Former Mexican drug lord, Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada, pleads guilty in US

Former Mexican cartel kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada pleaded guilty in a United States courtroom on Monday to ordering murders and drug trafficking charges.

He said he was sorry for helping flood the US with cocaine, heroin, and other illicit substances and for fuelling deadly violence in Mexico.

“I recognize the great harm illegal drugs have done to the people in the United States and Mexico,” he said through a Spanish-language interpreter.

Prosecutors say that under the leadership of Zambada and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the Sinaloa cartel evolved from a regional player into the largest drug trafficking organisations in the world.

The 75-year-old Zambada acknowledged the extent of the Sinaloa operation, including underlings who built relationships with cocaine producers in Colombia, oversaw importing cocaine to Mexico, and smuggling the drug across its border with the US.

He acknowledged that people working for him paid bribes to Mexican police and military commanders “so they could operate freely".

Zambada was arrested last year at the end of the former President Joe Biden administration when he arrived in a private plane at a Texas airport with one of Guzmán’s sons.

He claims he was kidnapped in Mexico and taken to the US against his will.

The former drug kingpin agreed to plead guilty after the Justice Department this month said it would not seek the death penalty.

But he faces a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment after pleading guilty in the Brooklyn federal court. He also faces billions of dollars in financial penalties.

His plea comes as President Donald Trump and his Justice Department have amplified the US fight against drug cartels.

The administration has declared the groups terrorist organisations, positioned military assets off Venezuela, and compelled the Mexican government to hand over several dozen high-ranking cartel officials for prosecution in the US.

Zambada's lawyer, Frank Perez, stressed after the hearing that the plea agreement does not obligate his client to cooperate with government investigators.

The attorney said he never really wanted to go to trial, and that once the death penalty was off the table, his “focus shifted to accepting responsibility and moving forward”.

Zambada is due to be sentenced on 13 January.