HomeNewsBriefWill US Plea Deal With 'El Mayo's' Son Impact Sinaloa Leadership?
BRIEF

Will US Plea Deal With 'El Mayo's' Son Impact Sinaloa Leadership?

MEXICO / 11 APR 2014 BY SETH ROBBINS EN

A US federal court has made public a controversial plea deal with the son of Sinaloa Cartel leader Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada that reveals details of the organization's operations and raises the question: who may the extradited narco give up in exchange for a reduced sentence?

Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla, alias "Vicentillo," admitted that from 2005 to 2008 he was responsible for a large portion of the Sinaloa Cartel's drug trafficking operations in his role "as a trusted lieutenant for his father," according to a plea agreement (pdf) unsealed by prosecutors in an Illinois courtroom.

The document, signed on April 3, 2013, details Zambada Niebla's coordination of the movement of "multi-ton" shipments of US-bound cocaine from Panama and Colombia into Mexico, using a wide variety of vehicles including private aircraft, submarines, container ships, go-fast boats and tractor-trailers. He also admitted to facilitating the distribution of large quantities of heroin in Chicago and other parts of the United States and to bribing Mexican officials.

SEE ALSO: Coverage of the Sinaloa Cartel

The crime of conspiring to distribute cocaine and heroin to which Zambada-Niebla pleaded guilty carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors agreed to recommend a reduced sentence in lieu of the life sentence he would likely have faced, according to the Wall Street Journal.

For his part, Zambada-Niebla agreed to forfeit $1.37 billion in ill-gotten gains and assets.

InSight Crime Analysis

Though Zambada Niebla's knowledge of the cartel's tactics are likely out of date after several years in jail, he still harbors a wealth of information about key members and associates. The document does not detail whether Zambada Niebla has yet given up any of these members as part of the deal, but will likely contribute to rumors the Zambada family played a part in the recent arrest of the group's top leader, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

The saga of Zambada-Niebla's cooperation with the US government has been steeped in intrigue since his arrest in 2009, with the defense claiming US officials permitted him to smuggle cocaine for a five year period in exchange for information on his rivals.

While much has been made of the plea deal, bargaining with criminals is a common tactic used by the US justice system to build cases. Zambada Niebla's plea deal also makes few promises -- it stipulates that prosecutors can only recommend a reduced sentence, and that even this is contingent on his full cooperation with the US Attorney General's Office.

This could make things very uncomfortable for his father, who is the presumed leader of the cartel after Guzman's arrest, and it remains to be seen how far Zambada Niebla will go to protect his own interests.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

COCAINE / 7 JUN 2022

A Mexican drug trafficking ring with connections to cartels operated marijuana plantations and cocaine processing labs in Spain, displaying how…

FENTANYL / 14 JUL 2022

An announcement by the Mexican government about the largest seizure of illegal fentanyl in the country's history appeared to ignore…

DRUG POLICY / 10 MAY 2023

Mexico's regulations concerning precursor chemicals is strong on paper, but rampant corruption means this is essentially meaningless.

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…