As the Trump administration continues to ramp up their war on Latino communities by having ICE harass brown-skinned people across America (including Puerto Rico) while sending U.S. warships to Venezuela in an apparent attempt to intimidate their Trump-hating president, Nicolás Maduro, news broke that the Trump DOJ actually abided by the law when they brought a notorious drug lord to justice this week.
According to CNN, former Mexican drug kingpin, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada pleaded guilty to U.S. drug trafficking charges in a Brooklyn federal court on Monday (Aug. 25) and actually apologized for his role in getting drugs such as cocaine across the border and onto the streets of the U.S. “I recognize the great harm illegal drugs have done to the people in the United States and Mexico,” Zambada said through a Spanish-language interpreter, according to CNN. “I apologize for all of it, and I take responsibility for my actions.”
Serving under the notorious Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and his Sinaloa drug cartel, Zambada became a major player in the world of drug trafficking and will now have to serve whatever sentence he’s hit with going forward.
CNN reports:
In pleading guilty, Zambada acknowledged the extent of the Sinaloa operation, including underlings who built relationships with cocaine producers in Colombia, oversaw the importation of cocaine to Mexico by boat and plane and the smuggling of the drug across the U.S.-Mexico border. He acknowledged that people working for him paid bribes to Mexican police and military commanders “so they could operate freely,” going all the way back to when the cartel was just starting out.
Known as the Sinaloa’s “strategist and dealmaker,” the 77-year-old Zambada was originally facing the death penalty before prosecutors took that off the table, which led to Zambada pleading guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy and one count of running a continuing criminal enterprise. He faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison, which is expected to be handed down on his Sept. 13 court date.
The guilty plea comes a year after Zambada says he was kidnapped by El Chapo’s son, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, and brought to the U.S. against his will as Lopez attempted to negotiate his own deal with U.S. authorities by handing over one of his biggest lieutenants.
Interestingly enough, 17 members of El Chapo’s family were granted entrance into the U.S. as part of the negotiations earlier this year. What that might’ve cost the family or what the Trump administration got from them is anyone’s guess, but we wouldn’t be surprised if a certain orange dictator made bank off a family whose net worth is estimated at slightly over $1 billion.
Do with that information what you may.
What do y’all think about the Trump administration’s takedown of one of El Chapo’s biggest soldiers? Let us know in the comments section below.
