A RUTHLESS cartel kingpin who reportedly skinned his victims and betrayed former pal El Chapo has been jailed for life.
Mexican druglord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada spent four decades flooding the US with deadly drugs like heroin, cocaine and fentanyl and ordering gangsters to kill and torture anyone who stood in his way.
Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada plead guilty to racketeering and continuing a criminal enterprise Credit: Reuters
El Mayo was famed for his brutal rule over the Sinaloa Cartel Credit: Netflix
He ruled Mexico‘s most powerful drug trafficking syndicate – the Sinaloa Cartel – which he co-founded with notorious gangster Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán in the 1980s.
The kingpin had evaded arrest for decades – despite having a $15million bounty on his head.
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But now the bloodthirsty criminal mastermind has been captured and will be forced to give up £11.2billion worth of drug profits.
Seven years ago his pal and cartel co-founder Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was sentenced to life imprisonment after El Mayo told his incarcerated son to hand him in.
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Now the same fate awaits Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.
Speaking to the court on July 20, the notorious cartel boss said he was sorry “for the harm I caused and for the example I set”.
He added, through a translator: “If there’s one thing I can say that has value today, it’s this: the violence must end.
“In Mexico and elsewhere affected by this type of crime, too many lives are lost, too many families are destroyed, and too many young people are trapped in a cycle that leads only to prison or death.”
Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada reads his sentence – in which he is condemned to life behind bars Credit: AP
The DEA and State Department previously offered $15million for his arrest Credit: COLLECT THROUGH JOURNO
His friend Guzmán was the flamboyant showman of the crime syndicate – while Zambada was the scheming strategist behind the vile network.
A suspected member of the cartel, Eladio, described his boss El Mayo as “more poisonous than a snake”.
The drug-dealing fiend plead guilty in August 2025 after prosecutors promised not to seek the death penalty.
Prosecutors said Zambada had been “one of the most – if not the most – prolific and powerful narcotraffickers in the world.
“It would be difficult to overstate the magnitude of his crimes and the scale of the corruption, violence, and other harm he spread throughout Mexico, the United States, and the world.”
Nearly half a million people died of fentanyl poisoning in the US last year, according to the government’s accountability office.
The cartel kingpin apologised “to everyone who has suffered or been affected by my actions” and admitted to transporting at least 1.5million kilograms of cocaine – most of which entered the United States.
The 76-year-old will now spend his life in a prison hospital because he suffers from a cocktail of “complex age-related health issues”, said his defence lawyer Frank Perez.
U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella, Jr. said: “Ismael Zambada Garcia spent nearly four decades poisoning American communities to make billions of dollars in profit and ordering the murders of anyone who stood in his way. Today, that chapter closes for good.”
Though El Mayo will now rot behind bars, the deadly cartel he spawned with his associate El Chapo will continue, according to experts who spoke to CNN.
One suggested that the kingpin’s son Ismael “el Mayito Flaco” Zambada Sicairos may be crowned the new leader.
How El Mayo built his bloody Sinaloa Cartel
EL MAYO began his career as a farmer, but according to multiple reports, started dealing drugs at around 16 years old – eventually becoming linked to the Guadalajara Cartel.
When the Guadalajara Cartel broke up in 1989 he built up the Sinaloa Cartel alongside El Chapo
The pair trafficked cocaine, heroin and fentanyl across borders from Columbia into the US.
They became famous for their ruthless murders – dissolving the bodies in acid – and brutal torture tactics.
In 2010, a video emerged of El Chapo beheading a man with a chainsaw and sewing his skinned face onto a football.
Sinaloa Cartel members have allegedly killed women and children, and have been known to rape family members of their rivals and force them to watch.
In 2019, after three separate arrests, El Chapo was sentenced to life imprisonment.
After El Chapo was jailed, a bitter power struggle broke out between his four sons – known as the Chapitos – and El Mayo.
In June 2020, a multi-hour shootout reportedly between the two sides outside Culiacán left 16 dead.
El Mayo emerged as the new leader of the cartel – until he was betrayed by El Chapo’s sons.
Now experts believe the power vacuum left by his arrest may be filled by El Mayo’s son.
