Sinaloa Cartel Co-founder 'El Mayo' Zambada Sentenced to Life in Brooklyn; $15 Billion Forfeiture Ordered

Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, the 77-year-old co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, was sentenced Monday to life in prison without the possibility of parole in federal court in Brooklyn, and a judge entered a $15 billion forfeiture money judgment against him, the U.S. Justice Department said. The sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge Brian M. Cogan in the Eastern District of New York.

Zambada, of Sinaloa, Mexico, pleaded guilty on Aug. 25, 2025, to being a principal leader of a continuing criminal enterprise and to a racketeering charge under the federal RICO law. The plea contemplated both the life sentence and the $15 billion forfeiture judgment. According to AP, Cogan said from the bench that he had no sentencing discretion because the life term was mandatory.

The $15 billion figure is a criminal forfeiture money judgment, a legal order tied to proceeds that prosecutors say were generated by the crimes. It does not mean the government has already recovered $15 billion in cash or assets. AP reported that prosecutors have not identified assets equal to the full amount.

In court, AP reported, Zambada read a statement in Spanish apologizing and urging an end to violence. Cogan called the proceeding “kind of anticlimactic” because “I have no discretion,” according to AP. The judge also said he would recommend that Zambada be placed at a federal medical facility because of his age and health.

The Justice Department has described Zambada as a longtime principal leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, which prosecutors called one of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world. In the New York case, DOJ said the charged conduct ran from January 1989 through January 2024. Prosecutors said the cartel under Zambada trafficked large quantities of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl into the United States and generated massive proceeds.

“Today, narco-trafficker El Mayo was sentenced to life in prison, marking the end of his reign over the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most violent and deadly drug cartels in history. He will never again inflict carnage, corrupt public officials, or traffic deadly drugs into our communities that ruin Americans and their families,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva said in a Justice Department press release.

Zambada was arrested in July 2024, according to DOJ. The department said he had faced indictments in multiple federal jurisdictions, but under the plea agreement the remaining indictments were to be dismissed at sentencing.