The guilty plea comes a year after Zambada was extradited to the US from Mexico to face drug-trafficking, firearms and money laundering charges, which could have carried the death penalty.
This month, US prosecutors said they would not seek capital punishment for Zambada.
Zambada and Guzman led a violent network that kidnapped and murdered people in both the US and Mexico and imported vast quantities of fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamines and cocaine into the US.
Zambada is accused of helping lead the group from 1989 until 2024.
Bribed police, politicians
Zambada, 75, said the cartel paid bribes to further its success, “to policemen, military members, and politicians”.
“The organisation I led promoted corruption in my own country,” he said.
“The payments of these bribes goes back to the beginning when I was a young man starting out and continued throughout the years of the cartel. I recognise the great harm that illegal drugs have done to the people of the US and in Mexico.”
Prosecutor Francisco Navarro said in a letter to the court that Zambada, who eluded capture for decades, was arrested at a local airport in New Mexico and later transferred to El Paso to face charges there.
News reports said at the time he was lured to the US from Mexico by El Chapo’s son, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, who is also facing US charges.
President Claudia Sheinbaum said the US did not properly inform Mexican authorities before Zambada’s arrest. Her Government has blamed the move for leading to ongoing violence in the state of Sinaloa, as factions of the cartel wage bloody battles against one another.
Sheinbaum was asked today at a press conference if she had any concerns about what Zambada might say about Mexico as part of his court case, and she said that she wasn’t worried, and that anything he said would have to be verified.
Another son of El Chapo, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, separately pleaded guilty in July to US charges including engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise and conspiring to distribute drugs.
He agreed to co-operate with US authorities and testify for the government in “any criminal, civil or administrative proceeding”.
During his plea, Guzman Lopez admitted he and his three brothers - known as “the Chapitos” - assumed leadership of the cartel after their father’s arrest.
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