Inside the downfall of Sinaloa cartel boss ‘El Mayo’

For decades, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada was Mexico’s most elusive ringleader, constantly evading the authorities pursuing him in his hometown of Sinaloa.

While other drug lords were escorted by convoys of heavily armed gunmen, Zambada kept a low profile and made daring escapes without firing a single bullet, a former U.S. law enforcement official recalled.

“He walked out from under me twice without any security measures,” said the former official, who requested anonymity to discuss operations in Mexico. “He once held hands with a girl, and once he swapped hats with a field worker and walked past us in a poncho and a field worker fedora.”

A lesser-known name than his longtime partner Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, Zambada has preferred to rule from the shadows as a seemingly untouchable godfather who ordered the deaths of his rivals and lined the pockets of police chiefs, military generals and politicians at the highest levels of his country’s government.

And then, in just a few hours on July 25, 2024, his empire collapsed.

Betrayed by one of El Chapo’s sons, Zambada was trapped, kidnapped, and forced onto a plane to a small airport outside El Paso; Here US federal agents were waiting to greet them.

In the two years since, questions remain about the extent of U.S. involvement in the stunning capture. While authorities have publicly stated that El Chapo’s son acted on his own and surprised everyone by bringing in Zambada, sources have revealed to The Times new details about the talks that took place before the downfall of the Sinaloa cartel co-founder.

On Monday, Zambada was sentenced to life in prison by a federal judge.

Zambada, 76, once a near-mythical figure seen only in a few outdated photographs, limped into a packed courtroom. His hair, which had previously been dyed jet black, turned completely silver, and his thick mustache was replaced by a messy beard.

As he sank into his chair, he was heard muttering profanities: ““Oh, Cabrón,” He claimed that he had difficulty sitting and standing.

In this courtroom sketch, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada (center) is escorted out of federal court by U.S. marshals following his sentencing in Brooklyn.

(Elizabeth Williams/Associated Press)

“I grew up in an environment where violence and crime seemed normal, but I now know that is no excuse,” Zambada told the court. “There comes a time when every person must take responsibility for their own decisions. I didn’t do that, and many people paid the price for it.”

Many senior U.S. government officials celebrated Zambada’s life sentence at a news conference after the hearing, but refrained from taking credit for his capture and echoed past comments that Joaquín Guzmán López single-handedly masterminded the kidnapping.

“The United States has made clear that we do not condone the kidnapping and that he will not be held accountable for anything he does in this regard,” said Joseph Nocella, US attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

Ken Salazar, the US ambassador to Mexico at the time of Zambada’s capture, said US authorities were not involved in the incident, a stance he repeated in his soon-to-be-published memoirs, writing that he told the Mexican president that “the US had no prior knowledge of this kidnapping.”

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1. Flight instrumentation is located in the cockpit of the Beechcraft King Air aircraft. 2. Mexican snacks are on display inside a Beechcraft King Air plane.

The FBI appeared to weaken that position in recent weeks by displaying the small jet carrying Zambada and El Chapo’s son in a museum attached to the small New Mexico airport where they landed. A sign displayed next to the Beechcraft King Air plane said the arrests were the result of Operation Air Kings, in which FBI officials “successfully carried out the highly sophisticated, secret and daring arrest of two of the world’s most wanted fugitives.”

Sources familiar with the operation but not authorized to speak publicly said U.S. federal agents were in contact with Guzmán López and were pressuring him to surrender. During negotiations, U.S. officials suggested that Guzmán López could get a better deal for himself by bringing key evidence or other cartel members with him when he surrendered, but no details were discussed, the sources said.

“There was a very significant effort to walk the line of not directing any activity, but making it clear what kinds of things would be viewed positively,” one of the sources said.

Sources said that in the lead-up to his arrest, Guzmán López had informed US agents that he would arrive soon and that they would be happy with the bargaining chip. One of the sources said they expected another son of El Chapo, known as Los Chapitos, to join the surrender process.

Ricardo Martinez, 75, of Horizon City, Texas, looks at the museum exhibit of the plane used to capture Sinaloa cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.

“Joaquin basically said, ‘Hey, I’ll be back soon, I’ll bring you something big,'” the source said. “They knew he meant he was going to bring someone.”

Sources said they never expected him to bring in Zambada.

At Zambada’s direction, U.S. prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum that the cartel “spent millions of dollars annually” to pay off Mexican officials who protected it from arrest and prosecution. They also said he used a small army. sikarios, Foot soldiers who torture and kill their opponents under their command.

Zambada’s attorney sought to paint a more complex portrait of his client, describing him in a sentencing memorandum as the product of a difficult upbringing.

Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada’s attorney, Frank Perez, leaves the federal courthouse in Brooklyn.

(Richard Drew / Associated Press)

The defense note stated that Zambada, the second of seven children of a farming family in rural Sinaloa, stopped going to school after the sixth grade. When Zambada was 12 years old, his father died of brain cancer. As the eldest son, Zambada took over management of the family farm and became responsible for providing for his siblings.

He worked other jobs, including delivering meat to his uncle who ran a butcher shop, before turning to drug dealing at the age of 19. According to the defense memo, an older friend “took him into the mountains, about an hour away from their village, where they each planted marijuana and camouflaged it among the rows of corn on the same parcel.”

His first harvest of 60 pounds earned him barely $400, the note said, but he developed connections in the marijuana and opium trades and “gradually over the years became one of the dominant figures in drug trafficking.” He founded the Sinaloa cartel with El Chapo and a handful of powerful allies from his home states, periodically fighting rival groups to maintain control of key smuggling routes.

Photo of federal agents arresting Joaquín Guzmán López, son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

(For Paul Ratje/The Times)

His daughter, Teresa Zambada, told U.S. authorities that her father “did not aspire to be such a great person,” according to the memo.

The defense brief described Zambada as a patriarch who fathered 16 children by multiple women and a peacemaker who was “known to first seek other solutions” before resorting to violence.

The former US official involved in the hunt for Zambada in Mexico said there was truth to the claim that he was less prone to violence than other cartel bosses, including El Chapo, but only to a degree.

“It was less volatile but no less lethal; more surgical but just as brutal,” the official said.

A wanted poster advertising a $15 million reward for information on cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada is displayed inside the plane used to capture him.

Some of Zambada’s close relatives were early pioneers in the practice of cooperating with US authorities to reduce prison sentences after capture; this was an increasingly common self-protection move among top Mexican cartel figures.

His brother and his three sons pleaded guilty after their capture and reached a plea agreement. Sources told The Times that Zambada was once in talks to surrender to the United States, but he chose to remain a fugitive.

His family history fueled speculation that Zambada would make a deal and reveal corruption-related secrets after his arrest. His attorney, Frank Perez, rejected such an arrangement and reiterated that view during Monday’s hearing.

Perez’s only request to the court was that Zambada be spared the fate of El Chapo, who is serving a life sentence in strict isolation at a federal maximum security prison in Colorado. Citing “complex age-related health issues,” Perez requested that Zambada be sent to a prison medical center.

Judge Brian Cogan, who also presided over the El Chapo trial, said Monday that he would recommend that the Bureau of Prisons take Zambada’s deteriorating health into consideration when deciding where to serve time. Cogan also said Zamabda deserved credit for saving the government the hassle and cost of going to court.

Before the sentencing, prosecutors objected to sending Zambada to a lower-security prison, warning that he could continue to lead the Sinaloa cartel’s faction from behind bars.

One of Zambada’s sons, Mayito Flaco, took over leadership of the group, which was engaged in a bloody war with Los Chapitos.

Monday’s sentencing offered long-awaited closure for U.S. law enforcement officials who spent much of their careers bringing Zambada to justice.

U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar holds a press conference at his home in Mexico City on October 17, 2022.

(Marco Ugarte / Associated Press)

Michael Ferrara, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago who is involved in the case against Zambada’s eldest son, called the capture and life sentence a “huge win.” But Ferrara warned against celebrating this as a decisive victory. The Sinaloa cartel remains in existence, he said, but a younger, more ruthless generation is calling the shots.

“Narc teenagers never lived in a real world; they lived in a world where their fathers had complete control,” he said. “To them it makes sense, they just use death and destruction. They don’t know any other way to hold on to power.”

Addressing the court during his sentencing, Zambada pleaded for peace.

“Too many lives are lost, too many families are destroyed, and too many young people are trapped in a cycle that only ends in imprisonment or death. In a war like this, no one can win,” he said. “I say to future generations: choose a different path. There is no honor in violence, there is nothing permanent in crime. It brings only pain and loss.”

Special correspondent Darren Foster contributed reporting from Brooklyn.