It used to be that the Sinaloa Drug Cartel had two bosses- Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.
El Chapo was captured in 2016 and extradited to the United States in 2017.
In 2019 El Chapo was found guilty and sentenced to life + 30. His current home is the ADX Florence federal prison in Colorado.
On July 25th, 2024, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, son of El Chapo Guzman, were taken into U.S. custody in El Paso. Apparently, Guzman Lopez turned himself in but El Mayo was abducted or tricked with the collusion of Guzman Lopez.
It was the first time in his life that El Mayo had ever been arrested! As it turns out, probably the last time as well.
In December of 2025 Joaquin Guzman pled guilty to four charges, but he hasn’t yet been sentenced.
As for El Mayo, on August 25th, 2025, he pled guilty in a U.S. federal court in Brooklyn.
About 11 months later, July 20th, 2026, also in Brooklyn, El Mayo was sentenced to life imprisonment.
From the U.S. Department of Justice press release: “Ismael Zambada Garcia also known as El Mayo, 76, of Sinaloa, Mexico, was sentenced today to life in prison and ordered to pay $15 billion in forfeiture for his role as the principal leader of a continuing criminal enterprise – the Sinaloa Cartel (the Cartel), one of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world – and for his involvement in racketeering.”
Source: Charles Maurice Bettencourt Albareux
Meanwhile, back in Sinaloa, an inter-cartel war continues between two factions.
The war broke out on September 9th, 2024, between one faction led by the son of “El Mayo” Zambada vs. the Chapitos, sons of “El Chapo” Guzman.
.svg){kind=link}
The war began on September 9th, 2024. According to the Noroeste newspaper report of July 23rd, 2026, “Since the dispute between the Guzmans and the Zambadas began and that the authorities have not been able to contain, Sinaloa has accumulated 3,597 violent deaths….”