In pleading guilty, the 77-year-old avoided the possibility of the death penalty but still faces life imprisonment at a sentencing hearing due at a later date.<\/p>\n
As part of the deal, Zambada, who had initially pleaded not guilty, agreed to forfeit $15 billion in ill-gotten gains.<\/p>\n
Addressing her regular morning press conference, Sheinbaum said: “If the United States government were to recover resources, then we would be asking for them to be given to Mexico for the poorest people.”<\/p>\n
Zambada’s fall, which follows that of fellow Sinaloa cartel founder Joaquin “El Chapo”<\/a>\u00a0Guzman, already serving a life sentence in the United States, has led to speculation that the cartel’s days are numbered.<\/p>\n Mexico’s Security Secretary Omar Garcia Harfuch insisted Wednesday, however, that while some of the cartel’s factions were diminished the organization was far from finished.<\/p>\n The cartel, which Washington has declared a terrorist group, is considered the biggest drug-trafficking organization in the world.<\/p>\n It operates on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border.<\/p>\n Zambada led ruthless cartel<\/p>\n Sought by U.S. law enforcement for more than two decades, Zambada was taken into custody in July 2024 after arriving in a private plane at a Texas airport with Guzm\u00e1n’s son,\u00a0Joaqu\u00edn Guzm\u00e1n L\u00f3pez.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n Zambada has said he was kidnapped<\/a>\u00a0in Mexico and hauled to the U.S. by Guzm\u00e1n L\u00f3pez, whose lawyer denies those claims.<\/p>\n A newspaper seller arranges newspapers reporting the El Paso, Texas, U.S., arrest of Mexican drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, “El Chapo” Guzman’s son, in Mexico City, Mexico July 26, 2024.<\/p>\n GUSTAVO GRAF \/ REUTERS<\/p>\n According to prosecutors, Zambada presided over a vast and violent operation, with an arsenal of military-grade weapons, a private security force akin to an army, and a corps of “sicarios,” or hitmen, who carried out assassinations, kidnappings and torture. Just months before his arrest, he ordered the murder of his own nephew, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n On Aug. 5, prosecutors said in a letter that Attorney General Pam Bondi had directed them\u00a0not to pursue the death penalty<\/a>\u00a0for Zambada.<\/p>\n Following the July arrests and Zambada’s allegations of kidnapping,\u00a0horrific fighting erupted<\/a>\u00a0in Mexico between a cartel faction loyal to him and another tied to the “Chapitos,” Guzm\u00e1n’s sons.\u00a0<\/p>\n U.S. prosecutors say the Chapitos are known to\u00a0torture their rivals<\/a>\u00a0while some of their victims were “fed dead or alive to tigers.” <\/p>\n![\"FILE](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2025-08-25t151623z-804430881-rc2239ao1tqs-rtrmadp-3-usa-security-mexico-zambada.jpg#.jpeg\")
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