Mexican drug lord, Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada, has entered a guilty plea to two drug smuggling and conspiracy charges in a court in New York, bringing an end to one of the longest and most notorious criminal careers in the history of organised crime.
Zambada was not just any drug lord. He was the founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, for years the biggest and most powerful criminal organisation in Mexico - with an astonishing global reach.
Last year, he pleaded not guilty to a raft of drug smuggling, gun-running and money laundering offences. But now, he has changed his plea before a federal judge in Brooklyn.
In doing so, he officially accepted his role in creating the vast criminal network which has sent huge amounts of cocaine and other drugs into the US since he co-founded the cartel at the end of the 1980s.
The step comes weeks after US prosecutors confirmed they would not be seeking the death penalty against the 77-year-old Mexican kingpin.
Zambada was arrested in Texas last year following an extraordinary double-cross by the sons of his former ally, the jailed co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán.
At his height, Zambada was probably the most powerful drug lord in the world.
Now, in a US courtroom, one of the most enduring names in global drug trafficking has accepted his role at the top of one of the biggest and most sophisticated criminal networks in the world.
He is due to be sentenced in January 2026.
