The notorious drug lord led the feared Sinaloa Cartel alongside the equally notorious Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
Zambada was arrested in Texas in 2024 and chose to cooperate with authorities, including confessing to crimes committed over decades to avoid the death penalty. He is believed to have been the organisation's strategist - but also responsible for directing its assassins, known as sicarios, to kill opponents.
Guzmán was also sentenced to life in prison in 2019, in the same courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, where 76-year-old Zambada was convicted of his crimes.
