Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia, co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel alongside Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, has been sentenced to life in federal prison following a criminal career that spanned nearly four decades.

Operating with a lower public profile than Guzmán, Zambada helped direct an empire responsible for trafficking massive quantities of cocaine, fentanyl, and methamphetamine into the United States and other countries, generating billions of dollars in illegal profits.

Zambada’s decades-long ability to avoid capture ended in July 2024 when he was allegedly betrayed and kidnapped by one of Guzmán’s sons, placed on an aircraft, and brought into American custody by waiting federal agents.

In addition to a life sentence stemming from his August 2025 guilty plea and 85 criminal convictions, the court ordered Zambada to pay $15 billion in drug trafficking profits, while federal officials emphasized that his reign of corruption, violence, and terror has finally come to an end.