# Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada

Ismael Mario Zambada García (born 1 January 1948), also known as El Mayo, is a Mexican former drug lord and top leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, an international crime syndicate based in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. Before he assumed leadership of the entire cartel, he allegedly served as the logistical coordinator for its Zambada García faction, which has overseen the trafficking of cocaine and heroin into Chicago and other US cities by aircraft, narcosubs, container ships, go-fast boats, fishing vessels, buses, rail cars, tractor trailers, and automobiles.
Until his arrest in July 2024, he had never been arrested or incarcerated. He was arrested in El Paso, Texas, United States, and reported to be in US custody on 25 July 2024.

## Career

Zambada has historically worked closely with the Juárez Cartel and the Carrillo Fuentes family, while maintaining independent ties to Colombian cocaine suppliers.
In 1989, when Mexican drug lord Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo was arrested, his organization split into two opposing factions: the Tijuana Cartel whose leadership was inherited by his nephews and heirs, the Arellano Félix brothers and the Sinaloa Cartel whose leadership fell to former lieutenants Héctor Luis Palma Salazar, Adrián Gómez González, Ismael Zambada García, Ignacio Coronel Villarreal, and Joaquín Guzmán Loera (El Chapo). The Sinaloa Cartel drug lords were active in the states of Sinaloa, Durango, Chihuahua, Sonora, Nuevo León, and Nayarit.
Since 1998, Zambada has been wanted by Mexico's attorney general's office, when it issued bounties totaling $2.8 million USD on him and five other leaders of the Juárez Cartel.
In 2006, the administration of President Felipe Calderón launched an offensive against Mexico's drug trafficking networks. The Tijuana Cartel, the largest and most sophisticated of the Mexican cartels at the time, received the brunt of the blows. Taking advantage of the pressure being placed on the Tijuana Cartel, other drug bosses, most notably Ismael Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán, began to encroach on strongholds in northwestern Mexico, leading to full-scale war.
Zambada's organization, the Sinaloa Cartel, receives multi-ton quantities of cocaine, mostly by sea from Colombian sources. It uses a variety of methods, including airplanes, trucks, cars, boats, and tunnels to transport the cocaine to the United States. Members of the cartel smuggle the cocaine to distribution cells in Arizona, Atlanta, California, Illinois, and New York. Zambada has been operating primarily in the states of Sinaloa and Durango, with influence along a large portion of Mexico's Pacific coast, as well as in Cancún, Quintana Roo, Sonora, and Nuevo León.
In 2007, Zambada was featured on America's Most Wanted, and the FBI has been offering up to US$5 million for information leading to his capture.
In 2011, it was thought Zambada may have had plastic surgery and disguised himself to move throughout Mexico. Zambada headed the Sinaloa Cartel in partnership with Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán until 2016, when El Chapo was captured. Since 2016, Zambada is thought to have assumed full command of the Sinaloa Cartel and to be Mexico's most enduring and powerful drug lord.
In 2019 his son, Vicente Zambada Niebla, testified against Joaquín Guzmán Loera and recounted the shipment of tons of drugs by his father, saying "that his father's bribery budget was often as much as $1 million per month, with bribes going to many high-level Mexican public officials."

## Capture

On 25 July 2024, Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán López, son of El Chapo (Joaquín Guzmán Loera), were arrested in the US at a private airfield in El Paso, Texas, Zambada was reportedly lured by Guzmán López under false pretenses of looking to buy property in Mexico that led to his arrest. However, both were arrested and are expected to be tried in the US.

## Trial

On September 13, 2024, he had his first hearing in a New York court, in which he pleaded "not guilty" to the crimes of drug trafficking, illegal possession of weapons and criminal enterprise.
Zambada's next court date took place on January 15, 2025.
Zambada submitted a petition to the Mexican government requesting extradition to the country to face trial there and an intervention to rule out any death penalty. "No one is defending this person" and "Beyond the person and his crimes, the issue is how he was detained," said President Claudia Sheinbaum regarding the petition review. The Mexican government is also investigating anyone involved in handing over a Mexican citizen to foreign agents to be charged with treason.

## Personal life

Zambada is married to Rosario Niebla Cardoza. He has four sons and four daughters. His wife and sons, Serafín Zambada Ortiz (alias "el Sera", as of 2018 arrested and released), and Ismael Zambada Imperial (alias "el Mayito gordo", convicted), as well as his four daughters, María Teresa, Midiam Patricia, Mónica del Rosario, and Modesta, have played an active role in narcotics' distribution and money laundering. On 18 March 2009, his son Vicente Zambada Niebla was arrested by the Mexican Army. His other son, Ismael "Mayito" Zambada Jr. has been sought for conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance in the United States.
On 20 October 2010, some of his relatives were arrested in Mexico City on drug trafficking charges: Ismael's brother, Jesus "The King" Zambada, along with Ismael's son and nephew.
On 18 June 2014, his son-in-law, Juan Gabriel González Ibarra, husband of Midiam Patricia, died after suffering an electric shock at his home in Culiacán.
In June 2020, former DEA agent Mike Vigil revealed that Zambada was "sick with diabetes."

## In popular culture

"Don Ismael", a character inspired by Zambada García, was featured in the 2017 television series El Chapo