“El Mayo,” the aged Mexican drug lord who took over “El Chapo’s” notorious cartel, admitted in Brooklyn courtroom Monday to fueling a violent commerce that drowned the US in heroin, cocaine and fentanyl for many years.
Ismael Zambada, 75, the ex-righthand man of ruthless former Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquin Guzman, copped a cope with the feds through which he pleaded responsible to a rely every of participating in a unbroken felony enterprise and racketeering conspiracy greater than a yr after it he was captured stateside.
Zambada’s plea — which carries a compulsory life sentence — comes after federal prosecutors took the dying penalty off the desk in opposition to him. The cartel, which he helped Guzman discovered, was designated a overseas terrorist group by President Trump earlier this yr.
Prosecutors mentioned Zambada oversaw a extremely militarized gang that had a non-public safety power and a slew of hitmen able to assassinate, torture and kidnap.
The cartel kingpin, together with one among El Chapo’s sons, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, flew to Texas on July 24, 2024, and was arrested on the spot.
Whereas authorities mentioned Zambada was tricked into leaping on the flight, he claimed he was “kidnapped” and compelled to fly to the US.
Zambada, whose case was moved from Texas to Brooklyn after his arrest, confronted a slew of federal counts, together with homicide conspiracy.
One other son of El Chapo, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, pleaded responsible to drug trafficking expenses in July – changing into the primary of the drug lord’s sons to fall.
El Chapo is serving a life sentence after he was convicted in 2019 of heading the drug trafficking operation that flooded the US with billions of {dollars} price of lethal narcotics.
