Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia—the 77-year-old nefarious for his role in co-founding Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel—on Monday pleaded guilty in a US federal court, ending his decades-long reign as one of the world’s most-wanted drug lords.
He admitted leading the highly successful criminal enterprise and participating in the trafficking of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl into the United States.
“I recognize the great harm illegal drugs have done to the people in the United States and Mexico ... I apologise for all of it, and I take responsibility for my actions," he said through a Spanish-language interpreter, as per a CNN report.
“With today’s guilty pleas, “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia and “El Chapo” Guzman, the two co-founders of the Sinaloa Cartel—one of the largest, most violent and most destructive cartels in history—will live out the rest of their days in US federal prison cells without the possibility of parole,” said US Attorney Joseph Nocella for the Eastern District of New York (EDNY), according to a press release from the US Department of Justice.
As part of the deal, he will forfeit $15 billion: one of the largest criminal forfeitures ever sought.
By pleading guilty, Zambada is expected to receive a more lenient sentence. Aged well over 70 and a shadow of his former self, it is possible that he may have realised it was probably futile to continue battling the case by pleading innocence, especially after Guzman's life sentencing in 2019.
However, “El Mayo” was a different man in his prime—for about 50 years, the cold and calculating drug lord reportedly evaded arrest and capture, during which time his narcotics trade boomed. “El Chapo”, however, was not so lucky, but still famously managed to break out of prison twice (2001 and 2015).
The downfall of 'El Mayo'
What caused the drug lord's downfall then? The circumstances of Zambada’s capture read like a cartel thriller—and remain hotly disputed.
As per the prevailing version of the story according to US officials, Joaquín Guzmán López (El Chapo’s son), lured his father’s former ally onto a private plane under the cunning pretense of inspecting real estate in northern Mexico.
However, the flight was diverted to El Paso, where Zambada was arrested.
After the arrest, he later claimed in court that he had been ambushed at what he thought was a meeting and forcibly taken to El Paso, as per a Reuters report.
With Zambada's admission of his crimes in court on Monday, the 50-year reign of the Sinaloa stalwart comes to an end. In return, US prosecutors confirmed that they would not try for the death penalty.