Ismael Zambada, widely known as “El Mayo” and one of the senior leaders of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, was sentenced to life in prison on Monday by a U.S. federal court. Last year, as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors, he admitted to trafficking millions of kilograms of cocaine over several decades.
The 76-year-old Zambada is considered one of the highest-ranking figures in Mexico’s drug cartels. Following Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, another leader of the Sinaloa Cartel who was sentenced to life in prison in 2019, Zambada is the second prominent figure from the cartel to receive such a sentence in the United States.
During the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan of the federal court in Brooklyn said that although the law required him to impose a life sentence, he also considered the punishment to be justified. He added that the enormous scale of the drug trafficking attributed to Zambada, along with documented cases of killings, provided sufficient grounds for the sentence.
Zambada pleaded guilty in August 2025 to charges including conspiracy to commit racketeering and leading a criminal enterprise after the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it would not seek the death penalty. Under U.S. law, these charges carry a mandatory life sentence.
Appearing in court wearing prison clothing, Zambada briefly accepted responsibility for the consequences of his actions. He said: “In such a war, no one wins. I tell the next generation: choose another path.”
Judge Cogan also said he would recommend to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons that Zambada be held at a facility where he could receive appropriate medical care. The judge stated that Zambada suffers from several health conditions but did not provide further details about his medical situation.
Zambada was arrested in July 2024 along with Joaquín Guzmán López, one of El Chapo’s sons, after their aircraft landed at a small airport in the state of New Mexico. Guzmán López later pleaded guilty to charges including drug trafficking and kidnapping.
Joseph Nocella, the senior federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, said after the sentencing that Guzmán López had admitted to kidnapping Zambada in an attempt to gain concessions from U.S. law enforcement authorities. According to Nocella, the United States had made clear from the outset that it did not condone the kidnapping and that the act would not provide Guzmán López with any benefits.
Guzmán López has not yet been sentenced. His father, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, is currently serving his life sentence at a high-security federal prison in Colorado.
Writer:Salima Aryaei
