Mexican drug lord, Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada, has entered a guilty plea to two drug smuggling and conspiracy charges in a court in New York, bringing an end to one of the longest and most notorious criminal careers in the history of organised crime.
Zambada was not just any drug lord.
He was the founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, for years the biggest and most powerful criminal organisation in Mexico – with an astonishing global reach.
Last year, he pleaded not guilty to a raft of drug smuggling, gun-running and money laundering offences. But now, he has changed his plea before a federal judge in Brooklyn.
In doing so, he 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 cartel at the end of the 1980s.
The Associated Press reported that in court Zambada apologised for his actions.
“I recognise the great harm illegal drugs have done to the people in the United States and Mexico,” he said through a Spanish-language interpreter, the AP reported. “I apologise for all of it, and I take responsibility for my actions.”
Local Mexican media has also said that Zambada admitted “the organisation that I headed fed corruption in my country by paying police, military commanders and politicians who allowed us to operate freely.”
The step comes weeks after US prosecutors confirmed they would not be seeking the death penalty against the 77-year-old Mexican kingpin.
Zambada was arrested in Texas last year following an extraordinary double-cross by the sons of his former ally, the jailed co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán.
El Chapo was sentenced to life imprisonment in the same court in 2019.
After his arrest, the cartel splintered into two main factions: one led by El Mayo, and its rival, led by Guzman’s sons, known as ‘Los Chapitos’. The conflict between the two sides continues to rage, particularly in the state of Sinaloa itself.
In late July 2024, Zambada was allegedly lured to a meeting with one of El Chapo’s son, Joaquín Guzmán López.
Initial reports suggested Guzmán López then duped his rival into boarding a light aircraft, but Zambada later claimed he was ambushed and overpowered by Los Chapitos, and forcibly removed to Texas.
US law enforcement officials were waiting for the aircraft when it landed near El Paso and both men were immediately taken into custody.
By entering a guilty plea, Zambada is expected to receive a more lenient sentence. In his late 70s and reportedly in poor health, he may have reasoned that it was futile to continue to claim his innocence, especially given Guzmán’s conviction and life sentence in 2019.
“El Mayo will spend the rest of his life behind bars. He will die in a US federal prison where he belongs,” US Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters.
It was confirmed last year that both the Guzmán sons – Joaquín and his younger brother, Ovidio – were negotiating plea bargains with the US government.
In May, 17 members of the Guzmán family were escorted into the US by officials. Last month, Ovidio pleaded guilty in Chicago to multiple charges of drug smuggling and involvement in a continuing criminal enterprise.
At his height, Zambada was probably the most powerful drug lord in the world.
More shadowy than other kingpins – particularly El Chapo whose escapes from prison in 2001 and 2015 made headlines around the world – Zambada was no less ruthless or calculating.
For some five decades, he successfully evaded arrest or capture. During that time he oversaw the transport of vast quantities of heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine into the US via land, sea and air.
Now, in a US courtroom, one of the most enduring names in global drug trafficking has accepted his role at the top of the one of the biggest and most sophisticated criminal networks in the world.
He is due to be sentenced in January 2026.
