{"id":179524,"date":"2025-08-27T10:53:38","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T10:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/179524\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T10:53:38","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T10:53:38","slug":"mexican-cartel-leader-el-mayo-to-get-life-in-nyc-plea-deal-after-death-penalty-taken-off-table","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/179524\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexican cartel leader \u201cEl Mayo\u201d to get life in NYC plea deal after death penalty taken off table"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mexican drug kingpin and El Chapo partner Ismael \u201cEl Mayo\u201d Zambada Garcia<\/a> pleaded guilty in Brooklyn to running a massive drug enterprise, a charge that requires he serve the rest of his life in a federal prison.<\/p>\n

The charges Zambada initially faced were death-eligible, but earlier this month, prosecutors announced<\/a> that Attorney General Pam Bondi decided not to seek the death penalty. Bondi is expected to speak this afternoon.<\/p>\n

The 75-year-old kingpin laid out his history co-founding the Sinaloa cartel<\/a> in a lengthy statement in Brooklyn Federal Court Monday, describing how he \u201cplanted marijuana for the first time\u201d when he was 19 years old, and went on to lead armed groups that went to war with his rivals in Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring my more than 50 years in this activity, I created a large criminal network that I directed and led, which became known as the Sinaloa cartel,\u201d he told Judge Brain Cogan<\/a> Monday.<\/p>\n

He pleaded guilty Monday to charges in two indictments, one in Brooklyn, the other in Texas, and because of the amount of drugs and money involved, he faces a mandatory life term when he\u2019s sentenced Jan. 13. He must also forfeit $15 billion in ill-gotten cartel gains to the U.S.<\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Williams via AP<\/p>\n

In this courtroom sketch, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia appears in federal court in Brooklyn in September 2024. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)<\/p>\n

\u201cHe recognizes that his actions over the course of many years constitute serious violations of the United States drug laws, and he accepts full responsibility for what he did wrong,\u201d his lawyer, Frank Perez, said in a statement Monday, insisting that his plea deal was not a cooperation agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can state categorically that there is no deal under which he is cooperating with the United States government or any other government,\u201d Perez said. \u201cMy client is also mindful of the impact of this case on his home state of Sinaloa. He calls upon the people of Sinaloa to remain calm, to exercise restraint and to avoid violence. Nothing is gained by bloodshed; it only deepens wounds and prolongs suffering. He urges his community to look instead toward peace and stability for the future of the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"U.S<\/p>\n

Barry Williams\/New York Daily News<\/p>\n

U.S Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks at the Eastern District of New York offices on Monday, announcing the guilty plea. (Barry Williams\/New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Zambada copped to directing the cartel to distribute 1.5 million kilograms of drugs, most of it into the U.S., and to accepting millions of dollars each year in payment.<\/p>\n

He also said he oversaw armed squads to protect his operation, and to go to war with his rivals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI directed people under my control to kill others in furtherance of my organization,\u201d he said, adding that his own subordinates were often killed in those conflicts. \u201cMany innocent people also died,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Zambada was often described as the strategic mastermind of the cartel for decades, and \u201ca cornerstone and central tenet of [his] command and control of the cartel has been public corruption,\u201d prosecutors said in court filings last year.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"This<\/p>\n

U.S. Department of State via AP<\/p>\n

This image provided by the U.S. Department of State shows Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a historic leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel. (U.S. Department of State via AP)<\/p>\n

He used bribes to government officials, politicians and law enforcement to keep himself safe from arrests and keep the cartel\u2019s drug shipments flowing. \u201cThe cartel spent millions of dollars a year at the defendant\u2019s direction on corruption payments,\u201d prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe organization that I led promoted corruption in my home country of Mexico,\u201d he said Monday. \u201cThe payment of these bribes go back to when I was a young man starting out.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. officials had been seeking Zambada\u2019s capture for years, and were offering a $15 million reward before his 2024 arrest. At the time, then Attorney General Merrick Garland touted his arrest as a step in combating the fentanyl epidemic in the U.S.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cEl Mayo will spend the rest of his life behind bars. He will die in a U.S. federal prison, where he belongs,\u201d Bondi said at a press conference in Brooklyn Monday.<\/p>\n

\"United<\/p>\n

Barry Williams\/New York Daily News<\/p>\n

United States Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. speaks during a press conference at Brooklyn federal court on Monday, announcing El Mayo’s guilty plea. (Barry Williams\/New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

When asked why the death penalty was taken off the table, Bondi said, \u201cWe cannot seek the death penalty, we\u2019ve always known that, and that\u2019s the agreement we have with Mexico when we get them to our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mexico didn\u2019t surrender Zambada. Rather, he was whisked into U.S. custody last year after a small plane arrived in El Paso, Texas, carrying him and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of Joaqu\u00edn \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzman.<\/p>\n

Zambada said Guzman Lopez set up a meeting, then kidnapped him and forced him onto the plane. Mexico has opened a treason investigation into the circumstances of his capture.<\/p>\n

Zambada\u2019s plea on Monday came as the walls continue to close in on him \u2014 in July, another of Chapo\u2019s sons, colloquially referred to as \u201cThe Chapitos,\u201d took a plea deal in Chicago.<\/p>\n

El Chapo was convicted and sentenced to life plus 30 years, after a blockbuster 2019 trial in Brooklyn. The jury found Chapo trafficked more than 150 tons of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana into the U.S. while generating billions in profit and conspiring to commit murder.<\/p>\n

Originally Published: August 25, 2025 at 10:44 AM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mexican drug kingpin and El Chapo partner Ismael \u201cEl Mayo\u201d Zambada Garcia pleaded guilty in Brooklyn to running…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":179525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,1121,2451,3059,5295,1370,728,405,403,5294,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,5293,5321,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-179524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-city","11":"tag-county","12":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","13":"tag-latest-headlines","14":"tag-local-news","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city","17":"tag-new-york-county","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-newyork","20":"tag-newyorkcity","21":"tag-ny","22":"tag-nyc","23":"tag-nyc-crime","24":"tag-sub-county-region","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-united-states-of-america","27":"tag-unitedstates","28":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","29":"tag-us","30":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115100359370419160","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}