Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, a founder of the Sinaloa cartel, was sentenced to life in prison on Monday in Brooklyn federal court.
He was ordered to forfeit $15 billion; the Justice Department said the amount represents drug-trafficking profits, and prosecutors have yet to locate a bulk of the illicit funds.
Zambada pleaded guilty last year to charges of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise and racketeering conspiracy, acknowledging culpability for 85 underlying crimes, and his change of plea came after the government said it would not seek the death penalty.
Speaking through a Spanish-language interpreter, he apologized, saying, "I am not here to ask for compassion. I am here to take responsibility and to say I’m sorry — for the harm I caused and for the example I set." "I grew up in an environment where violence and crime seemed normal, but now I know that’s no excuse," he said as he read from a prepared statement.
Dressed in tan prison garb, Zambada appeared expressionless while he sat at the defense table.
In 2024 he was lured to the United States in an elaborate sting in which Joaquín Guzmán Lopez led him to believe they were traveling to inspect clandestine airstrips; the plane instead landed in Texas and he was arrested.
For decades Zambada and co-founder Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán built the Sinaloa cartel into a prolific criminal enterprise defined by violence and corruption, flooding the U.S. with tons of cocaine, fentanyl, and methamphetamine; Guzmán was convicted in 2019 and is serving a life sentence at a federal prison in Colorado.
"During El Mayo’s reign, tens of thousands of parents lost their children to addiction, overdose, and drug-related violence. I hope that El Mayo’s life sentence brings some small measure of comfort to those families who have suffered unimaginable pain," U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said. "The message today is clear: Drug dealing is a dead end, not just figuratively, but literally a dead end. Drug dealers die in prison."
The Sinaloa cartel has been at war with itself since Zambada was taken into custody, and hundreds of people have been reported missing during fighting between its two rival factions.
U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan imposed the sentence during a hearing in Brooklyn, and Zambada's guilty plea carried a mandatory term of life in prison.
Zambada has requested to be sent to a prison hospital, saying he will need medical care for age-related health issues; federal prosecutors are seeking a higher level of incarceration, and the federal Bureau of Prisons will make the final decision about where he resides.