The Mexican drug lord “El Mayo” is a guilty plea

The Mexican drug lord, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, pleaded guilty to two accusations of smuggling and conspiracy in a New York court, ending one of the longest and notable criminal careers in the history of organized crime.

Zambada was not just any drug lord.

He was the founder of the Sinaloa cartel, for years the largest and most powerful criminal organization in Mexico – with an amazing world range.

Last year, he pleaded not guilty to a bafon of smuggling drug trafficking, firearm runners and money laundering. But now he changed his plea before a federal judge in Brooklyn.

In doing so, he officially accepted his role in creating the vast criminal network which sent huge quantities of cocaine and other drugs to the United States since he co-founded the cartel in the late 1980s.

The stage comes from weeks after the American prosecutors confirmed that they would not ask the death against the 77 -year -old Mexican chevron.

Zambada was arrested in Texas last year following an extraordinary double crossroads by the sons of his former ally, the co-founder imprisoned from the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán.

El Chapo was sentenced to life imprisonment before the same court in 2019.

After his arrest, the cartel was divided into two main factions: one led by El Mayo, and his rival, led by the sons of Guzman, known as “Los Chapitos”. The conflict between the two parties continues to rage, in particular in the state of Sinaloa itself.

At the end of July 2024, Zambada would have been attracted to a meeting with one of the sons of El Chapo, Joaquín Guzmán López.

The first reports suggested that Guzmán López then had his rival aboard a light plane, but Zambada later said that he had been ambushed and controlled by Los Chapitos, and was forcibly returned to Texas.

US officials of the law application awaited the plane when he landed near El Paso and the two men were immediately placed in police custody.

By entering a guilt, Zambada should receive a milder sentence. At the end of the 1970s and would have been in poor health, he may have considered that he was futile to continue to claim his innocence, in particular given the conviction and the perpetuity of Guzmán in 2019.

Last year, it was confirmed that the sons of Guzmán – Joaquín and his young brother, Ovidio – negotiated good deals with the US government.

In May, 17 members of the Guzmán family were escorted in the United States by officials. Last month, Ovidio pleaded guilty in Chicago to several accusations of drug trafficking and involvement in a continuous criminal enterprise.

At his height, Zambada was probably the most powerful drug lord in the world.

Darker than other pivots – in particular El Chapo whose prison escapes in 2001 and 2015 made the headlines around the world – Zambada was no less ruthless or calculating.

For about five decades, he managed to escape arrest or capture. Meanwhile, he supervised the transport of large amounts of heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine in the United States via land, sea and air.

Now, in an American courtroom, one of the most sustainable names in world trafficking has accepted its role at the top of one of the most important and most sophisticated criminal networks in the world.

He should be sentenced in the coming months.