IT was a cold-blooded cartel bust that could have been ripped straight from the scripts of Breaking Bad or Narcos.
For more than 40 years Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada, now 78, was the untouchable kingpin of the lethal Sinaloa Cartel, flooding the US with worth millions and causing mass violence in .
Cartel kingpin El Mayo appeared in court yesterday after four decades of living in the Mexican mountains Credit: X
He was hoodwinked by his godson – El Chapo’s son, Joaquín Guzmán Credit: EPA
It’s even thought they spread the drug to the UK via links with Romanian organised crime groups.
But yesterday and was ordered to forfeit £11.17billion after his bloodthirsty run ended in a cunning sting – orchestrated by his own godson, Joaquín Guzmán, 39.
Astonishingly, Guzmán, who El Mayo had known since he was a child, was just a mid-ranking player in a sub-sector of the cartel, Los Chapitos, when he betrayed him.
He is the son of El Mayo’s infamous pal, , who was jailed for life plus 30 years in 2018 after previously breaking out of twice and being compared to Colombia’s .
Bloodthirsty kingpin El Chapo was renowned for “torturing” enemies – even burying one alive.
Isaias Valdez Rios, a former security guard, personal aide and pilot turned witness against the Mexican drug lord testified in court in 2019 that El Chapo personally interrogated, tortured and shot some of his enemies.
He added he’d beat people for hours before driving them to the site of a huge bonfire where shot them and burned their bodies.
“They were completely like rag dolls – their bones were totally broken. They could not move. And Joaquin was still hitting them with the branch and his weapon too,” Valdez Rios said.
An artist’s impression of El Mayo in prison scrubs at a Federal court in New York Credit: Reuters
The moment El Mayo and his betrayer are arrested after arriving in Texas Credit: Reuters
Another man was burned with an iron and a car lighter all over his body, including his feet, before being locked in a wooden box for days – then buried alive.
As the co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, El Mayo had a connection with El Chapo that stretched over decades. It was for this reason the notoriously security-conscious El Mayo trusted godson Guzmán and excepted his invitation to fly to a ranch in Sinaloa, Mexico, in July 2024.
Guzmán claimed he had arranged for El Mayo to “meet senior politicians.” The truth was much darker. In a startling act of betrayal, Guzmán had spent months secretly liaising with the and American authorities to have him flown to El Paso, , and arrested.
He intended to simultaneously hand himself in – he was a wanted man in the US with a £3.73m bounty on his head. As a reward for giving the US El Mayo, Guzmán would get a lesser sentence.
Despite pleading guilty to drug trafficking charges in December 2025, he hasn’t yet been sentenced.
However, yesterday the victim of his betrayal, El Mayo, finally saw his four-decade-long career end, having previously admitted to counts of federal racketeering charges as well as running a criminal enterprise, in Brooklyn Federal Court in August 2025.
Ex-dealer for the Sinaloa Cartel, Margarito Flores was surprised the kingpin fell for the plan – although in a letter he claims he was “ambushed”.
Flores told The Wall Street Journal: “El Mayo was very careful about security and didn’t use mobile phones.
“I think it’s the beginning of the end of what was once the most powerful criminal organisation in the world.”
During a previous court appearance, elderly El Mayo – who had spent most of his time holed up in the Mexican mountains – was surprisingly apologetic.
“I’m sorry,” he said feebly. “I apologise for all of it, and I take responsibility for my actions. [I’m sorry to anyone who has] suffered or been affected by my actions.”
El Mayo – a shortened version of his middle name, Mario – told how he co-founded the cartel in the late 1980s before it evolved into the biggest player in the global drugs trade.
He said the cartel forged relationships with cocaine producers in , imported the drug into Mexico and smuggled it across the border into the US.
Described as being the “strategic” mind behind the cartel, El Mayo told the court how he started selling drugs as a teen before planting marijuana in 1969. He went on to sell heroin and other drugs, but especially cocaine.
Between 1980 and 2024, he said his cartel was responsible for transporting at least 1.5million kilograms of cocaine a year, “most of which went to the United States”.
Despite an estimated hundreds of thousands dying in drug wars in Mexico with people being hung from bridges in gruesome pictures which shocked the world, he remained a free man.
In a 2010 interview with Mexican publication Proceso , one of only two he gave, he attributed his continued freedom – something which was not enjoyed by co-founder, El Chapo – to “the mountains.”
He said: “The mountains are my home, my family, my protection.”
He also, ironically, said his worst fear was betrayal. “I am full of fear, always fear,” he said. “I don’t know if I’d have the courage to kill myself [if cornered]. I’d like to think so, that I would kill myself. But deep down, I’m terrified of being caught.”
In a 2021 interview for the newspaper El País he said: “We do a business that the United States needs. We’re against those who betray each other and kill children.
Violence has been prolific in Sinaloa, Mexico, the region where the cartel is based Credit: AP
US authorities had issued a huge reward for information leading to the arrest of El Mayo Credit: Reuters
“We struggle, like everyone else. You have to work hard to maintain your business and your family.”
There was a £11.18m reward offered for information leading to his arrest. Guzmán, who also had a price on his head and whose brother had already been arrested by the US authorities, decided to take advantage of it.
With both men jailed, war wages on inside the Sinaloa Cartel. Members loyal to El Mayo battle Los Chapitos for control with 2,000 people believed to be dead in street violence since his arrest.
He predicted the carnage himself. “One day I may decide to turn myself in, so they can shoot me, and there’ll be general euphoria,” he said. “But we all know that at the end of the day, if they catch me or kill me, nada cambia – nothing changes.”
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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