Charges relate to his decades-long involvement in leading the Sinaloa cartel and its role in funnelling drugs to the US.
Former Mexican drug kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada has pleaded guilty to United States charges related to his decades-long leadership of the violent and notorious Sinaloa cartel and its role in flooding the US with drugs, including cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl.
Zambada, the alleged co-founder of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, pleaded guilty on Monday in federal court in Brooklyn, New York to charges that he engaged in a racketeering conspiracy and ran a continuing criminal enterprise that prosecutors said was responsible for importing and distributing massive quantities of drugs.
Those charges stemmed from his decades-long role leading the Sinaloa cartel alongside imprisoned drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison in Colorado.
Zambada agreed to plead guilty after the US Justice Department this month said it would not seek the death penalty for him or for Rafael Caro Quintero, another septuagenarian alleged Mexican drug lord facing US charges.
