A US federal court sentenced drug trafficker Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada—formerly a leader of the Sinaloa Cartel—to life in prison on Monday. He had pleaded guilty last year to charges related to drug trafficking and organized crime as part of a plea deal to avoid the death penalty.
“Ismael Zambada García spent nearly four decades poisoning American communities to amass billions of dollars in profits and ordering the murder of anyone who stood in his way. Today, that chapter closes for good,” stated Joseph Nocella, the prosecutor for the Eastern District of New York.
He asserted that the sentence was made possible “thanks to the tireless bilateral cooperation between US and Mexican law enforcement agencies.” “We hope today’s sentence brings some measure of justice to the countless victims of the Sinaloa Cartel’s drug trafficking and violence,” he said, according to a statement released by the US Department of Justice.
Federal Judge Brian Cogan handed down the sentence during a hearing held Monday at the federal court in Brooklyn—the same court where Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, his predecessor at the helm of the Sinaloa Cartel, was sentenced to life imprisonment on drug trafficking charges. Zambada pleaded guilty to charges of leading a criminal enterprise involving activities between January 1989 and January 2024, as well as participating in conspiracies involving money laundering, murder, and drug trafficking, and violating state laws regarding homicide and kidnapping—offenses spanning the period from January 1, 2000, to April 11, 2012.
The former Sinaloa Cartel leader faced formal charges in six different U.S. federal jurisdictions; however, under the plea agreement, he consented to have the case transferred to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Zambada was arrested on July 25, 2024, at an airport in Santa Teresa, New Mexico—near El Paso—after arriving on a private plane with Joaquín Guzmán López, the son of kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. Guzmán López had struck a deal with U.S. authorities and was the one who handed him over.
In an August 2025 letter, the drug trafficker claimed he had been “kidnapped” by Guzmán, who turned him over to the United States against his will. The alleged abduction reportedly began when he was lured under false pretenses to a meeting at a ranch outside Culiacán, ostensibly to resolve a dispute between local politicians.
After being met in person by “El Chapo’s” son, he explained that he was led into a “dark room” and immediately “ambushed” by a group of men; they beat him, placed a hood over his head, handcuffed him, and forced him onto the plane where—accompanied by Joaquín Guzmán—he was ultimately handed over to U.S. authorities in El Paso, Texas.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum recently stated that Washington’s “alleged involvement” in the arrest of “El Mayo” Zambada sparked conflict within the Sinaloa Cartel—leading to betrayals and internal divisions—which in turn triggered waves of violence across the Latin American country. The Mexican Prosecutor’s Office is investigating how that betrayal was orchestrated.
