Ismael El Mayo Zambada will plead guilty before a US court in a hearing initially scheduled for next Monday in New York. One of the long-time leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, Zambada has been imprisoned in the US since July 2024, when he was arrested at an airfield a few kilometers north of the Mexican border. The alleged drug trafficker has alleged that old allies kidnapped him in Sinaloa and took him to the neighboring country without his consent.
During these months, El Mayo seemed to resist a guilty plea, despite the serious accusations against him for drug trafficking and money laundering, among other crimes. But in February, the situation changed when his lawyer, Frank Pérez, indicated that his client would agree to plead guilty if the US Attorney’s Office removed the death penalty from the table, which happened just a few weeks ago.
Thus, Zambada is following the path of Ovidio Guzmán, the son of his former associate, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who pleaded guilty in July in the neighboring country. A member of Los Chapitos, a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel led by El Chapo’s sons, Ovidio Guzmán was arrested in Sinaloa in January 2023. The Mexican government extradited him in September of that same year. Another of the “Chapos,” his brother Joaquín, could follow the same path. Arrested in July 2024, the US Attorney’s Office announced in May that it would not seek the death penalty in his case.
These agreements, whether finalized or under negotiation, necessarily point to the nature of their very terms. In exchange for what do both sides agree to plead guilty? In the past, other criminals, members of the Sinaloa Cartel, such as Vicente Zambada Niebla, alias Vicentillo, son of “El Mayo,” have testified in trials against former associates. Vicentillo testified, for example, in the trial of El Chapo Guzmán, which resulted in a life sentence for the former kingpin. The same was done by El Chapo’s old ally, Dámaso López.
Doubt surrounds the cases of El Mayo, Ovidio Guzmán, and his brother Joaquín, should the latter also plead guilty. The former’s situation, however, seems the most enigmatic. El Mayo was one of the most important leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel. For decades, he allegedly commanded drug smuggling networks into the United States. Over the years, he had become one of the priority targets of authorities in that country. Now in custody, the question now is what other targets the US justice system has in mind that are as important, or more important, than him.
Mayo’s future guilty plea would thus close the door on another lucrative trial, like the one against El Chapo, or, later, against Genaro García Luna, a longtime ally of the cartel, the Mexican security czar during Felipe Calderón’s administration (2006-2012). The testimony of the prosecution’s witnesses, part of Mexico’s criminal structures, revealed a wealth of information about criminal activity in the country. It seems that, this time, the information will remain in the prosecutors’ drawers.
Source: elpais
