BROOKLYN — For greater than 4 many years, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada dominated from the shadows. Whereas different prime Mexican drug traffickers had been killed or extradited to the USA to face justice, Zambada remained comfortably ensconced atop his empire, exporting tons of cocaine, meth, heroin and fentanyl across the globe from his stronghold within the Pacific state of Sinaloa.
Lengthy after the downfall of his Sinaloa cartel associate, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, Zambada continued to function with impunity, all the time a step forward of the regulation — till finally it caught as much as him, too.
Now the query is whether or not he’ll take others down with him.
Zambada, 75, will mark a last chapter Monday afternoon in his legendary prison profession when he’s set to look earlier than a federal decide in Brooklyn and plead responsible to an array of fees for main a “continuing criminal enterprise” from the late Nineteen Eighties till his arrest final 12 months. He admitted to cash laundering, kidnapping, homicide and drug conspiracies.
Zambada’s beautiful downfall started final July when he arrived on a personal jet at a small airport close to El Paso. Within the speedy aftermath, rumors swirled that Zambada might have orchestrated his give up to be able to bear medical therapy or reunite along with his brother and several other sons who’re believed to be dwelling beneath witness safety after pleading responsible and cooperating with U.S. authorities to resolve their very own prison instances.
Zambada, nevertheless, has vehemently denied that his arrival within the U.S. was prearranged. Just a few weeks after he was taken into custody, he alleged he was arrange and kidnapped by considered one of El Chapo’s sons, Joaquín Guzmán López, a frontrunner of the cartel faction often called Los Chapitos, or the Little Chapos.
Zambada claimed in a letter launched by his lawyer that he was lured to what he thought can be a gathering between Sinaloa’s governor and one other distinguished politician, solely to be ambushed, zip-tied, compelled onto the airplane by Guzmán López and delivered to U.S. authorities.
Guzmán López, 39, is dealing with his personal federal case in Chicago, the place he has pleaded not responsible to drug and conspiracy fees. His youthful brother, Ovidio Guzmán, just lately pleaded responsible to related fees, with court docket filings revealing that he has agreed to cooperate with U.S. investigators.
A mugshot of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, launched by U.S. authorities through the trial of his longtime associate within the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
(U.S. Division of Justice)
There isn’t a indication that Zambada has a cooperation settlement. However his household’s historical past, mixed with the truth that he has agreed to plead responsible somewhat than take his case to trial, is fueling hypothesis that he could possibly be ready to spill secrets and techniques about high-level corruption.
Paul Craine, the highest official in Mexico for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration from 2012 to 2017, stated of Zambada: “He knows more than anybody.”
Craine, who retired from the DEA and now runs a personal safety agency, stated it’s unlikely that federal prosecutors would ever conform to a deal that provides the kingpin something lower than life in jail.
Zambada was already spared the demise penalty, however the authorities may dangle different advantages, he stated, corresponding to relocating relations to the USA for his or her security or permitting him to serve his time someplace cushier than the Colorado “supermax” jail the place El Chapo and others deemed excessive safety dangers are held in close to complete isolation.
Zambada, Craine stated, has data about “40 years of the top leadership of the military and the government [in Mexico] that he was directly paying and had co-opted.”
“He’s the godfather,” Craine stated. “He’s the consistency across everything.”
Zambada’s case is enjoying out throughout a fragile second in U.S.-Mexico relations, with President Trump utilizing tariffs as a cudgel to pressure motion towards the Sinaloa cartel and others chargeable for delivery fentanyl and different medicine north throughout the Rio Grande. Trump designated Zambada’s group and others as terrorist organizations earlier this 12 months, and has floated the potential for the U.S. navy taking motion on the Mexican facet of the border.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has sought to appease Trump by handing over dozens of reputed high-ranking cartel figures for prosecution by U.S. authorities, however Craine stated these choices is probably not sufficient.
“There’s more value now in being able to target a high-level corrupt criminal political figure than there is in the biggest drug trafficker in Mexico,” he stated.
Different former federal regulation enforcement officers echoed that evaluation. Adam Braverman, a former U.S. lawyer in San Diego who oversaw the indictments of Zambada and several other of his sons, known as Monday’s responsible plea “a monumental day for the Department of Justice.”
Braverman, who now works in non-public follow, stated if Zambada had been to cooperate, merely giving up different cartel figures wouldn’t be sufficient to make it definitely worth the cut price.
“When you’re at the top of the chain, there’s nobody else to cooperate against,” he stated. “You’re talking about generals, governors — potentially presidents of Mexico.”
Joaquín Guzmán Lopez, left, a son of the Sinaloa cartel chief often called “El Chapo,” and longtime cartel boss Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada in partially redacted images launched by the Mexican authorities following their arrests in 2024 in El Paso.
(Authorities of Mexico)
Zambada claimed in his letter final 12 months that he was invited to a gathering close to Sinaloa’s capital, Culiacán, the place he anticipated to assist mediate a dispute between town’s former mayor, Héctor Melesio Cuén, and his political rival, Sinaloa’s present governor, Rubén Rocha Moya.
Melesio Cuén turned up shot to demise on the day of Zambada’s arrest. Rocha Moya, a Morena social gathering member, has denied any data of the kidnapping plot, pointing to flight data that present he took a household journey to Los Angeles because the occasions had been enjoying out.
Mexican federal authorities have cited a number of suspicious irregularities within the investigation into Melesio Cuén’s killing by Sinaloan state authorities, together with the abrupt cremation of his physique.
With tensions already working excessive, Guillermo Valdes Castellanos, a former head of the nationwide intelligence company that’s Mexico’s equal of the CIA, stated Zambada’s plea means a few of Mexico’s political elites should now be sweating bullets.
“[The Americans] are going to concentrate on receiving information about all of the politicians who protected [El Mayo], who helped him from the army, the police, etc.,” he stated. “The fact that he may have more solid information to accuse the Mexican politicians and authorities involved is what’s making people very nervous here.”
