Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, co-founder of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel and one of the world’s most notorious drug traffickers, has reached a plea agreement with U.S. prosecutors and will change his plea to guilty, according to a court order filed Monday in New York. U.S. District Judge Brian M. Cogan converted a previously scheduled preliminary hearing on 25 August into a change-of-plea session in Brooklyn federal court. Zambada, 77, faces 17 counts that accuse him of smuggling large quantities of cocaine, heroin, fentanyl and other narcotics into the United States, ordering murders and kidnappings, and laundering drug proceeds. Prosecutors earlier this month informed the court they would not pursue the death penalty. The agreement spares Zambada a high-profile trial and could lead to a lighter sentence than the life term imposed on his former partner Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán in 2019. Zambada was arrested on 25 July 2024 after arriving by private plane in Texas with Guzmán’s son Joaquín Guzmán López. U.S. authorities say the Sinaloa cartel, under Zambada’s decades-long leadership, evolved into the world’s largest narcotics supplier, supported by a paramilitary security force and an arsenal of military-grade weapons.