“El Mayo” pleads not guilty in New York federal court ~ Borderland Beat

“El Mayo, the co-founder and leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, has been charged with overseeing a multibillion-dollar conspiracy to flood American communities with narcotics, including deadly fentanyl,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “We allege that El Mayo built and for decades led the Sinaloa Cartel’s network of manufacturers, murderers, traffickers and money launderers, responsible for kidnapping and murdering people in both the United States and Mexico, and importing lethal amounts of fentanyl, heroin, meth and cocaine into the United States. Now, El Mayo joins the many other leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel charged in a U.S. courtroom for the immeasurable harm they have inflicted on families and communities across our country.”

“For years, Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada Garcia and the Sinaloa Cartel he led manufactured and distributed illicit fentanyl throughout our country, profiting from the pain of countless American communities,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas. “Thanks to the dedicated work of brave Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents and their federal partners, the United States is disrupting and dismantling drug trafficking operations around the world, ensuring that cartel leaders like Mr. Zambada Garcia are brought to justice, and protecting Americans from the scourge of fentanyl.”

“For decades, the Sinaloa Cartel has profited from poisoning and killing Americans and fueling violence on both sides of our southern border,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “Today’s subpoena of Zambada Garcia is the latest step in a whole-of-government effort to strike back against one of the world’s most dangerous criminal organizations and protect our communities from the fentanyl epidemic.”

“Today’s subpoena is another powerful reminder of the FBI’s commitment to seeking justice for the American lives lost to the violence and trafficking of deadly drugs, such as fentanyl, associated with Zambada Garcia and those he directed as the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “The FBI will not stop pursuing those who conduct and facilitate the cartel’s sophisticated operations that inflict immense harm on Americans and poison communities across our country.”

“Defeating the Sinaloa Cartel is the DEA’s highest operational priority, and today, with the arrest and additional charges against Ismael Zambada Garcia, we are one step closer,” said Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Anne Milgram. “Zambada Garcia, better known as ‘El Mayo,’ is the co-founder and leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most ruthless and dangerous cartels in Mexico and responsible for the unprecedented drug crisis facing the United States. With Zambada Garcia out of power, we have struck at the heart of the Sinaloa Cartel’s operations. He may have eluded capture for three decades, but now he is seeing what it means to face justice in America. Let this be a reminder to his associates and others, American lives depend on the DEA remaining laser-focused on destroying the cartels, their networks, and their global supply chains, and that is what we will continue to do.”

“Zambada Garcia’s day of reckoning in an American courtroom has arrived, and justice will follow,” said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York. “If convicted, he will never again supply fentanyl, cocaine and other deadly drugs and the violence they cause in our country, or make millions while hundreds of thousands of innocent lives are lost. I hope the countless family members and friends of victims who succumbed to his cartel’s poisons, and the countless law enforcement officers who fearlessly put their lives on the line to combat this scourge, can take comfort in knowing that Zambada Garcia will be held accountable for his multitude of crimes.”

“Zambada Garcia will now face the United States justice system,” said U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida. “His arrest means he will now be charged with leading the multibillion-dollar criminal enterprise of the Sinaloa Cartel, which smuggled drugs onto our streets and brought violence and despair to our communities. But our work is not done. We will pursue the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel and drug trafficking organizations around the world.”

“Today’s subpoena sends a clear message to drug traffickers around the world: We will find you and bring you to justice,” said Katrina W. Berger, Executive Associate Director of HSI. “The men and women of HSI work diligently with our partners around the world to investigate, intercept and stop the flow of illegal drugs into the United States and keep illegal drugs off our streets.”

“The indictment of this individual is the result of the tireless work of law enforcement partners at all levels to stem the tide of illegal drugs and drug-related violence in our country,” said Superintendent Steven G. James of the New York State Police (NYSP). “Strong partnerships are essential and as a result, a dangerous international drug trafficking operation, and the organized crime it sustains, has been shut down. The State Police will continue to work tirelessly with our partners to track down those who intentionally endanger others.”

First indictment in New York

El Mayo was first indicted in the Eastern District of New York in 2009 and most recently in a fifth superseding indictment in February. As alleged, El Mayo co-founded the Sinaloa Cartel with co-defendant Joaquin Guzman Loera, also known as El Chapo, and together they ran the Sinaloa Cartel out of Mexico until El Chapo’s arrest in 2016. After a trial, El Chapo was convicted in the Eastern District of New York in 2019 and sentenced to life plus 30 years in prison.

According to the charges in the superseding indictment, from 1989 to 2024, El Mayo operated a continuing criminal enterprise that imported and distributed vast quantities of narcotics, generating billions of dollars in profits. To ensure the Sinaloa Cartel’s success, El Mayo employed thousands of people in South and Central America, throughout Mexico, and throughout the United States. Through a complex, multi-layered structure, El Mayo was able to secure transportation routes for the narcotics he sold, from the source of supply to distribution on the streets of the United States. El Mayo also employed crews of “sicarios,” or hitmen, who carried out kidnappings and assassinations on his orders in Mexico and elsewhere — including killings in the United States — to eliminate anyone who threatened this valuable narcotics pipeline and to exact revenge on rivals and those suspected of collaborating with the U.S. government. The billions of dollars generated from drug sales were then transported and laundered back to Mexico.

As detailed in the superseding indictment and other court documents, the Sinaloa Cartel, under El Mayo’s leadership, expanded its drug trafficking operations to include the production and distribution of fentanyl by 2012 and is responsible for distributing many thousands of pounds of fentanyl throughout the United States. El Mayo also allegedly expanded the Sinaloa Cartel’s power and influence by making millions of dollars in corruption payments each year and regularly carrying out campaigns of brutal violence, including retaliatory killings allegedly carried out on his orders just weeks before his arrest.

If El Mayo is found guilty, he faces a mandatory minimum sentence of life in prison. A federal district judge will determine the sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Source DOJ