Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada Sentenced to Life in Prison

Kathmandu. Mexico's powerful Sinaloa drug cartel co-founder Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada was sentenced to life in prison by a US federal court on Monday.

This verdict against Zambada, found guilty of operating an international drug trafficking network for decades, is seen by the US government as a significant conclusion to the long-running action against him.

The federal court in Brooklyn, which found the 76-year-old Zambada guilty last year of drug trafficking, operating a continuing criminal enterprise, racketeering conspiracy, and 85 predicate offenses, has also imposed a fine of 15 billion US dollars along with life imprisonment. According to the prosecution, this amount represents the income earned by the Sinaloa cartel from illegal business.

According to prosecutors, Zambada and his co-founder Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman made the Sinaloa cartel the world's most powerful drug trafficking organization. Through their network, large quantities of drugs including cocaine, fentanyl, and methamphetamine were trafficked into the United States. Zambada was considered the cartel's chief strategist and the main planner of its daily operations.

Zambada, who was kidnapped from Mexico in 2024 and brought to Texas before being arrested, pleaded guilty in August 2025 after the prosecution agreed not to seek the death penalty. Speaking in court through a Spanish interpreter, he apologized to all those affected by his actions.

Before sentencing, Zambada's lawyer Frank Perez had urged the court to keep him in a prison hospital, considering his age and health condition. According to him, Zambada suffers from age-related complex health problems, requiring continuous medical monitoring.

However, the prosecution argued that he is still a person of serious security risk and that appropriate security arrangements should be prioritized. The final decision on which prison the inmate will be kept in will be made by the US Federal Bureau of Prisons.

According to the details presented in court, Zambada has admitted to playing a role in the trafficking of at least 1.5 million kilograms of cocaine from 1980 to 2024. The prosecution stated that the cartel expanded its relations with Colombian producers, brought drugs into Mexico via sea and air routes, and operated the entire trafficking network across the US-Mexico border. It was also presented in court that the cartel earns billions of dollars annually and bribes Mexican officials in large amounts to facilitate its operations.

Prosecutors also accused Zambada of ordering the murder of his nephew Elisio Imperial Castro, and that at least three people died in retaliatory violence following the theft of a large quantity of the cartel's drugs in 2023.

Following Zambada's arrest, factional struggles intensified within the Sinaloa cartel. Violent conflict between his loyal group and the ‘Chapitos’ group led by Joaquin Guzman Lopez, son of ‘El Chapo’, further complicated the security situation in Mexico's Sinaloa region.

Zambada's lawyers argued that it would not be just to send a person who cooperated with the judicial process by pleading guilty to a strict supermax prison like ‘El Chapo’ Guzman. However, the court sentenced him to life imprisonment as per the prosecution's demand, concluding the case against a major drug trafficker that the US justice system had been pursuing for a long time.