Ismael Zambada was co-founder of Sinaloa cartel led by Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, now imprisoned in US
The Mexican drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel, pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges as well as running a criminal enterprise on Monday, more than a year since he was arrested in Texas after what has been described as a kidnapping.
“I recognize the great harm illegal drugs have done to the people in the United States and Mexico,” the 77-year-old Zambada said in court through a Spanish-language interpreter. “I apologize for all of it, and I take responsibility for my actions.”
Zambada helped form the feared Sinaloa cartel in the late 1980s and, at the height of the criminal operation, had controlled much of the production and shipment of heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl from Mexico into the US.
The trafficker was arrested in July 2024 when he arrived in the US on a plane with Joaquín Guzmán López, the son of the imprisoned Sinaloa boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who is considered a “principal leader of the Sinaloa cartel” by US authorities and is currently serving a life sentence in an American prison.
