“El Mayo” guilty plea promotes Trump’s cartel crackdown efforts

Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, co-founder Sinaloa Cartelas the Trump administration stepped up efforts to demolish the cartel, will face the rest of his life.

Zambada, 75, admitted in a Brooklyn court Monday that he had coordinated with Mexican officials for decades of smuggling drugs into the United States and eventually pleaded guilty as chief leader of ongoing criminal businesses and conspiracy plots.

The Trump administration has pledged to revoke the cartel – experts predict that Zambada’s guilty plea paves more prosecutions for the Department of Justice’s road to higher high-profile cartel members and puts additional pressure on Mexico to comply with US requirements.

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Brian Townsend, a retired supervising agent for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), told Fox News Digital Archite. “I hope he can use this moment to gather the public for more aggressive cross-border operations and take stricter measures against Mexico.”

“Zambada admitted in court that for decades he paid off the Mexican general, governor and politician,” Townsend said. “These are words directly from the mouths of the world’s largest drug traffickers. It confirms what we have seen for decades: Mexican institutions have been deeply compromised.”

Zambada’s plea deal requires the cartel boss to confiscate $15 billion. Meanwhile, Zambada’s attorney Frank Perez said in a statement Monday that the cartel boss would not comply with U.S. government officials, indicating that he was unwilling to disclose any information about the cartel system to the United States.

“The agreement he reached with the U.S. authorities is a matter of public record,” Perez said in a statement. “This is not a cooperation agreement and I can clearly say that he has no agreement with the U.S. government or any other government.”

Fox News Digital was unable to contact Perez for comment.

The Trump administration has taken action to combat the cartels and was designated in February as Sinaloa, Trent de Alagua and others for foreign terrorist groups. Doing so will prevent these groups from using the U.S. financial system to hinder their ability to operate.

Mexico extraditions 26 top cartel leaders to Trump administration deal

Undated police handouts show Ismael Zambada. (Procuraduria General de la Republica/enternout of Reuters/Archive Photos)

In addition, the Trump administration has reached an agreement with Mexico Send 26 high-end cartel figures to the United States in August – Including some that have connections to Sinaloa.

Townsend predicts that more Justice Department indictments will follow.

“I think we will push for broader collaboration from Mexico, more prosecutions,” Townsend said. “We have proven that we need to extradite these people to the United States for prosecution. We have the resources, criminal investigations. So I want to see a broader Justice Department prosecution to re-examine the overall leadership of Sinaloa and other cartels for that, and how we can make more charges and more charges against these key players.”

Meanwhile, other actions the Trump administration may take may involve the U.S. military. The New York Times reported that Trump signed an order to target military operations against the cartel.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that although Mexico will “cooperate” with the United States, “Invasion” is impossible.

The Justice Department accused five so-called Mexican cartel leaders touting “extraordinary police” and led to prosecution

Interstate highways hundreds of miles from the border are used to transport drugs across the United States (Fox News)

Nathan Jones, a nonresident drug policy and Mexican research scholar at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, said that although Zambada’s guilty plea does put additional pressure on Mexico to comply with the U.S. demands, even though Mexico’s U.S. military is seen as a violation of Mexican power.

“For Mexico, you have a very sensitive issue, and boots on the ground without permission are very problematic,” Jones told Fox News Digital Tuesday. “But there are some ways that the Mexican government can do without violating its sovereignty. Working with the United States, U.S. law enforcement can exist.”

Zambada’s verdict was scheduled to be held in January, and he faced a mandatory minimum life imprisonment for leading an ongoing criminal business and was sentenced to jail on allegations of extortion, the Justice Department said.

Attorney General “This foreign terrorist committed horrible crimes against the American people – he will now pay for these crimes by spending the rest of his life in U.S. prison.” Pam Bondi said in a statement Monday. “Today, this is a crucial victory in President Trump’s fight to completely eliminate foreign terrorist organizations and protect U.S. citizens from deadly drugs and violence.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.