Trump's cartel crackdown gains 'powerful political leverage' with El Mayo guilty plea

Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, the co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel, is set to face the rest of his life behind bars as the Trump administration ramps up its efforts to dismantle cartels. 

Zambada, 75, confessed in a Brooklyn, New York, courtroom Monday that he had coordinated with Mexican officials to smuggle drugs into the U.S. for decades - and ultimately pleaded guilty to serving as principal leader of a continuing criminal enterprise and racketeering conspiracy. 

The Trump administration has pledged to take down the cartels - and experts predict Zambada's guilty plea paves the way for the Justice Department to launch more indictments against high-profile cartel members moving forward and exerts additional pressure on Mexico to comply with U.S. requests. 

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"It gives Trump powerful political leverage," Brian Townsend, a retired supervisory special agent with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, told Fox News Digital Monday. "I expect him to use this moment to rally public support for more aggressive cross‑border operations and tougher measures against Mexico." 

"Zambada admitted in court that for decades he paid off Mexican generals, governors, and politicians," Townsend said. "These are words directly from the mouth of one of the world's biggest drug traffickers. It confirms what we have been seeing for decades: Mexico's institutions have been deeply compromised." 

A drug cartel is a criminal group where drug lords coordinate to produce and distribute illegal drugs. 

Zambada's plea deal requires the cartel boss to forfeit $15 billion. Meanwhile, Zambada's attorney, Frank Perez, said in a Monday statement that the cartel boss will not comply with U.S. government officials, signaling he'd be unwilling to disclose any information on the cartel system to the U.S. 

"The agreement that he reached with the U.S. authorities is a matter of public record," Perez said in a statement, according to ABC News. "It is not a cooperation agreement, and I can state categorically that there is no deal under which he is cooperating with the United States Government or any other government."

Perez could not be reached for comment by Fox News Digital. 

The Trump administration has moved to crack down on cartels, and designated groups like Sinaloa, Tren de Aragua and others as foreign terrorist organizations in February. Doing so blocks the groups from using the U.S. financial system, aiming to hamper their ability to carry out operations. 

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Additionally, the Trump administration navigated a deal with Mexico to send 26 high-ranking cartel figures to the U.S. in August - including some with ties to Sinaloa. 

Townsend predicted more indictments from the Justice Department would follow. 

"I think we're going to push for broader cooperation from Mexico, more indictments," Townsend said. "We've shown that we need to extradite these folks into the United States for prosecution. We have the resources, the criminal investigations. So I would expect to see broader DOJ indictments, in a renewed look at the overall leadership of Sinaloa and other cartels, for that matter, and how we can bring more indictments and more charges against those key players."

Meanwhile, other actions the Trump administration could take could involve the U.S. military. Trump signed off on an order to direct military operations targeting cartels on foreign ground, The New York Times reported in August.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that while Mexico would "collaborate" with the U.S., an "invasion" was out of the question. 

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Nathan Jones, a nonresident scholar in drug policy and Mexico studies at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, said that Zambada's guilty plea does place additional pressure on Mexico to comply with U.S. requests, although U.S. troops in Mexico would be perceived as a violation of Mexican sovereignty. 

"For Mexico, you've got a very sensitive issue, and American boots on the ground without permission is highly problematic," Jones told Fox News Digital Tuesday. "But there are ways that the Mexican government can without violating their own sovereignty. Work with the United States, U.S. law enforcement can be there."

Zambada was arrested in July 2024 following a joint Homeland Security Investigations and FBI investigation. 

Zambada's sentencing is scheduled for January. He faces a mandatory minimum term of life in prison for leading a continuing criminal enterprise, and a maximum sentence of life in prison for the racketeering charge, according to the Justice Department. 

"This foreign terrorist committed horrific crimes against the American people - he will now pay for those crimes by spending the rest of his life behind bars in an American prison," Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement Monday. "Today marks a crucial victory in President Trump's ongoing fight to completely eliminate foreign terrorist organizations and protect American citizens from deadly drugs and violence."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.