{"id":301778,"date":"2026-07-21T14:22:57","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T14:22:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/301778\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T14:22:57","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T14:22:57","slug":"sinaloa-cartel-king-el-mayo-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-the-mercury-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/301778\/","title":{"rendered":"Sinaloa cartel king \u2018El Mayo\u2019 sentenced to life in prison \u2013 The Mercury News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Federal authorities Monday announced a life sentence for the Mexican drug lord known as El Mayo<\/a> years after putting away his infamous former partner.<\/p>\n

Ismael Zambada, 75, was hit with the same penalty as one-time cartel king Joaquin \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzman. Together, the two kingpins founded the Sinaloa cartel, a murderous network of drug peddlers as evil and deadly as any terrorist group around the world, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

Zambada\u2019s guilty plea last year to federal drug trafficking charges brought to an end his 35-year reign of terror at the helm of an organization synonymous with death, both by the hands of gun-toting soldiers and dealers whose products led to countless overdoses.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsmael Zambada Garcia spent nearly four decades poisoning American communities to make billions of dollars in profit and ordering the murders of anyone who stood in his way,\u201d U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella, Jr.<\/a> said at a Brooklyn news conference Monday. \u201cToday, that chapter closes for good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zambada had faced indictments in six federal jurisdictions, including Florida, Texas and California before pleading guilty in August to drug smuggling and conspiracy charges in exchange for avoiding the death penalty.<\/p>\n

He had been charged with 17 counts related to drug trafficking, firearms offenses and money laundering.<\/p>\n

The sentence includes an order to forfeit $15 billion.<\/p>\n

Zambada was arrested in Texas in 2024 after arriving in a private plane with one of Joaquin Guzm\u00e1n\u2019s sons, Joaqu\u00edn Guzm\u00e1n L\u00f3pez.<\/p>\n

\"InIn this courtroom sketch, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, center, reads his sentencing statement, flanked by a U.S. Marshal, left, and his attorney Frank Perez, right, in federal court in Brooklyn on Monday. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)\u00a0Elizabeth Williams via AP<\/p>\n

Zambada thought he was flying with El Chapo\u2019s son to inspect a clandestine Mexican airfield when he instead landed in El Paso and was taken into U.S. custody in July 2024, according to a Homeland Security Investigations official.<\/p>\n

Joaqu\u00edn Guzm\u00e1n L\u00f3pez remains in custody in the U.S. and pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI you traffic deadly drugs and profit from the suffering of others, the DEA is coming for you,\u201d said DEA administrator Terrance Cole. Justice does not have an expiration date, and neither does our resolve. We will continue targeting the leaders of the Sinaloa cartel and every criminal organization that threatens the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TerranceTerrance Cole, Administrator of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), holds a folder reading “Fentanyl free America” during a news conference with law enforcement officials outside the federal courthouse in Brooklyn on July 20, 2026. (Photo by Leonardo MUNOZ \/ AFP via Getty Images)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Zambada\u2019s guilty plea followed the conviction at trial of El Chapo in the same federal courthouse in Brooklyn. Guzman is serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison.<\/p>\n

Authorities said El Mayo and El Chapo oversaw the shipment of cocaine, fentanyl and methamphetamine,<\/a> using armed soldiers who assaulted, tortured and murdered rivals. Prosecutors said he paid millions in bribes at all levels of the Mexican government.<\/p>\n

Zambada admitted as much last year in federal court.<\/p>\n

\"InIn this courtroom sketch Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, center, is escorted by U.S. Marshals out of federal court after his sentencing in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Monday, July 20, 2026. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a prepared statement at the time, Zambada acknowledged that he \u201cdirected people under my control to kill others to further the interests of my organization\u201d during the Mexican drug wars of the 1980s and 1990s and he conceded \u201cmany innocent people\u201d were killed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI recognize the great harm illegal drugs have done to the people in the United States and Mexico,\u201d Zambada said<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Federal authorities Monday announced a life sentence for the Mexican drug lord known as El Mayo years after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[7199,98,100,99,262,263,303,266,7317,6277,2106,11168,607,9,24,12,63,3851,530,1076],"class_list":["post-301778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-area","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-city","tag-county","tag-crime","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-drugs","tag-fentanyl","tag-mexico","tag-morning-wire","tag-national-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-region","tag-state","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}