{"id":947762,"date":"2026-07-20T16:26:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T16:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/947762\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T16:26:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T16:26:19","slug":"former-mexican-drug-lord-el-mayo-sentenced-to-life-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/947762\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Mexican drug lord ‘El Mayo’ sentenced to life in prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Former Mexican drug kingpin Ismael \u201cEl Mayo\u201d Zambada<\/a> was sentenced in a U.S. court on Monday to life in prison and called for an end to the brand of brutal violence he used for decades to grow the Sinaloa cartel into the world\u2019s largest drug trafficking organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody wins in a war like this,\u201d the 76-year-old Zambada said through a Spanish-language translator in Brooklyn federal court. He apologized \u201cfor the harm I caused and the example I set\u201d and urged future generations to \u201cchoose a different path.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cViolence must end,\u201d the Sinaloa cartel co-founder said. \u201cIn Mexico and elsewhere affected by violence, too many lives are lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

But violence was Zambada\u2019s \u201ctool for more than three decades when it benefited him,\u201d Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Amir said.<\/p>\n

He ordered torture and plotted murders \u2014 including the killing of his own nephew \u2014 as the Sinaloa cartel flooded the U.S. with tons of cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamine and other drugs, Amir said. <\/p>\n

More than a million Americans died of overdoses during Zambada\u2019s reign \u2014 many from drugs flowing from Mexico or the Sinaloa cartel, the prosecutor added.<\/p>\n

Zambada\u2019s punishment was guaranteed by his guilty plea last year to drug trafficking charges that carry a mandatory life sentence.<\/p>\n

His sentencing was the culmination of the U.S. government\u2019s yearslong fight to bring the long-elusive drug lord<\/a> to justice. He was arrested in 2024<\/a> after he said he was kidnapped<\/a> in Mexico and flown to Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sentence here is kind of anticlimactic because I have no discretion,\u201d Cogan said. \u201cHe is going to spend the rest of his days in prison. He accepts that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cogan said he would recommend that Zambada be sent to a federal prison hospital where he can be treated for what his lawyer described as a \u201ccomplex of age-related health issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zambada suffers from a number of \u201cprogressive illnesses\u201d and his mental state is \u201cdrifting toward cognitively impaired,\u201d Cogan said.<\/p>\n

Judges often make recommendations about where inmates should serve time, but it\u2019s up to the federal Bureau of Prisons to decide.<\/p>\n

Zambada was seen as the cartel\u2019s strategist and dealmaker and was more involved in its day-to-day operations than his co-founder Joaqu\u00edn \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzm\u00e1n, who was convicted in 2019 and is serving a life sentence<\/a> at the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Sign up for Morning Wire:<\/strong>
\n Our flagship newsletter breaks down the biggest headlines of the day.\n <\/p>\n

Zambada pleaded guilty in August 2025 to charges of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise and racketeering conspiracy, acknowledging culpability for 85 underlying crimes, after prosecutors said they wouldn\u2019t seek the death penalty. <\/p>\n

Perez stressed in court on Monday that he wasn\u2019t cooperating with prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Zambada, wearing a tan jail suit over an orange T-shirt, walked gingerly as deputy federal marshals escorted him to and from the courtroom, which was packed with drug enforcement agents and prosecution staff. The top federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, Miami and western Texas watched from the gallery.<\/p>\n

Zambada read his remarks in Spanish from a piece of paper. He stared across the room, looking toward reporters and sketch artists in the jury box, and appeared to show no emotion as Cogan confirmed his sentence.<\/p>\n

Along with a life sentence, he also faces $15 billion in financial penalties. Prosecutors said that reflected proceeds from the cartel\u2019s crimes under his leadership, though they haven\u2019t been able to identify or recover any assets.<\/p>\n

Upon pleading guilty, Zambada said that from 1980 until last year, he and his cartel were responsible for transporting at least 1.5 million kilograms (3.3 million pounds) of cocaine, \u201cmost of which went to the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

He acknowledged the scope of the Sinaloa operation, including underlings who built relationships with Colombian cocaine producers, oversaw importing cocaine to Mexico by boat and plane and smuggling the drug across the U.S.-Mexico border<\/a>. He said the cartel raked in hundreds of millions of dollars a year and admitted that people working for him paid hefty bribes to Mexican officials \u201cso they could operate freely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Months before his arrest, prosecutors said, Zambada ordered the killing of his nephew Eliseo Imperial Castro, also known as \u201cCheyo Antrax,\u201d after learning that Castro was claiming to be collecting debts for Zambada and pocketing the money without Zambada\u2019s permission.<\/p>\n

In 2023, at least three people were killed in retaliatory violence that Zambada directed after a large cache of fentanyl pills, methamphetamine and cocaine was stolen from the cartel, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

According to Zambada\u2019s lawyer, his arrest came after he was beaten, tied up, abducted and driven to a private plane by one of Guzm\u00e1n\u2019s sons, Joaqu\u00edn Guzm\u00e1n L\u00f3pez. Their arrests touched off deadly fighting<\/a> in Sinaloa that pitted Zambada\u2019s loyalists against backers of Guzm\u00e1n\u2019s sons, dubbed the Chapitos, or \u201clittle Chapos.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Former Mexican drug kingpin Ismael \u201cEl Mayo\u201d Zambada was sentenced in a U.S. court…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":947763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[381606,1613,356,4219,10407,32874,20228,381605,57,4228,32875,195766,22938,1612,2222,405,403,50,61,67,132,68,8572,107],"class_list":["post-947762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","category-us","tag-adam-amir","tag-central-america","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-criminal-punishment","tag-drug-cartels","tag-drug-crimes","tag-eliseo-imperial-castro","tag-general-news","tag-indictments","tag-ismael-zambada-garca","tag-joaqun-guzmn-lpez","tag-kidnapping","tag-latin-america","tag-mexico","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-violence","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116953244398079184","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947762","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=947762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/947763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=947762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=947762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=947762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}