Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia, Co-Founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, Arraigned in Brooklyn on International Drug Charges

Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia, 76, a citizen of Mexico, was arraigned this morning in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, on 17 counts related to drug trafficking, firearms offenses, and money laundering. This fifth superseding indictment relates to El Mayo’s decades-long leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world and conspiracy to manufacture and distribute fentanyl. El Mayo was previously charged with running a continuing criminal enterprise, as well as murder conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and marijuana manufacture and distribution conspiracy, as well as other drug-related crimes.

El Mayo was ordered detained pending trial and was transferred yesterday to the Eastern District of New York from the Western District of Texas, following his arrest in New Mexico on July 25. 

“El Mayo, the co-founder and leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, has been charged with overseeing a multi-billion-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, assassins, traffickers, and money launderers responsible for kidnapping and murdering people in both the United States and Mexico, and importing lethal quantities of fentanyl, heroin, meth, and cocaine into the United States. Now, El Mayo joins the many other Sinaloa Cartel leaders who have faced charges in an American 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 illicit fentanyl and peddled it across our country, profiting off of 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 across the world, ensuring Cartel kingpins like Mr. Zambada Garcia are brought to justice, and keeping Americans safe 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 arraignment 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 arraignment is another forceful reminder of the FBI’s commitment to pursuing justice for the American lives lost to the violence and trafficking of deadly drugs, like fentanyl, associated with Zambada Garcia and those he directed as a leader of the Sinaloa Cartel,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “The FBI will not stop in our pursuit of those who engage and facilitate the cartel’s sophisticated operations that cause immense harm to Americans and poison communities across our country.”

“Defeating the Sinaloa Cartel is DEA’s top operational priority and today, with the capture and additional charges filed against Ismael Zambada Garcia we are that much closer,” said Administrator Anne Milgram of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). “Better known as ‘El Mayo’, Zambada Garcia 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 no longer in power we have struck at the heart of the Sinaloa Cartel’s operations. He may have eluded capture for three decades, but today 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 DEA remaining laser focused on destroying the cartels, their networks, and their global supply chain and that is what we will continue to do.”

“Zambada Garcia’s day of reckoning in a U.S. courtroom has arrived and justice will follow,” said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York. “If convicted, never again will he deliver fentanyl, cocaine, and other deadly drugs and associated violence into our country or make millions as hundreds of thousands of innocent lives are lost. It is my hope that the countless family members and friends of victims who succumbed to his cartel’s poisons, and the countless members of law enforcement who fearlessly risked their lives fighting this scourge, should take comfort in knowing that Zambada Garcia will be held accountable for his multitude of crimes.”

“Zambada Garcia will now face the American justice system,” said U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida. “His arrest means that he will now have to face charges for leading the Sinaloa Cartel’s multi-billion-dollar criminal enterprise that funneled drugs onto our streets and violence and despair into our communities. But our work is not done. We will go after the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel and the drug trafficking organizations around the world.”

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

“The arraignment of this individual is a result of the relentless 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 key, and as a result, a dangerous international drug trafficking operation, and the organized crime perpetuated by it, has been shut down. The State Police will continue to tenaciously work in conjunction with our partners to seek out those who deliberately put others in danger.”

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 was a co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel together with his co-defendant Joaquin Guzman Loera, also known as El Chapo, and together they ran the Sinaloa Cartel together from Mexico until El Chapo’s arrest in 2016. Following 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 allegations in the superseding indictment, from 1989 to 2024, El Mayo led a continuing criminal enterprise responsible for the importation and distribution of massive quantities of narcotics and which generated billions of dollars in profits. To ensure the success of the Sinaloa Cartel, El Mayo employed thousands of people in South and Central America, throughout Mexico and in the United States. Through a complex, layered structure, El Mayo was able to assure transportation routes for the narcotics he sold from source of supply to distribution on the streets of the United States. El Mayo also employed groups of “sicarios” or hit-men, who at his orders carried out kidnappings and murders in Mexico and elsewhere — including murders in the United States — to eliminate anyone who threatened this valuable narcotics pipeline and to retaliate against rivals and those suspected of cooperating with the U.S. government. The billions of dollars generated from the drug sales were then transported and laundered back to Mexico. 

As set forth in the superseding indictment and other court filings, the Sinaloa Cartel, under El Mayo’s leadership, expanded its drug business into fentanyl manufacturing and distribution no later than 2012 and is responsible for the distribution of many thousands of kilograms of fentanyl into the United States. El Mayo also allegedly expanded the power and influence of the Sinaloa Cartel by making millions of dollars each year in corruption payments and conducting regular campaigns of brutal violence, including retaliatory murders that were allegedly committed on his orders as recently as just weeks prior to his arrest.

If convicted, El Mayo faces a mandatory minimum penalty of life in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

FBI, DEA, and HSI investigated the case.

Trial Attorneys Melanie Alsworth and Kirk Handrich of the Criminal Division’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section; Assistant U.S. Attorneys Francisco J. Navarro, Robert M. Pollack, Adam Amir, and Lauren A. Bowman for the Eastern District of New York; and Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Goldbarg for the Southern District of Florida are prosecuting the case. The U.S. Attorneys’ Offices for the Northern District of Illinois, Central District of California, Southern District of California, and Western District of Texas provided substantial assistance.

This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.