Mexican drug kingpin and El Chapo partner Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia pleaded guilty in Brooklyn to running a massive drug enterprise, a charge that requires he serve the rest of his life in a federal prison.
The charges Zambada initially faced were death-eligible, but earlier this month, prosecutors announced that Attorney General Pam Bondi decided not to seek the death penalty. Bondi is expected to speak this afternoon.
The 75-year-old kingpin laid out his history co-founding the Sinaloa Cartel in a lengthy statement in Brooklyn Federal Court Monday, describing how he “planted marijuana for the first time” when he was 19 years old, and went on to lead armed groups that went to war with his rivals in Mexico.
“During my more than 50 years in this activity, I created a large criminal network that I directed and led which became known as the Sinaloa Cartel,” he told Judge Brain Cogan Monday.
He pleaded guilty Monday to charges in two indictments, one in Brooklyn, the other in Texas, and because of the amount of drugs and money involved, he faces a mandatory life term when he’s sentenced Jan. 13. He must also forfeit $15 billion in ill-gotten cartel gains to the U.S.
“He recognizes that his actions over the course of many years constitute serious violations of the United States drug laws, and he accepts full responsibility for what he did wrong,” his lawyer, Frank Perez, said in a statement Monday, insisting that his plea deal was not a cooperation agreement.
“I can state categorically that there is no deal under which he is cooperating with the United States government or any other government,” Perez said. “My client is also mindful of the impact of this case on his home state of Sinaloa. He calls upon the people of Sinaloa to remain calm, to exercise restraint, and to avoid violence. Nothing is gained by bloodshed; it only deepens wounds and prolongs suffering. He urges his community to look instead toward peace and stability for the future of the state. ”
Zambada copped to directing the cartel to distribute 1.5 million kilograms of drugs, most of it into the U.S., and to accepting millions of dollars each year in payment.
He also said he oversaw armed squads to protect his operation, and to go to war with his rivals.
“I directed people under my control to kill others in furtherance of my organization,” he said, adding that his own subordinates were often killed in those conflict. “Many innocent people also died,” he said.
Zambada was often described as the strategic mastermind of the cartel for decades, and “a cornerstone and central tenet of (his) command and control of the cartel has been public corruption,” prosecutors said in court filings last year.
U.S. Department of State via AP
This image provided by the U.S. Department of State shows Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a historic leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel. (U.S. Department of State via AP)
He used bribes to government officials, politicians and law enforcement to keep himself safe from arrests and keep the cartel’s drug shipments flowing. “The cartel spent millions of dollars a year at the defendant’s direction on corruption payments,” prosecutors said.
“The organization that I led promoted corruption in my home country of Mexico,” he said Monday. “The payment of these bribes go back to when I was a young man starting out.”
U.S. officials had been seeking Zambada’s capture for years, and were offering a $15 million reward before his 2024 arrest. At the time, then Attorney General Merrick Garland touted his arrest as a step in combating the fentanyl epidemic in the U.S.
Zambada was whisked into U.S. custody last year after a small plane arrived in El Paso, Tex. carrying him and Joaquín Guzmán López, a son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
Zambada said Guzmán López set up a meeting, then kidnapped him and forced him onto the plane. Mexico has opened a treason investigation into the circumstances of his capture
Zambada’s plea on Monday came as the walls continue to close in on him — in July, another of Chapo’s sons, colloquially referred to as “The Chapitos,” took a plea deal in Chicago.
El Chapo was convicted and sentenced to life plus 30 years, after a blockbuster 2019 trial in Brooklyn. The jury found Chapo trafficked more than 150 tons of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana into the U.S. while generating billions in profit and conspiring to commit murder.
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