Ismael Zambada García, a Sinaloa cartel founder who for decades evaded Mexican and U.S. authorities before a covert capture straight out of a narco thriller, pleaded guilty on Monday to drug trafficking.
Mr. Zambada García, also known as El Mayo, helped start the cartel decades ago with Joaquín Guzmán Loera, also known as El Chapo. He built a sophisticated criminal network that trafficked cocaine, heroin and other illegal drugs across the border into the United States, wielding power through mass murder and political corruption to protect and expand the business.
He will be sentenced to life in prison on Jan. 13.
Appearing before Judge Brian M. Cogan in Federal District Court in Brooklyn on Monday, Mr. Zambada García, 75, swiveled slightly in his chair as he listened to proceedings through a Spanish interpreter. He pleaded guilty to one count of taking part in a continuing criminal enterprise and one count of racketeering conspiracy.
“I started getting involved with illegal drugs in 1969, when I was 19 years old,” Mr. Zambada García said in a prepared statement in court, “and I planted marijuana for the first time.”
“I recognize the great harm that illegal drugs have done to the people of the United States and Mexico and elsewhere,” he said.
The plea means that cartel’s two most influential founders will be behind bars for life. El Chapo was sentenced to life in prison in the same courthouse in 2019, after being found guilty of running a criminal enterprise that funneled billions of dollars’ worth of drugs into the United States.
Mr. Zambada García’s plea was a symbol of the continuing threat to the cartels’ power. Sustained crackdowns by the U.S. and Mexican governments, along with a bloody civil war, have fractured their operations and depleted their ranks.
Pam Bondi, the U.S. attorney general, celebrated Monday’s outcome as evidence of the success of President Trump’s fight against violent drug cartels, though Mr. Zambada García was captured during the administration of former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. In a news conference, she called the plea a “landmark victory” for the Justice Department.
Mr. Zambada García was arrested in July 2024 by federal agents in Texas, after arriving in the United States under extraordinary circumstances. He had been kidnapped by the son of El Chapo, his onetime partner, who lured him onto a Beechcraft King Air plane under the pretense of looking at real estate.
The son, Joaquín Guzmán López, and Mr. Zambada García landed at a small airport outside El Paso.
The kidnapping turned Sinaloa into a war zone as conflict broke out between the cartel’s rival factions: those loyal to Mr. Zambada García, known as Los Mayos, and those aligned with El Chapo’s sons, known as Los Chapitos. The state’s economy ground to a halt, and under pressure from President Trump, Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, sent thousands of troops to Sinaloa to curtail the violence.
Frank Perez, a lawyer for Mr. Zambada García, said his client accepted “full responsibility for what he did wrong.” He called on the people of Sinaloa to stay peaceful and “exercise restraint.”
“Nothing is gained by bloodshed; it only deepens wounds and prolongs suffering,” Mr. Perez said.
While he was running the cartel, Mr. Guzmán Loera was a showman who dabbled in the limelight, including by taking part in an interview with the actor Sean Penn. He escaped Mexican custody twice, once slipping out of prison in a laundry cart, and later fleeing through a tunnel underneath his cell.
Mr. Zambada García, by contrast, lived a quieter life in a compound in Sinaloa. Until his 2024 abduction, he had never been captured by Mexican authorities, and was often aided by the same military and government officials responsible for bringing him to justice. His kidnapping by El Chapo’s son was carried out in such a way that corrupt officials could not alert him.
Mr. Zambada García is not required to cooperate with the authorities under the terms of his plea agreement, and he will not face the death penalty. Ordinarily, foreign defendants do not face capital punishment, as a result of extradition treaties. But Mr. Zambada García’s capture fell outside diplomatic negotiation.
On Monday afternoon, Mr. Zambada García seemed far from his onetime perch atop an enterprise that amassed hundreds of millions of dollars each year. With white hair and beard, wearing a dark blue, prison-issued T-shirt over an orange long-sleeved shirt, he walked gingerly into the courthouse.
He pulled out a pair of glasses to read his statement in Spanish, in which he admitted to overseeing cartel members who transported cocaine from Colombia to Mexico, and then across the border into the United States. He calmly described directing Sinaloa soldiers to kill members of rival cartels, and bribing high-ranking officials.
“Many innocent people also died,” Mr. Zambada García said.
Alan Feuer contributed reporting.
Santul Nerkar is a Times reporter covering federal courts in Brooklyn.
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