Prosecutors ask for life imprisonment for “El Mayo” Zambada and confiscation of $15,000 million
The United States Prosecutor's Office assures that the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel directed a network of drug trafficking, violence and corruption in Mexico and the United States for decades.
United States prosecutors asked Judge Brian M. Cogan to impose a life sentence on Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, considering that he was one of the most prolific and powerful drug traffickers in the world and responsible for a criminal network that operated for decades.
According to a letter addressed on July 13 to Judge Cogan, of the Federal Court of the Eastern District of New York, prosecutors requested that the sentence to be handed down on July 20, 2026 conclude with a life sentence and $15,000 million be confiscated, as established in the plea agreement.
In the document, the Prosecutor's Office maintains that Zambada was a co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel along with Joaquín Guzmán Loera, “El Chapo”, in the late 1980s.
US authorities say the defendant oversaw the trafficking of millions of pounds of drugs, including cocaine, fentanyl and methamphetamine, as well as running a criminal structure that used violence to expand the cartel's operations.
They claim that “El Mayo” sent millions of dollars in bribes to the Mexican government
According to the letter, under the command of Zambada, hitmen at the service of the organization committed attacks, torture and homicides to further the interests of the criminal group. Likewise, the government assures that the cartel allocated millions of dollars in bribes to members of different levels of the Mexican government, including police, military and politicians, with the aim of operating without interference.
The Prosecutor's Office argues that the magnitude of the crimes, corruption and violence attributed to Zambada had repercussions in Mexico, the United States and other parts of the world, which is why it considers that the only appropriate penalty is life imprisonment.
The brief also points out that investigations against the Sinaloa Cartel and its leaders began in the early 1990s and were led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), through its Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) division.