Mexican drug cartel leader sentenced to life in US prison
World · 20 July 2026
Written by AI from multiple news reports
A US judge has sentenced Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada to life in prison with no chance of release. Zambada, co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel, received the sentence on Monday, 20 July 2026, in a Brooklyn court.
He was arrested in July 2024 when a private jet landed at a small airstrip in New Mexico. Zambada said he was kidnapped in Mexico and brought to the US by force. He pleaded guilty in August 2025 under a deal that removed the death penalty.
Prosecutors said he had sent huge amounts of heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl into the US for decades. The Sinaloa cartel is considered the world's largest drug trafficking organisation. His co-founder, Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, received the same sentence seven years earlier.