Long-elusive Mexican drug lord Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada pleads guilty in US
Story by MICHAEL R. SISAK • 13h
NEW YORK (AP) — Former Mexican cartel kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada pleaded guilty Monday to U.S. drug trafficking charges, saying he was sorry for helping to flood the U.S. with cocaine, heroin and other illicit substances and for fueling deadly violence in Mexico.
“I recognize the great harm illegal drugs have done to the people in the United States and Mexico,” he said through a Spanish-language interpreter. “I apologize for all of it, and I take responsibility for my actions.”
Under the leadership of Zambada and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, prosecutors say the Sinaloa cartel evolved from a regional player into the largest drug trafficking organization in the world.
In pleading guilty, Zambada acknowledged the extent of the Sinaloa operation, including underlings who built relationships with cocaine producers in Colombia, oversaw the importation of cocaine to Mexico by boat and plane and the smuggling of the drug across the U.S.-Mexico border. He acknowledged that people working for him paid bribes to Mexican police and military commanders “so they could operate freely,” going all the way back to when the cartel was just starting out.
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