'El Mayo' Zambada sentenced to life in US prison

Mexican drug lord Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada received a mandatory life sentence in a Brooklyn federal court for leading the Sinaloa cartel’s decades-long cocaine trafficking operation.

'El Mayo' Zambada sentenced to life in US prison

Mexican narcotics kingpin Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada was condemned to spend the rest of his life behind bars in the United States on Monday. American district judge Brian Cogan pronounced the penalty at a federal hearing held in Brooklyn.

The 76-year-old head of the Sinaloa cartel entered a guilty plea during August 2025 under an agreement with prosecutors. He confessed to directing the movement of millions of kilograms of cocaine throughout multiple decades. The indictment against him encompassed racketeering and sustaining a continuing criminal enterprise. The Department of Justice indicated it would not ask for capital punishment, yet the law required a mandatory life term for the counts involved.

Zambada stands among the most influential Mexican drug traffickers to be judged in an American courtroom since Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, likewise from the Sinaloa syndicate, received an identical life punishment back in 2019.

Law enforcement detained Zambada in July 2024 after his airplane landed in New Mexico. Accompanying him was Joaquin Guzman Lopez, one of El Chapo’s sons, who has since also admitted guilt regarding drug trafficking.

In a motion submitted on July 6, defense lawyer Frank Perez wrote that his client knew a lifelong sentence was certain when he decided to accept blame for his offenses. Perez urged the court to house Zambada in a prison equipped to deliver proper medical treatment suitable for a man approaching eighty.

Attorneys from the Brooklyn federal prosecutor’s office responded that institutions of the kind Perez suggested do not necessarily possess the means to remove security threats. They cautioned that Zambada might keep commanding cartel affairs from inside a cell. In a July 13 filing, they noted that individuals faithful to the accused still run the organization, so these dangers will remain present for years ahead.

Guzman himself is currently serving his life sentence inside a maximum-security facility in Colorado.

Source: 24sata.hr

Source: 24sata