US rules out death penalty against ‘El Mayo’ Zambada
The decision opens the door to a possible plea deal between the drug lord and authorities
Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the drug lord with a thousand lives, will be able to extend his legend in the United States. Despite his spectacular downfall, betrayed and handed over by his godson, the 77-year-old capo will spend the last days of his life in a U.S. prison cell. Donald Trump’s Department of Justice officially announced Tuesday that it will not seek the death penalty against one of the historic leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel. Rafael Caro Quintero and Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, alias “El Viceroy,” other prominent drug lords recently handed over to Washington by Mexican authorities, will receive the same benefit, which points to a pact between prosecutors and defense attorneys to reach plea agreements.
The news was conveyed by Joseph Nocella, the prosecutor in the case, to Judge Brian Cogan, who is presiding over the trial against El Mayo in the Eastern District Court of New York. “The Attorney General (Pam Bondi) has authorized and directed this office not to seek the death penalty against the defendant,” reads the brief document sent Tuesday, also signed by other attorneys in the case, Francisco J. Navarro, Robert M. Pollack, and Lauren A. Bowman.
Frank Perez, El Mayo’s defense attorney, welcomed Bondi’s decision to remove the possibility of his client ending up on death row. “We welcome this decision, which marks an important step toward reaching a fair resolution,” the lawyer said in a statement. Perez had been working on alternatives for his client’s trial since at least January, when federal authorities in Washington admitted they were working on a possible deal.
Zambada faces 17 charges for crimes related to drug trafficking, money laundering, arms trafficking, kidnapping, and murder. With the death penalty no longer a possible outcome of the trial, negotiations between El Mayo’s defense team and the Trump administration to reach a plea agreement have been strengthened.
July 25 marked one year since the criminal boss, who had never set foot in a prison in his native country, was captured at an airport in New Mexico. Joaquín Guzmán López — son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and one of the most prominent members of Los Chapitos, the faction of the Sinaloa Cartel controlled by the sons of the drug lord, who has also been sentenced to life in prison in the U.S. — was also arrested in that operation. The arrest, according to Mayo himself in a letter written from prison, was a betrayal orchestrated by his godson. “The United States lacks the legitimacy to impose such a severe punishment as the death penalty on me,” the drug lord said in the same letter.
Ovidio Guzmán López, another of El Chapo’s sons, pleaded guilty in July to drug trafficking charges brought against him by the United States. He is the first of El Chapo’s heirs to reach an agreement with the Justice Department. The Trump administration blames him for the entry of huge quantities of fentanyl into the country. Joaquín Guzmán, who turned in El Mayo, is in negotiations to follow in Ovidio’s footsteps.
The benefit announced Tuesday also affects Caro Quintero, perhaps the most emblematic drug lord among the 29 cartel bosses that Claudia Sheinbaum’s government handed over to Donald Trump at the beginning of the Republican’s term. The veteran drug trafficker, also in his seventies, will appear for the first time before U.S. courts to answer for the murder of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena 40 years ago. Caro Quintero’s next court hearing in New York will be on September 18.
El Viceroy, of the Juárez Cartel, brother of legendary drug lord Amado Carrillo, also faces a busy fall with the justice system. Vicente Carrillo received a 28-year prison sentence in Mexico in 2021. He had served less than four years before being sent north as part of the historic operation to hand over Mexican drug lords to U.S. authorities.
When the United States received these drug traffickers, it announced that it would seek the death penalty for four of them. Vicente Carrillo has now been spared that burden, as has Caro Quintero. Only two candidates for capital punishment remain: José Rodolfo Villarreal Hernández, a Beltrán Leyva Cartel hitman who will be tried in Texas, and Andrew Clark, the only Canadian in the group and a member of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, who will face a judge in California.
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