Sinaloa Cartel boss 'El Mayo' sentenced to life, ordered to pay $15B in drug trafficking profits

Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada Garcia, co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, was sentenced to life in a U.S. prison and ordered to pay $15 billion in drug trafficking profits. The U.S. Department of Justice cited mandatory life imprisonment for the charges, and Garcia pleaded guilty in August 2025 after the DOJ declined to seek the death penalty.