Sinaloa cartel king 'El Mayo' sentenced in Brooklyn to life in prison

Leonard Greene, New York Daily News on Jul 20, 2026

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Federal authorities Monday announced a life sentence for the Mexican drug lord known as El Mayo years after putting away his infamous former partner.

Ismael Zambada, 75, was hit with the same penalty as one-time cartel king Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. Together, the two kingpins founded the Sinaloa cartel, a murderous network of drug peddlers as evil and deadly as any terrorist group around the world, prosecutors said.

Zambada’s guilty plea last year to federal drug trafficking charges brought to an end his 35-year reign of terror at the helm of an organization synonymous with death, both by the hands of gun-toting soldiers and dealers whose products led to countless overdoses.

“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,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella, Jr. said at a Brooklyn news conference Monday. “Today, that chapter closes for good.”

Zambada had faced indictments in six federal jurisdictions, including Florida, Texas and California before pleading guilty in August to drug smuggling and conspiracy charges in exchange for avoiding the death penalty.

He had been charged with 17 counts related to drug trafficking, firearms offenses and money laundering.

The sentence includes an order to forfeit $15 billion.

Zambada was arrested in Texas in 2024 after arriving in a private plane with one of Joaquin Guzmán’s sons, Joaquín Guzmán López.

Zambada thought he was flying with El Chapo’s son to inspect a clandestine Mexican airfield when he instead landed in El Paso and was taken into U.S. custody in July 2024, according to a Homeland Security Investigations official.

Joaquín Guzmán López remains in custody in the U.S. and pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges last year.

“If you traffic deadly drugs and profit from the suffering of others, the DEA is coming for you,” said DEA administrator Terrance Cole. "Justice does not have an expiration date, and neither does our resolve. We will continue targeting the leaders of the Sinaloa cartel and every criminal organization that threatens the American people.”

Zambada’s guilty plea followed the conviction at trial of El Chapo in the same federal courthouse in Brooklyn. Guzman is serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison.

Authorities said El Mayo and El Chapo oversaw the shipment of cocaine, fentanyl and methamphetamine, using armed soldiers who assaulted, tortured and murdered rivals. Prosecutors said he paid millions in bribes at all levels of the Mexican government.

Zambada admitted as much last year in federal court.

In a prepared statement at the time, Zambada acknowledged that he “directed people under my control to kill others to further the interests of my organization” during the Mexican drug wars of the 1980s and 1990s and he conceded “many innocent people” were killed.

“I recognize the great harm illegal drugs have done to the people in the United States and Mexico,” Zambada said.

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