{"id":11901,"date":"2026-07-20T21:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T16:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=11901"},"modified":"2026-07-20T21:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T16:18:12","slug":"el-mayo-the-infamous-mexican-drug-lord-to-be-sentenced-on-federal-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=11901","title":{"rendered":"El Mayo, the infamous Mexican drug lord, to be sentenced on federal charges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div xmlns:default=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" data-testid=\"prism-article-body\">\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">Ismael Zambada Garcia, known as &#8220;El Mayo,&#8221; will be sentenced Monday in a New York City federal court on <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.com\/US\/el-mayo-infamous-mexican-drug-lord-pleads-guilty\/story?id=124960376\" dir=\"ltr\">drug trafficking charges<\/a> that accused him of being one of the most prolific and powerful narcotraffickers in the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Together with Joaqu\u00edn Guzm\u00e1n Loera, known as &#8220;El Chapo,&#8221; he founded the Sinaloa cartel and oversaw the shipment of millions of kilograms of lethal drugs, including cocaine, fentanyl, and methamphetamine. He employed armed sicarios who assaulted, tortured, and murdered and he paid millions in bribes at all levels of the Mexican government, officials said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;It would be difficult to overstate the magnitude of the defendant&#8217;s crimes and scale of the corruption, violence, and other harm he spread throughout Mexico, the United States, and the world,&#8221; federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said in a sentencing memo that called for life in prison.<!-- -->\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The sentence is not in doubt. El Mayo pleaded guilty last August to a charge of committing a continuing criminal enterprise, a catch-all that included 85 violations of the law, and agreed to the mandatory life imprisonment along with a $15 billion forfeiture.<!-- -->\u00a0<\/p>\n<div class=\"oLzSq QrHMO fnRUo pvsTF EhJPu vPlOC zNYgW OsTsW RMeqy daRVX ISNQ sKyCY eRftA acPPc MENS nFwaT MCnQE mEeeY SmBjI xegrY rPLsU iulOd NIuqO zzscu lzDCc aHUBM IEgzD OjMNy eQqcx SVqKB GQmdz jaoD VWDdR ONJdw vrZxD OnRTz gbbfF roDbV GPGwb oMlSS gfNzt oJhud eXZcf zhVlX \">\n<div>\n<div class=\"InlineImage GpQCA lZur asrEW \" data-testid=\"prism-inline-image\">\n<figure class=\"kzIjN GNmeK pYrtp dSqFO \" data-testid=\"prism-figure\">\n<div class=\"GpQCA lZur \" style=\"padding-bottom:65.28%\" data-testid=\"prism-ratio-frame\">\n<div class=\"FvQLF iLTd NqeUA UzzHi iWsMV \"><picture data-testid=\"prism-picture\"><source media=\"(max-width: 414px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/58119f6f-290d-4217-a8f8-f3500498cbd0\/El-Mayo-ap-gmh-250818_1755531120071_hpMain.jpg?w=375, https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/58119f6f-290d-4217-a8f8-f3500498cbd0\/El-Mayo-ap-gmh-250818_1755531120071_hpMain.jpg?w=750 2x\"\/><source media=\"(min-width: 415px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/58119f6f-290d-4217-a8f8-f3500498cbd0\/El-Mayo-ap-gmh-250818_1755531120071_hpMain.jpg?w=750, https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/58119f6f-290d-4217-a8f8-f3500498cbd0\/El-Mayo-ap-gmh-250818_1755531120071_hpMain.jpg?w=1500 2x\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"hsDdd NDJZt sJeUN IJwXl vBqtr KrDt itslR SjwtZ hakZw HlUVI \" data-testid=\"prism-image\" draggable=\"false\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/58119f6f-290d-4217-a8f8-f3500498cbd0\/El-Mayo-ap-gmh-250818_1755531120071_hpMain.jpg\"\/><\/picture><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption>\n<div class=\"nMMea bNYiy Mjgpa dGwha DDmxa jgKNG RGHCC aBIU PriDW aiQHS lZur \" data-testid=\"prism-caption\">\n<p><span class=\"hsDdd OOSI GpQCA lZur VlFaz \" data-testid=\"prism-truncate\"><span><span class=\"gtOSm FbbUW tUtYa vOCwz EQwFq yCufu eEak Qmvg nyTIa SRXVc vzLa jgBfc WXDas CiUCW kqbG zrdEG txGfn ygKVe BbezD UOtxr CVfpq xijV soGRS XgdC sEIlf daWqJ \">This undated image provided by the U.S. Department of State shows Ismael &#8220;El Mayo&#8221; Zambada, a historic leader of Mexico&#8217;s Sinaloa cartel.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"gtOSm FbbUW tUtYa vOCwz EQwFq yCufu eEak Qmvg nyTIa SRXVc vzLa jgBfc WXDas CiUCW kqbG zrdEG txGfn ygKVe BbezD UOtxr CVfpq xijV soGRS XgdC sEIlf daWqJ YNujN JGtjI aZFDu rkKLh \">AP<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">As part of his plea, El Mayo, 76, admitted he was responsible for at least 1.5 million kilograms of cocaine and vast quantities of heroin and fentanyl.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Federal prosecutors said El Mayo represents &#8220;serious security concerns&#8221; that must be considered when the judge recommends a prison where he will serve his sentence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;The defendant is the co-founder of one of the world&#8217;s most violent criminal organizations, and for decades directed its operations, including its violence. Moreover, many members of the Cartel remain loyal to the defendant, including one of the defendant&#8217;s sons, who remains a key leader of the defendant&#8217;s faction of the Cartel in the defendant&#8217;s absence,&#8221; federal prosecutors said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The defense noted that El Mayo spared the judicial system a trial and &#8220;helped protect the safety of potential witnesses who will not need to be disclosed or called to testify.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">In a statement, El Mayo said he recognized the &#8220;grave harm that illegal drugs have done to the people of the United States, of Mexico and elsewhere.&#8221; He also said he recognized the &#8220;human toll of the violence and lawlessness that my criminal organization engaged in.&#8221;<!-- -->\u00a0<!-- -->\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">El Mayo said he took responsibility for his role in all of it and apologized to &#8220;everyone who has suffered or been affected by my actions.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ismael Zambada Garcia, known as &#8220;El Mayo,&#8221; will be sentenced Monday in a New York City federal court on drug trafficking charges that accused him of being one of the most prolific and powerful narcotraffickers in the world. Together with Joaqu\u00edn Guzm\u00e1n Loera, known as &#8220;El Chapo,&#8221; he founded the Sinaloa cartel and oversaw the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/58119f6f-290d-4217-a8f8-f3500498cbd0\/El-Mayo-ap-gmh-250818_1755531120071_hpMain_16x9.jpg?w=1600","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abc-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}