’s brutality and once gave the order to kill his own nephew.
Dead bodies can occasionally be seen hanging from highway underpasses or lying in the streets of Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa. Because people don’t want to be out after dark, businesses close early. During unexpected outbursts of tension, schools come to a complete stop.