BROOKLYN, United States (AFP)-The Trump administration’s top justice official Pam Bondi hailed a “landmark victory” Monday as Sinaloa drug cartel cofounder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada changed his plea to guilty, meaning he faces life imprisonment and losing $15 billion.

Zambada, 77, cofounded the Sinaloa Cartel with notorious drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. He was arrested in the United States in July 2024 along with Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of El Chapo.

“El Mayo will spend the rest of his life behind bars. He will die in a US federal prison where he belongs,” Attorney General Bondi told a briefing flanked by prosecutors and federal agents in Brooklyn.

“His partner was El Chapo. They were co-founders of the Sinaloa cartel. They brutally murdered multiple people, and flooded our country with drugs. Their reign of terror is over.”

Zambada will avoid a trial because of the plea, but will face a mandatory minimum term of life imprisonment without parole on a racketeering charge at sentencing, due at a later date.

The United States accuses the cartel of trafficking fentanyl into the United States, where the opioid epidemic is linked to tens of thousands of deaths.

– $15 bn forfeiture –

Zambada agreed to the forfeiture of $15 billion of ill-gotten-gains as part of the plea deal, the Department of Justice said.

Bondi said that Zambada had been “living like a king,” but would now “live like he’s on death row.”

Last September, Zambada pleaded not guilty to 17 charges including murder and drug trafficking, particularly of fentanyl — a powerful narcotic 50 times stronger than cocaine, responsible for tens of thousands of US overdose deaths annually.

Zambada’s arrest and that of Joaquin Guzman Lopez last year, after the pair arrived in the United States in a private plane, sparked cartel infighting that has left more than 1,200 people dead and 1,400 missing in Sinaloa state in northwestern Mexico.

The Sinaloa Cartel is one of six Mexican drug trafficking groups that US President Donald Trump has designated as global “terrorist” organisations.

In its aggressive policy against drug cartels, the Trump administration announced additional sanctions in June against “Los Chapitos” — El Chapo’s sons — for fentanyl trafficking and increased the reward to $10 million for each of the fugitive brothers.

The Sinaloa cartel is one of six Mexican drug trafficking groups designated terrorist organizations by US President Donald Trump.

United States Attorney for the Western District of Texas Justin R. Simmons said Monday that the Sinaloa cartel had engaged in a years-long war with the Juarez cartel on the US-Mexico border.