NEW YORK, United States (AFP)—Mexican drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada was sentenced Monday to life in prison by a US court for co-founding and leading the powerful Sinaloa cartel.

The 76-year-old is the former top associate of the organization’s kingpin founder, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who is serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison in Colorado.

Zambada was arrested at a Texas airport in July 2024 in cloudy circumstances, alleging that he was kidnapped by Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of El Chapo, and brought to the United States on a private jet.

At a packed New York courtroom, the white-haired Zambada cut a frail figure as he was sentenced to life in prison and ordered to pay a $15 billion forfeiture.

Wearing a tan jumpsuit, he read a prepared statement in Spanish in which he extraordinarily urged young people to turn away from violence.

“I stand before you today knowing that my actions caused harm,” he said. “I chose this path and I understand that today I’m being held accountable for those decisions.”

Zambada said he grew up in “an environment where violence and crime seemed normal, but now I know that is no excuse.”

“To the next generation I say this: Choose a different path,” he added.

US district judge Brian Cogan, who also presided over El Chapo’s trial, said that the amount of smuggled drugs and number of killings attributed to Zambada justified his life sentence.

– ‘Poisoning American communities’ –

Zambada pleaded guilty in August 2025 to several charges related to his leadership of the Sinaloa cartel under a deal with prosecutors that saw them waive their right to seek the death penalty.

In Monday’s hearing, Zambada’s lawyer Frank Perez emphasized that the former drug lord had not provided US authorities any information on other cartel members or Mexican government officials.

He described Zambada as an “elderly man,” and the court later heard that he was suffering from several unspecified health conditions.

Zambada’s 2024 arrest and that of Guzman Lopez sparked cartel infighting between members loyal to El Chapo and others aligned with Zambada that left thousands dead and disappeared in Mexico.

Founded in the 1980s, the Sinaloa cartel is one of Mexico’s oldest criminal organizations, with a reputation for infiltrating the highest echelons of the state.

It is one of several Mexican drug trafficking groups that US President Donald Trump has designated as global “terrorist” organizations.

US authorities accuse the cartel of trafficking the powerful narcotic fentanyl into the United States, where the opioid epidemic is linked to tens of thousands of deaths.

“Ismael Zambada Garcia spent nearly four decades poisoning American communities to make billions of dollars in profit and ordering the murders of anyone who stood in his way,” Joseph Nocella Jr., US attorney for the eastern district of New York, said in a statement.