Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti Delivers Remarks on Guilty Plea of Ismael Zambada Garcia in the Eastern District of New York

Good afternoon. My name is Matthew Galeotti, and I am the Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, and a former Assistant United States Attorney here in the Eastern District of New York.

Today marks another milestone in the Department of Justice’s relentless efforts towards the total elimination of cartels. One of the most notorious narco-terrorists of all-time, Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada, was convicted in a U. S. courtroom, having confessed to more than three decades of crime in service to the ruthless Sinaloa Cartel that he co-founded.

For decades, the Sinaloa Cartel – under El Mayo’s leadership – made billions of dollars by importing dangerous drugs to the United States – intensifying the drug epidemic in our communities by flooding our streets with cocaine, heroin, and deadly fentanyl.

Today, El Mayo admitted to crimes of a staggering scope, including leading a sprawling criminal enterprise that distributed more than 1. 5 million kilograms of cocaine, in addition to the various other drugs he sent over our border, made corrupt payments in order to operate with impunity, and protected Sinaloa’s operations by ordering acts of extreme violence, leaving a trail of human suffering, including innocent victims who became collateral damage. Pursuant to his guilty plea, El Mayo will spend the rest of his life in prison and forfeit $15 billion to the United States.

Results like this are not possible without the prosecutors and agents who have done an extraordinary job building the case, piece-by-piece, and following it through to completion.

This is another significant result, under Attorney General Bondi’s leadership, in the Department’s unparalleled drive to eliminate cartels. As part of that effort, we have seen:

More than 50 high-ranking cartel leaders expelled to face justice in American courtrooms — collectively, one of the greatest takedowns in history by U. S. law enforcement. 

The leaders of foreign terrorist organizations, such as the United Cartels, have been indicted.

Leaders of the CJNG cartel have been convicted, and others have been charged with new crimes, including material support to terrorism.

Today’s guilty plea is a credit to the collaboration between the Criminal Division’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section, the U. S. Attorney’s Offices for the Eastern District of New York, the Southern District of Florida, and the Western District of Texas, and our law enforcement partners, among others around the country. In particular, I’d like to recognize Trial Attorneys Jayce Born and Kirk Handrich as well as Supervisory Paralegal Angela Jimenéz, from the Criminal Division’s Narcotics and Dangerous Drug Section, for their exceptional work on this case.

The Attorney General has made clear that the Department’s goal is eradicating the harms caused by cartels from American communities. And the Department is quickly making historic progress towards achieving just that.

Thank you.