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A NOTORIOUS Mexican cartel kingpin, former head of El Chapo’s empire, has admitted flooding the US with cocaine over fifty years – and said: “I’m sorry.”
Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, 77, pleaded guilty to drugs trafficking charges after one of the most prolific organised crime careers in history.
El Mayo was the co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel – the most powerful criminal organization in Mexico with immeasurable reach around the world.
The cartel drove a booming supply of cocaine, heroin and other drugs in the US and brought rank violence upon Mexico.
El Mayo told the Brooklyn federal court: “I apologise for all of it, and I take responsibility for my actions.”
He also apologized to anyone who has “suffered or been affected by my actions”.
Zambada founded the cartel in the late 1980s alongside Joaqun “El Chapo” Guzman – and under their ruthless leadership it evolved into the world’s biggest player in the drugs trade, according to prosecutors.
Through his guilty plea, the aging druglord has finally admitted the staggering scale of criminality that he oversaw in the Sinaloa cartel.
Its members forged relationships with cocaine producers in Colombia, imported it into Mexico and then smuggled it across the border into the States.
El Mayo acknowledged that Mexican police and military commanders were bribed by his henchmen, so the drugs could flow freely.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi celebrated Zambada’s guilty plea as a “landmark victory” and said he will die in jail, “where he belongs”.
El Mayo was finally snared in a daring FBI sting in Texas last year while landing in a private jet on El Paso airstrip.
The wanted mastermind had been lured into the trap by El Chapo’s son, Juaquin Guzman Lopez, who reportedly blamed El Mayo for his father’s arrest in 2019.
Zambada has claimed he was “kidnapped” in Mexico and taken against his will to the US.
The guilty plea comes two weeks after prosecutors promised they wouldn’t seek the death penalty for El Mayo.
Zambada’s lawyer, Frank Perez, stressed after court that the plea agreement doesn’t oblige him to co-operate 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.
El Mayo is due to be sentenced on January 13 to life in prison.
He also faced billions of dollars in financial penalties.
During an eight-minute address to court, Zambada outlined his role in the drugs trade – all the way back to his teenage years.
He recalled planting marijuana after leaving school with a sixth-grade education 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.
Considered a good negotiator, Zambada was seen as the cartel’s strategist and dealmaker.
He was more involved in its day-to-day operations than the more flamboyant Guzman.
Prosecutors have said Zambada also was enmeshed in the groups violence, at one point apparently ordering the murder of his own nephew.
