Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada bribed Mexican officials and likely others internationally to operate with impunity for over 30 years | Credit: @ADN40/X
After shifting his plea from innocent to guilty, confessing to smuggling over 1.5 million kilograms of cocaine worldwide and being fined $15 billion by the US government, the world’s most powerful drug lord, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, has eluded the death sentence.
El Mayo, who for over three decades was discreetly the “boss of bosses” in Mexico, also revealed that for years he bribed Mexican politicians, high-level military officials, and police, and declared himself guilty of drug trafficking on Monday, August 25, according to the BBC. “I recognise the great harm that illegal drugs have caused to the people of the United States, Mexico, and elsewhere,” Zambada said. He then mentioned that his cartel bribed everybody he needed to operate with impunity for himself, his workers and his organisation in its criminal activities, Reuters reported. He also admitted to ordering hitmen to kill his rivals.
Zambada, 75, faces a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment after pleading guilty to charges that he engaged in a racketeering conspiracy and ran a continuing criminal enterprise that prosecutors said was responsible for flooding the US with cocaine, heroin and fentanyl. He said his career in crime began at age 19 in 1969, planting marijuana in the mountainous region of Sinaloa, in northwestern Mexico.
‘He will never walk free again’
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. New York federal district Judge Brian Cogan scheduled El Mayo’s sentencing hearing on January 13, 2026 and fined the Sinaloa Cartel boss $15 billion. “They brutally murdered multiple people and flooded our country with drugs,” Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters after the court hearing. “Their reign of terror is over.” And speaking specifically of Zambada, Bondi said, “This foreign terrorist committed horrific crimes against the American people. He will now pay for those crimes by spending the rest of his life behind bars in an American prison. He will never walk free again.”
Zambada was arrested by US federal authorities near El Paso, Texas, on July 25. The veteran drug trafficker claims he was lured into the United States against his will through deception by one of “El Chapo’s” sons, Joaquin Guzman Lopez. Guzman Lopez lured El Mayo to an alleged meeting with influential Sinaloan politician Melesio Cuen, then dean of the Sinaloa Autonomous University, who was killed on that same day.
Sources close to the Sinaloa Cartel say El Chapo’s son was avenging the many acts of treason El Mayo committed throughout his life as part of his strategy to remain without being jailed for as long as he did. Guzman Lopez has pleaded not guilty to US drug trafficking charges, while prosecutors have said they would not seek the death penalty for him if convicted. US officials confirmed that Zambada had not willingly travelled to the US but had been tricked by Guzmán’s sons, who had also turned themselves over to American authorities, to procure more favourable treatment, according to the Guardian.
El Mayo will not ‘rat out’ anybody
Zambada’s attorney, Frank Pérez, told reporters upon leaving the hearing that his client was not cooperating with US authorities and that he “in no way” intends to incriminate anyone, unlike his son Vicente Zambada Niebla, who negotiated his release from a Chicago prison with the US government in exchange for information. In 2019, Zambada Niebla testified “that his father’s bribery budget was often as much as $1 million per month, with bribes going to many high-level Mexican public officials”.
Perez noted that his reference to bribed authorities has already been the subject of other drug trafficking trials: “Everything he said is already in other trials; he only said what was necessary. He’s not going to talk about anyone. The information about ‘El Mayo’ Zambada stays with ‘El Mayo’ Zambada.” Zambada’s attorney also asserted that his client will not benefit from his plea bargain and acknowledged that there is no chance the drug trafficker will ever be released.
Zambada’s capture and accusations of treason from the faction of “El Chapo’s sons” sparked a fierce confrontation within the cartel, which has left nearly 2,000 dead and hundreds missing in the state of Sinaloa alone.
