Mexican President Sheinbaum Celebrates Guilty Plea Of 'El Mayo' Zambada In The U.S.: 'They Said They Were Impossible To Get'

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum celebrated the guilty plea of Sinaloa Cartel co-founder Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, saying detractors were saying her administration was "chasing shadows."

"When we started, we were told we were chasing shadows," Sheinbaum added. She went on to say that the guilty plea marks the "collapse of the empire," referring to the fact that Zambada co-founded the Sinaloa Cartel. Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the other co-founder of the cartel, has been in prison for years at a Colorado maximum security facility.

Zambada pleaded guilty on Monday to leading the Sinaloa Cartel for decades. He admitted to two federal charges and revealed that for years he bribed politicians, police officers and members of the military in Mexico to protect his cartel's operations.

"El Mayo" went on to say that the Sinaloa Cartel's success depended on high-level corruption. "The organization I led fostered corruption in my home country by paying police, military commanders and politicians who allowed us to operate freely," Zambada said. "It goes back to the very beginning when I was a young man starting out and it continued for all those years."

Zambada changed his initial plea, considering he said he wasn't guilty in September last year. The change comes just weeks after U.S. authorities decided they will not seek the death penalty in Zambada's case, a move that appears to have catalyzed the agreement.

Officials in the U.S. also celebrated the plea, with Attorney General Pam Bondi saying the drug lord "will spend the rest of his life behind bars and die in a U.S. prison, where he belongs." "His plea takes us a step closer towards our goal of eliminating drug cartels and international criminal organizations," she added.

In addition to Zambada himself, other aging cartel figures, like Rafael Caro Quintero, were similarly spared, suggesting a broader prosecutorial strategy of encouraging plea deals. His sentencing will take place on January 13 next year.