Mexican drug kingpin Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada to be sentenced in US to life in prison

NEW YORK, July 20 - Mexican drug kingpin Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada will appear in court on Monday for sentencing in the U.S. to life in prison, after a plea deal last year in which he admitted to shipping millions of kilograms of cocaine over decades as leader of the violent Sinaloa Cartel.

Zambada is one of the most high-profile Mexican drug traffickers to be sentenced in a U.S. court since fellow Sinaloa leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was sentenced to life in prison in 2019.

Zambada, 76, agreed to plead guilty in August 2025 to charges including racketeering conspiracy and continuing criminal enterprise after the Justice Department said it would not seek the death penalty. The charges carried a mandatory term of life imprisonment.

U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan is scheduled to hand down the sentence at a hearing in Brooklyn federal court starting at 10:30 a.m. (1430 GMT).

Zambada was arrested in July 2024 alongside Joaquin Guzman Lopez, one of Guzman's sons, after their plane landed at a small airstrip in New Mexico. Guzman Lopez has since pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges.

Frank Perez, a lawyer for Zambada, said in a July 6 court filing that his client was fully aware he would receive a life sentence when he decided to accept responsibility for his crimes. Perez asked Cogan to recommend to the Bureau of Prisons that the septuagenarian Zambada be placed in a facility where he would receive adequate medical care.

Prosecutors with the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office said the prisons suggested by Perez may not be equipped to handle the security concerns posed by Zambada, including the possibility that he could continue to direct cartel activities from behind bars.

"Those security concerns will continue for the foreseeable future because individuals loyal to the defendant continue to control the Cartel," the prosecutors wrote in a July 13 filing.

Guzman is serving his life sentence at a maximum-security prison in Colorado. REUTERS