Long-elusive Mexican drug lord Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada pleads guilty in U.S.

This undated 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)

NEW YORK — Former Mexican cartel kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada pleaded guilty Monday to U.S. drug trafficking charges, saying he was sorry for helping flood the U.S. with cocaine, heroin and other illicit substances and for fueling deadly violence in Mexico.

“I recognize the great harm illegal drugs have done to the people of the United States, of Mexico, and elsewhere,” he said through a Spanish-language interpreter. “I take responsibility for my role in all of it and I apologize to everyone who has suffered or been affected by my actions.”

Under Zambada’s leadership and that of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the Sinaloa cartel evolved from a regional player into the largest drug trafficking organization in the world, prosecutors say.

“Culpable,” Zambada said, using the Spanish word for “guilty,” as he entered his plea in a Brooklyn courtroom, about 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometres) from Mexico’s Sinaloa state.

He acknowledged the extent of the Sinaloa operation, including underlings who built relationships with cocaine producers in Colombia, oversaw importing cocaine to Mexico by boat and plane and smuggling the drug across the U.S.-Mexico border. He acknowledged that the cartel raked in hundreds of millions of dollars a year and that people working for him paid bribes to Mexican police and military commanders “so they could operate freely.”

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi came to New York to herald Zambada’s guilty plea. The visit put a spotlight on a key Justice Department priority to tackle Mexican drug cartels, which the Trump administration has declared to be terrorist organizations.

“This guy, `El Mayo,’ was living like a king,” Bondi told reporters in Brooklyn. “Now he’s living like a criminal for the rest of his life.”

Sought by U.S. law enforcement for more than two decades, Zambada was arrested in Texas last year, at the end of the Biden administration, when the drug lord arrived in a private plane with one of Guzman’s sons, Joaquin Guzman Lopez. Zambada says he was kidnapped in Mexico and taken against his will to the U.S.

Terry Cole, the director of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said that in his decades as an agent, investigators going after Zambada and other cartel bosses were sometimes told they were “chasing shadows” who believed themselves untouchable.

The kingpin’s legacy

His arrest, along with that of Guzman Lopez, touched off deadly fighting in his home state of Sinaloa between rival cartel factions, pitting his loyalists against backers of Guzman’s sons, dubbed the Chapitos, or “little Chapos.”

Considered a good negotiator, Zambada was seen as the cartel’s strategist and dealmaker who was more involved in its day-to-day doings than the flamboyant Guzman. Prosecutors have said Zambada was enmeshed in the group’s violence, at one point ordering the murder of his own nephew.

In the Sinaloan capital of Culiacan, dead bodies lie in streets or sometimes appear hanging from highway underpasses. Businesses shutter early because people don’t want to be out after dark. Schools grind to a halt during sudden bursts of conflict. Facets of society ranging from social media influencers to animal caregivers have been touched by the bloodshed.

Prosecutors promised not to seek death penalty

Zambada’s plea came two weeks after prosecutors said they wouldn’t seek the death penalty.

His lawyer, Frank Perez, stressed after court that the plea agreement doesn’t obligate Zambada to cooperate with government investigators. The attorney said his client never really wanted to go to trial, and that once the death penalty was off the table, his “focus shifted to accepting responsibility and moving forward.”

Bondi noted Mexico’s opposition to the death penalty, which is a factor in its willingness to extradite suspects to the U.S. Although Zambada wasn’t extradited, she alluded to the nations’ understanding that “we cannot seek the death penalty” for those who are.

Zambada, 75, is due to be sentenced Jan. 13 to life in prison. He also faces billions of dollars in financial penalties.

Zambada describes his drug trade

Zambada appeared momentarily unsteady as he arrived in court; a marshal grabbed his arm to direct him to his seat.

As Judge Brian M. Cogan described the plea agreement, the bearded ex-Sinaloa boss sat attentively, at times brushing his right hand through his white hair.

Then, in an eight-minute speech, Zambada traced his involvement with illegal drugs to his teenage years, when -- after leaving school with a sixth-grade education -- he first planted marijuana in 1969. He said he went on to sell heroin and other drugs, but especially cocaine. From 1980 until last year, he and his cartel were responsible for transporting at least 1.5 million kilograms of cocaine, “most of which went to the United States,” he said.

Prosecutors said in his indictment that he and the cartel also trafficked in fentanyl and methamphetamine.

Zambada pleaded guilty to charges of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise between 1989 and 2024 and racketeering conspiracy, which encompasses involvement in a number of crimes from 2000 to 2012.

Guzman was sentenced to life behind bars following his conviction in the same federal court in Brooklyn in 2019.

------ An earlier version of this story, citing federal records, incorrectly stated that Zambada was 77. He is 75. A version also stated that Bondi visited the courthouse. She spoke at the U.S. attorney’s office.

Michael R. Sisak, The Associated Press

Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed