Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada, co-founder of El Chapo’s drug cartel, sentenced to life in U.S. prison

NEW YORK — Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a founder of the Sinaloa cartel, was sentenced to life in prison in Brooklyn federal court, where he took responsibility in leading one of the world’s largest and most violent drug trafficking organizations. His life sentence closes a yearslong effort by the federal government to take down the infamous cartel leader who eluded the reach of U.S. law enforcement for decades. Zambada was arrested in 2024 after he claimed that he was kidnapped in Mexico and flown to Texas. Along with a life sentence, he was also ordered to forfeit $15 billion, however prosecutors have yet to locate a bulk of the illicit profits. Dressed in tan prison garb, Zambada appeared expressionless while he sat at the defense table in court on Monday. Speaking through a Spanish-language interpreter, he apologized, saying, “I am not here to ask for compassion. I am here to take responsibility and to say I’m sorry — for the harm I caused and for the example I set.” “I grew up in an environment where violence and crime seemed normal, but now I know that’s no excuse,” said Zambada, who read from a prepared statement. “There comes a time when every person must take responsibility for their decisions. I didn’t, and many people paid the price.” For decades, Zambada and co-founder Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán built the Sinaloa cartel into a prolific criminal enterprise defined by violence and corruption, flooding the U.S. with tons of cocaine, fentanyl, and methamphetamine. Guzmán was convicted in 2019 and is serving a life sentence at a federal prison in Colorado. Zambada pleaded guilty last year to charges of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise and racketeering conspiracy, acknowledging culpability for 85 underlying crimes. His change of plea was entered after the government said it wouldn’t seek the death penalty. He acknowledged the scope of the Sinaloa operation, including underlings who built relationships with cocaine producers in Colombia, oversaw importing cocaine to Mexico by boat and plane and smuggling the drug across the U.S.-Mexico border. He said the cartel raked in hundreds of millions of dollars a year and admitted that people working for him paid hefty bribes to Mexican officials. Frank Perez, an attorney for Zambada, said in court that his client didn’t cooperate with the government in a “typical sense,” adding that he didn’t divulge information about Sinaloa cartel members or Mexican government officials. “During El Mayo’s reign, tens of thousands of parents lost their children to addiction, overdose, and drug-related violence. I hope that El Mayo’s life sentence brings some small measure of comfort to those families who have suffered unimaginable pain,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. told reporters outside of court. He added, “The message today is clear: Drug dealing is a dead end, not just figuratively, but literally a dead end. Drug dealers die in prison.”