Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, one of the most powerful drug traffickers in modern history and a co-founder of Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel, has been sentenced to life in prison by a federal court in Brooklyn, New York. US District Judge Brian Cogan handed down the mandatory term on Monday, also ordering Zambada to forfeit $15 billion in drug-trafficking profits. The 76-year-old, who spent nearly four decades at the helm of one of the world's most prolific criminal organisations, had reached a plea deal last year admitting to drug smuggling and conspiracy charges, in exchange for prosecutors dropping the death penalty.

Wearing a prison uniform, Zambada read a statement in Spanish in which he accepted responsibility for his actions. "I take the liberty of acknowledging before you, in some way, that I caused harm," he said, adding that he did not contest the charges because he could not deny the truth of what had happened. He apologised for the harm he caused, called for an end to cartel violence, and urged future generations to "choose a different path." US Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr for the Eastern District of New York said Zambada had 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."

Zambada was arrested in July 2024 after being lured onto a plane he believed was heading to northern Mexico. In reality, the aircraft landed in Texas, where he was taken into custody. The scheme was orchestrated by Joaquín Guzmán López, a son of El Chapo — Zambada's former partner, who is also serving life in a US prison. Guzmán López, who was arrested at the same time, later admitted in a Chicago federal court that he had deceived Zambada in order to seek leniency from US authorities. That betrayal triggered an internal war within the Sinaloa Cartel, a conflict that has since left more than 1,200 people dead and hundreds missing in the northwestern Mexican state of Sinaloa.

The sentencing has sharpened an already tense diplomatic dispute between the United States and Mexico. Washington has signalled that its crackdown on cartels and alleged official corruption will not end with Zambada's conviction. US prosecutors have separately indicted the governor of Sinaloa state, Rubén Rocha Moya — a member of Mexico's ruling party — on charges of conspiring with the Sinaloa Cartel to distribute narcotics in the US. Rocha Moya stepped aside from his post after the indictment. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has demanded that substantial evidence be presented, insisted that her government will cooperate with the US only on terms that respect Mexican sovereignty, and said that if any American agency participated in Zambada's capture, international treaties and the Mexican constitution may have been violated.

Analysts and officials caution that while the sentencing marks a symbolic milestone, its practical impact on drug flows into the United States is likely limited. The Sinaloa Cartel's surviving factions — including the so-called "Chapitos" led by other sons of El Chapo, whom US authorities identify as a primary source of fentanyl trafficking — have already adapted to operating without Zambada. As one assessment put it, organised crime in Mexico moves on quickly, and there is always someone ready to step into even the most powerful vacancy.