NEW YORK (Chatnewstv.com) — Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, the 75-year-old co-founder of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, pleaded guilty Monday in federal court to leading a continuing criminal enterprise and racketeering charges, U.S. officials said.
Zambada, long considered one of the world’s most powerful drug lords, admitted responsibility for overseeing the cartel’s vast narcotics empire that trafficked cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl into the United States for decades. He faces a mandatory life sentence and agreed to forfeit $15 billion in drug proceeds as part of a plea deal. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 13, 2026.
Attorney General Pamela Bondi said the plea closed a violent chapter in U.S. law enforcement’s pursuit of cartel leadership. “This foreign terrorist committed horrific crimes against the American people — he will now pay for those crimes by spending the rest of his life behind bars in an American prison,” Bondi said.
FBI Director Kash Patel said Zambada’s guilty plea “is a proud moment” for federal investigators. “The founders of a notoriously violent drug trafficking organization, one that engages in an array of illegal activity including murder and corruption, face the consequences of their actions,” Patel said.
DEA Administrator Terrance Cole called Zambada “one of the world’s deadliest cartel bosses,” adding that his conviction proves “no cartel boss is beyond the reach of justice. By taking him down, we are protecting American families and cutting off a pipeline of poison.”
Zambada’s arrest in July 2024 ended decades of evasion. He rose alongside Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán to build the Sinaloa cartel into one of the world’s largest drug trafficking organizations. Both men will now spend the rest of their lives in U.S. prisons.
“For decades, under El Mayo’s leadership, the Sinaloa Cartel made billions of dollars by importing poisonous drugs to the United States, flooding our streets with cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Galeotti of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
U.S. attorneys across multiple districts, including Brooklyn, Miami and Texas, joined in the prosecution. Joseph Nocella, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said the plea ensures accountability. “Zambada Garcia has now been held accountable for the tons of illegal narcotics … and the murders and other acts of violence committed in furtherance of that enterprise,” Nocella said.
Zambada was indicted in multiple federal districts, including New York, Texas, Illinois, California and Washington, D.C. He admitted to crimes spanning more than three decades, including drug trafficking, money laundering, kidnapping and murder.
Prosecutors said Zambada relied on corruption at every level of Mexican law enforcement to shield his empire, while cartel operatives waged bloody turf wars that spilled across the U.S.-Mexico border.
“With his conviction, his reign of violence and terror is over,” said U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones of the Southern District of Florida. “He will never again direct a cartel that fueled addiction, spread violence, and tore apart families and communities on both sides of our border.”
The Justice Department said the case was part of “Operation Take Back America,” a nationwide effort to dismantle cartels and transnational criminal organizations.
