Long-elusive Mexican drug lord Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada pleads guilty in
US
[August 26, 2025]
By MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ
NEW YORK (AP) — Former Mexican cartel kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada
will spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty Monday
to U.S. drug trafficking charges and saying he was sorry for helping
flood the U.S. with cocaine, heroin and other illicit substances and for
fueling deadly violence in Mexico.
“I recognize the great harm illegal drugs have done to the people of the
United States, of Mexico, and elsewhere,” Zambada, 75, said through a
Spanish-language interpreter. “I take responsibility for my role in all
of it and I apologize to everyone who has suffered or been affected by
my actions."
Under Zambada's leadership and that of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the
Sinaloa cartel evolved from a regional player into the largest drug
trafficking organization in the world, prosecutors say.
“Culpable,” Zambada said, using the Spanish word for “guilty,” as he
entered his plea in a Brooklyn courtroom, about 2,200 miles (3,500
kilometers) from Mexico’s Sinaloa state.
He acknowledged the extent 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 bribes to Mexican police and military commanders “so they could
operate freely."
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi flew to New York to herald Zambada’s
guilty plea as a “landmark victory," telling reporters at a news
conference that he “will die in a U.S. federal prison, where he
belongs.”
“This guy, ‘El Mayo,’ was living like a king,” Bondi said. ”Now he’s
living like a criminal for the rest of his life.”
Bondi’s visit to Brooklyn underscored President Donald Trump’s
anti-cartel crusade. His administration has declared drug cartels to be
terrorist organizations, positioned military assets off Venezuela and
compelled the Mexican government to hand over several dozen high-ranking
cartel officials for prosecution.
The kingpin's legacy
Sought by U.S. law enforcement for more than two decades, Zambada was
arrested in Texas last year, at the end of the Biden administration,
when the drug lord arrived in a private plane with one of Guzmán’s sons,
Joaquín Guzmán López. Zambada says he was kidnapped in Mexico and taken
against his will to the U.S.
His arrest, along with that of Guzmán López, touched off deadly fighting
in his home state of Sinaloa between rival cartel factions, pitting his
loyalists against backers of Guzmán’s sons, dubbed the Chapitos, or
“little Chapos.”
Considered a good negotiator, Zambada was seen as the cartel’s
strategist and dealmaker who was more involved in its day-to-day doings
than the flamboyant Guzmán. Prosecutors have said Zambada was enmeshed
in the group’s violence, at one point ordering the murder of his own
nephew.
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"El Mayo" Zambada speaks to Judge Brian Cogan (not pictured) in
Brooklyn federal court, as his defense attorney Frank Perez looks
on, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, in New York. (Jane Rosenberg via AP)
In the Sinaloan capital of Culiacan, dead bodies lie in streets or
sometimes appear hanging from highway underpasses. Businesses
shutter early because people don’t want to be out after dark.
Schools grind to a halt during sudden bursts of conflict. People
ranging from social media influencers to animal caregivers have been
touched by the bloodshed.
Prosecutors promised not to seek the death penalty
Zambada's plea came two weeks after prosecutors said they wouldn’t
seek the death penalty.
His lawyer, Frank Perez, stressed after court that the plea
agreement doesn’t obligate Zambada to cooperate with government
investigators. The attorney said his client never really wanted to
go to trial, and that once the death penalty was off the table, his
“focus shifted to accepting responsibility and moving forward."
Bondi noted Mexico’s opposition to the death penalty, which is a
factor in its willingness to extradite suspects to the U.S. Although
Zambada wasn’t extradited, she alluded to the nations’ understanding
that “we cannot seek the death penalty” for those who are.
Zambada is due to be sentenced Jan. 13 to life in prison. He also
faces billions of dollars in financial penalties.
Zambada describes his drug trade
Zambada appeared momentarily unsteady as he arrived in court; a
marshal grabbed his arm to direct him to his seat.
As Judge Brian M. Cogan described the plea agreement, the bearded
ex-Sinaloa boss sat attentively, at times brushing his right hand
through his white hair.
Then, in an eight-minute speech, Zambada traced his involvement with
illegal drugs to his teenage years, when — after leaving school with
a sixth-grade education — he first planted marijuana in 1969. He
said he went on to sell heroin and other drugs, but especially
cocaine. From 1980 until last year, he and his cartel were
responsible for transporting at least 1.5 million kilograms of
cocaine, “most of which went to the United States,” he said.
Prosecutors said in his indictment that he and the cartel also
trafficked in fentanyl and methamphetamine.
Zambada pleaded guilty to charges of engaging in a continuing
criminal enterprise between 1989 and 2024 and racketeering
conspiracy, which encompasses involvement in a number of crimes from
2000 to 2012.
Guzmán was sentenced to life behind bars following his conviction in
the same federal court in Brooklyn in 2019.
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