Mexican drug lord ‘El Mayo’ sentenced to life in prison in US federal court

A reward sign for former Sinaloa cartel leader Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada García is posted next to an aircraft on 9 July 2026. Photograph: Paul Ratje/Reuters View image in fullscreen A reward sign for former Sinaloa cartel leader Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada García is posted next to an aircraft on 9 July 2026. Photograph: Paul Ratje/Reuters Mexican drug lord ‘El Mayo’ sentenced to life in prison in US federal court Case against Ismael Zambada García, who helped co-found and lead the violent Sinaloa cartel, unfolded in New York The Mexican drug kingpin, Ismael Zambada García, known as “El Mayo”, was sentenced in a US federal court on Monday to life in prison, after a plea deal last year in which he admitted ⁠to shipping vast amounts of cocaine and other substances as leader of the violent Sinaloa cartel. Zambada is 76 and one of the most high-profile Mexican ⁠drug traffickers to be sentenced in a US court since his fellow Sinaloa leader Joaquín “ El Chapo ” Guzmán ​was sentenced to life in prison in ‌2019. The case unfolded in federal court in Brooklyn, New York . Zambada helped co-found and lead the cartel, becoming one of the most wanted targets by US intelligence and law enforcement agencies for decades. He signed a plea deal last August, admitting charges including racketeering conspiracy and continuing criminal enterprise, after the ‌US justice department said it would not seek the death penalty. The court also ordered him to forfeit $15bn from drug trade profits as part of his punishment. As one of the co-founders of the Sinaloa cartel, El Mayo is one of the biggest drug traffickers in the history of the US-Mexico drug war. He was accused of trafficking tons of cocaine, marijuana, heroin and, in recent years, fentanyl to the US and other parts of the world. Prosecutors also accused him of being one of the leaders of a violent organization that led to corruption among Mexican politicians, military officials and law enforcement agents. Zambada, who has spent nearly two years inside a Brooklyn federal prison, limped inside the courtroom. He was wearing a beige prison outfit and had white hair and a beard. Before his sentencing, Zambada read a public letter, saying that he took responsibility for his crimes and calling for an end to the violence that has plagued Mexico for decades during the drug-fueled conflict. “I did not go to trial because I did not want to deny the truth,” Zambada read aloud in court, adding that “violence must end” and urging the next generation of drug traffickers to “choose a different path”. While El Chapo is better known as the face of the Sinaloa cartel, the elderly El Mayo was regarded as the elusive, behind the scenes leader running the operations, with a low profile and few public sightings. El Mayo’s arrest in the US in 2024 came as a surprise. During a mysterious operation, he was known to have been beaten and kidnapped by one of El Chapo’s sons, Joaquín Guzmán López, and was flown across the US border to New Mexico, w