Drug lord sentenced to life in prison

 

TT 

Published 17:43

  

Former cartel leader Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, here in a court document from the trial that began in 2024. Photo: Elizabeth Williams/AP/TT

Mexican drug lord Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada has been sentenced to life in prison in the United States.

The notorious drug lord led the feared Sinaloa cartel together with the equally notorious Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.

Zambada was arrested in Texas in 2024 and chose to cooperate with authorities, including confessing to crimes committed over decades to avoid a death penalty. He is believed to have been the strategist within the organization - but also responsible for directing its assassins, known as sicarios, to kill opponents.

Guzmán was also sentenced to life in prison in 2019, in the same courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, where 76-year-old Zambada was convicted of his crimes.