On Monday, US District Judge Brian Cogan sentenced Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada during a hearing in Brooklyn federal court

Per his plea agreement Zambada, 76, was handed a mandatory term of life in prison, he was also ordered to pay $15bn

Notorious drug cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada was lured to the US and taken into custody in July 2024

In 2025, Zambada reached a plea deal and admitted to drug smuggling and conspiracy charges in exchange for avoiding the death penalty.

Per the plea deal, Zambada also admitted to co-founding the Sinaloa Cartel, the vast criminal network which has shipped huge amounts of narcotics into the US since the 1980s

Sinaloa drug cartel co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada [photo], was sentenced to life in prison. ordered to pay $15billion during a hearing in Brooklyn federal court. His guilty plea carried a mandatory term of life in prison

One of the most notorious figures in Mexico’s drug cartels, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, will spend the rest of his life in prison, a US judge ruled has ruled, two years after Zambada was lured to the US in an elaborate sting operation.The 76-year-old, who founded the violent Sinaloa Cartel with Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, was also ordered to pay $15bn.
In 2024, El Chapo’s son led Zambada to believe they were traveling to northern Mexico to inspect clandestine airstrips, when their plane instead, landed in Texas and Guzmán surrendered to federal agents.
Last year, Zambada reached a plea deal and admitted to drug smuggling and conspiracy charges in exchange for avoiding the death penalty.
On Monday, US District Judge Brian Cogan sentenced Zambada during a hearing in Brooklyn federal court. His guilty plea carried a mandatory term of life in prison.
The $15bn he was ordered to pay represents drug-trafficking profits from his role as the principal leader of a criminal enterprise, according to the justice department.
The 2024 bust also netted his traveling companion, El Chapo’s son, Joaquin Guzmán Lopez, who was also arrested.
The younger Guzmán pled guilty to federal drug charges, but he awaits sentencing.

Ismael Zambada Garcia [photo] and Joaquin Guzmán Loera and faced murder and conspiracy charges connected with drug trafficking, money laundering and organized crime.In 2024, El Chapo’s son led Zambada to believe they were traveling to northern Mexico to inspect clandestine airstrips, when their plane instead landed in Texas and the younger man surrendered to feds

In the plea deal, Zambada officially accepted his role in creating the vast criminal network which has sent huge amounts of cocaine and other drugs into the US since he co-founded the Sinaloa Cartel at the end of the 1980s.
“Ismael Zambada Garcia spent nearly four decades poisoning American communities to make billions of dollars in profit and ordering the murders of anyone who stood in his way,” said US Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr for the Eastern District of New York in a statement.
“Today, that chapter closes for good.”

El Mayo Zambada [photo], pled to his role in creating Sinaloa cartel, along with Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera. The vast criminal network shipped huge amounts of narcotics into the US since inception at the end of the 1980s

El Mayo Zambada was also indicted along with Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, by a US federal grand jury in April 2012, in Texas, for allegedly being connected with the Sinaloa cartel.
They were charged with murder and conspiracy connected with drug trafficking, money laundering and organized crime.
Prior to that Guzmán and Zambada had already been indicted on drug trafficking and organized crime charges in several US federal courts.
The 2012 indictment in Texas detailed two acts of violence federal prosecutors said were committed by members of the cartel.
One took place during a 2010 wedding ceremony in Ciudad Juarez, when an American citizen and two members of his family were kidnapped because of their ties with the rival Juarez cartel.
The target was the groom and a resident of Columbus, New Mexico.
Police found the bodies of the groom, his brother and his uncle three days after the wedding in the bed of a pickup truck, the indictment.
The groom’s body showed signs that he had been beaten and strangled.

Joaquín Guzmán López is seen being escorted after flying across the border into Texas and surrendering to U.S. federal agents in July 2024

His hands had been “severed above the wrists and placed on his chest,” according to the indictment.
Another incident detailed in the indictment related to the kidnapping, killing and mutilation of a Texas resident in 2009 “to answer for the loss of a 670-pound load of marijuana seized by the Border Patrol.”
Prosecutors argued in a sentencing memo that Zambada “was one of the most-if not the most-prolific and powerful narco traffickers in the world.”
The Sinaloa Cartel has been at war with itself since Zambada was taken into custody and has wreaked mayhem across the Mexican state of Sinaloa. Hundreds of people have been reported missing during fighting between its two rival factions.
Former cartel boss El Chapo Guzmán is also serving life in prison.
Violence and bloodletting also shook the cartel after El Chapo Guzmán was arrested and extradited to the US in 2016, as factions wrestled for control of territory while fighting off opposing drug gangs who sensed weakness.
The internal feud escalated with the arrest in the US of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.
Zambada’s followers, known as “Los Mayos” or “La Mayiza”, say he was betrayed by the son of the founder of the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, and have turned on members of his faction, known as “Los Chapitos”.
One of the issues that has arisen since Zambada agreed to plead guilty has been where he will serve his sentence.
He has requested to be sent to a prison hospital, saying he will need medical care for age-related health issues.
Federal prosecutors, though, are seeking a higher-level of incarceration, contending Zambada still poses a security threat while beyond bars and could continue to direct illegal drug operations.
The final decision on where the erstwhile narco lord will spend the rest of his days rests with the federal Bureau of Prisons.