Mexican cartel boss likely gave US info on Venezuela drug boats: source
Daily News Article — Posted on September 17, 2025
NOTES:
The Sinaloa Cartel is known for being one of the largest and most powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world, primarily smuggling fentanyl, cocaine, and other drugs into the U.S. To protect its criminal empire and control territory, the Sinaloa Cartel uses extreme violence against rivals, law enforcement, and civilians
The Cartel de los Soles is a network of corrupt Venezuelan military and government officials known for facilitating drug trafficking and money laundering. The Cartel de los Soles facilitates the transport of cocaine from Colombia through Venezuela to international markets. Corrupt officials provide cover for drug flights and control key border checkpoints. The organization uses violence to maintain control and silence critics.
(by Isabel Vincent, NY Post) – Information leading to the Trump administration’s deadly military strikes against boats in the Caribbean — including one on Monday that left three “drug traffickers” dead — has been traced back to an unlikely source: One of Mexico’s most notorious cartel bosses, sources told The Post.
Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, 77, the former co-head of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, made a deal with the government last month, agreeing to plead guilty to drug trafficking, plotting murders and torture in exchange for life in prison rather than the death penalty.
“It’s clear to me that El Mayo Zambada cut some deals with the US government, and tipped them off about how Venezuela’s Cartel de los Soles was working with the Sinaloa Cartel to sell drugs,” said Robert Almonte, a Texas-based security consultant and former deputy chief of the El Paso Police Department who specialized in narcotics.
“Shortly after the government cut a deal with El Mayo, Trump sent battleships to Venezuela,” he noted.
The timing of the August plea deal coincided with President Trump’s threats against the government of leader Nicolas Maduro, who was indicted on drug trafficking charges for allegedly heading up the cartel along with other prominent members of his government in 2020.
In July, the federal Treasury Department sanctioned the Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns), accusing it of narcoterrorism.
On Monday, the US military targeted a boat the US administration said was carrying illegal drugs in international waters off the coast of Venezuela, killing three.
Earlier this month, the US carried out another deadly strike against what Trump described as a “drug-carrying” boat off the coast of Venezuela, killing 11 people. The first bombing took place days after the US deployed war ships to the coast of the South American country in August.
The source of information about these boats is likely Zambada who, in addition to overseeing the production of cocaine and heroin, was in charge of international logistics for the Sinaloa cartel, including moving drugs to the US and coordinating with partners in Colombia and Venezuela, Almonte said.
Zambada also may have ratted out some other high-level traffickers in the Sinaloa Cartel. On Tuesday, the Department of State announced a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Juan Jose Ponce Felix (“El Ruso”) who now heads the Cartel.
“Ponce Felix is the right arm of El Mayo,” said Almonte. “I’m thinking Zambada explained how far El Ruso is involved in the cartel in his debriefing to the feds.”
Earlier this month, agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration arrested 170 alleged members of the Sinaloa cartel in New England. They also seized 245 kilos of drugs and dozens of weapons as well as $11 million in cash, according to reports.
While Zambada has been spared the death penalty, according to a DOJ press release, it’s unclear if the US has promised him anything else in return for his info. Almonte said he would also likely have attempted to negotiate for protection for his family in Mexico as part of the bargain.
“There’s no doubt about it,” said Almonte. “Zambada cut a deal, and gave the government all he knew about Venezuela and the US is acting on it. There’s a new sheriff in town. This administration is serious about stopping the deadly flow of drugs into our country.”
A lawyer for Zambada did not return The Post’s request for comment on Monday.
Zambada helped create the Sinaloa Cartel in 1987 alongside the infamous Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who is currently serving a life sentence at a maximum security facility in Colorado following his conviction on drug trafficking and murder.
Unlike Guzman — who was twice jailed in Mexico but escaped both times, before being caught and extradited to the US in 2017 — Zambada evaded capture for nearly 40 years.
Zambada was arrested last year when he was duped into boarding a plane in Mexico that delivered him to US authorities in Texas. In a letter written from prison, Zambada maintained that he was “kidnapped and brought to the US forcibly and against my will.”
In addition to Zambada, one of El Chapo’s sons, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, pleaded guilty to drug trafficking in a July plea deal.
The Cartel de los Soles “provided material support” to the Sinaloa Cartel as well as Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan criminal gang that has engaged in both human and drug trafficking, according to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
In addition to targeting drug trafficking in Venezuela, Almonte says the Trump administration also wants to destabilize Maduro’s government, and force the Marxist leader to step down.
Maduro was sworn in for a third term in January amid claims of widespread voter fraud.
“And I bet you everyone in that country is going to welcome the US military,” Almonte told The Post.
For his part, Maduro has ordered Venezuelans to train as part of militias to fight off any US attack.
Published at NYPost on Sept. 17. Reprinted here for educational purposes only. May not be reproduced on other websites without permission.
Questions
1. a) Who is El Mayo Zambada?
b) What deal did he make with the U.S. government?
2. a) Who is Robert Almonte?
b) For what reasons does he believe El Mayo ratted out Venezuela's Cartel de los Soles as well as some fellow Sinaloa Cartel members?
3. In addition to the Venezuelan drug trafficking vessels, what arrests did the DEA make against Sinaloa narcoterrorists in New England earlier this month?
4. a) Unlike "El Chapo" Guzman — who was twice jailed in Mexico but escaped both times, before being caught and extradited to the US in 2017 — Zambada had evaded capture until last year. How many years did it take American authorities to capture him?
b) How was he finally caught?
5. Scare quotes are quotation marks that writers place around a word or phrase to express skepticism (doubt as to the truth of something).
Scare quotes signal the writer’s disapproval or skepticism towards the enclosed term, which is an opinion not appropriate for a news report aiming to inform objectively.
Read the "Background" and watch the videos under "Resources" below. Then re-read paragraph 1.
Why do you think the reporter uses scare quotes around the term drug traffickers?
6. President Trump has made the total elimination of drug traffickers and cartels a central policy goal of his second administration, fulfilling a vow he made during his 2024 presidential campaign. His administration has designated various cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and authorized the use of military force against them.
In his address to the nation a month after being inaugurated for his second term, the president said,
“The territory to the immediate south of our border is now dominated entirely by criminal cartels that murder, rape, torture, and exercise total control -- they have total control over a whole nation [Mexico] -- posing a grave threat to our national security. The cartels are waging war in America, and it's time for America to wage war on the cartels, which we are doing.”
Do you agree with President Trump's determination to totally eliminate drug traffickers and cartels? Explain your answer.
"For decades, under El Mayo’s leadership, the Sinaloa Cartel made billions of dollars by importing poisonous drugs to the United States, flooding our streets with cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl..."
El Mayo Zambada's arrest and prosecution "are part of [the Trump administration's] Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime."
From a September 16 Newsweek report:
Earlier this month, the U.S. carried out a missile strike on a boat...carrying drugs and operated by the Venezuela-based Tren de Aragua cartel, which the President Trump designated a terrorist organization by executive order at the start of the year. That strike killed 11 drug traffickers.
The strike, which took place in the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) area of responsibility, was announced by the president in a message on Truth Social, where Trump warned of further action against drug traffickers targeting Americans.
In the same post, Trump...called the Venezuelan cartels"a threat to U.S. National Security, Foreign Policy, and vital U.S. Interests."
Trump then said Monday that the U.S. military conducted a "kinetic strike" against another drug cartel boat from socialist-controlled Venezuela.
"This morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a SECOND Kinetic Strike against positively identified, extraordinarily violent drug trafficking cartels and narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility," Trump posted. He confirmed that three men aboard were killed, adding, "No U.S. Forces were harmed in this Strike."
The three drug traffickers aboard the vessel were killed.
The president also Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday after another U.S. strike on a drug boat in the Caribbean—the third now, he said—in his war against the cartels. ...
"Stop sending Tren de Aragua into the United States," Trump told reporters as he left the White House on Tuesday, September 16, referring to the Venezuelan drug gang, designated a terror organization in the U.S. "Stop sending drugs into the United States."
"I would say to him very strongly: Stop sending people from your prisons into our country," Trump said in a message to Maduro.
