Federal law enforcement officers stand outside the Brooklyn Federal courthouse, ahead of Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, the alleged Sinaloa cartel co-founder plea hearing on U.S. drug trafficking charges, in Brooklyn, New York, U.S., August 25, 2025. (Reuters/Brendan McDermid)
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NEW YORK — Former Mexican drug kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada pleaded guilty on Monday to U.S. charges related to his decades-long leadership of the violent Sinaloa cartel and its role in flooding the U.S. with drugs, including cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl.
Zambada, the alleged co-founder of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, pleaded guilty in federal court in Brooklyn to charges that he engaged in a racketeering conspiracy and ran a continuing criminal enterprise that prosecutors said was responsible for importing and distributing massive quantities of drugs.
Those charges stemmed from his decades-long role leading the Sinaloa cartel alongside imprisoned drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison in Colorado.
He agreed to plead guilty after the Justice Department this month said it would not seek the death penalty for Zambada or Rafael Caro Quintero, another septuagenarian alleged Mexican drug lord facing U.S. charges.
Zambada was arrested in July 2024 alongside Joaquin Guzman Lopez, one of Guzman’s sons, after the plane in which they were traveling landed at a small airstrip in New Mexico.
Zambada’s lawyer has said Guzman Lopez kidnapped Zambada, which the Guzman family lawyer has denied.
Guzman Lopez has pleaded not guilty to U.S. drug trafficking charges. U.S. prosecutors have said they would not seek the death penalty for him if convicted.
Mexico this month sent more than two dozen suspected cartel members to the U.S., amid rising pressure from President Donald Trump on Mexico to dismantle the country’s powerful drug organizations. Mexico has said it received assurances from the Justice Department that it would not seek the death penalty for them.
The charges Zambada pleaded guilty to were contained in two separate indictments the U.S. Justice Department had secured against him, one in New York and another in Texas. The Texas case was recently transferred to New York ahead of the guilty plea.
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(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York and Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Rod Nickel)
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