Mexican drug kingpin ‘El Mayo’ had his own nephew killed for stealing from him, feds say

These are the real crime family values.

The ruthless ex- kingpin of the world’s biggest drug empire — who was once “El Chapo’s” right-hand man — had his own nephew killed for collecting debts without the boss’s blessing, federal prosecutors say.

The cruelty was revealed in court papers as Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia, 76, appeared Friday in a Brooklyn courtroom — where he pleaded not guilty to charges that he reigned for decades atop the notorious Mexican Sinaloa cartel.

US Magistrate Judge James Cho ordered Zambada held without bail after prosecutors said he ordered gruesome murders as recently as this year, including the killing of his nephew, Eliseo Imperial Castro, in May.

The alleged crime boss — who co-founded the cartel with the imprisoned and convicted Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán — ordered his nephew whacked after learning that he was collecting debts “purportedly” on his uncle’s behalf but “for his own benefit,” the feds said in a court filing.

Imperial Castro’s bullet-riddled body was discovered May 31 in a car by the side of the road in the northwestern Mexican city of Culiacán, local authorities said.

Mexican drug kingpin Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada claims he was ‘taken against my will’ on flight that handed him over to US authorities

The alleged assassination was par for the course for “El Mayo,” the feds say.

Before his July 25 arrest in El Paso, Texas, Zambada was “one of the most — if not the most — powerful narcotics kingpins in the world,” prosecutor Francisco Navarro said in court Friday.

“He controlled a veritable army of men ready to carry out violence on his orders,” Navarro said as Zambada, who wore a tan jail shirt, rocked slowly from side to side in a black rolling chair at the defense table with a blank expression on his face.

“He employed that power to kill rival cartel members, law enforcement officers, civilians, and even members of his own cartel,” Navarro added. “Assassinations, kidnappings, torture, extortion and bribery were tools of the trade.”

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Zambada also ordered the murders of at least three people in recent months as retaliation for a November 2023 theft of a large cache of the cartel’s fentanyl pills, methamphetamine and cocaine in Tijuana, the feds said in a court filing, in which they argued for the accused drug lord to be detained pending trial.

Struggling to put weight on his left leg, the alleged kingpin limped to the defense table Friday morning for his first appearance inside the same courthouse where his former partner, “El Chapo,” was convicted five years earlier.

Like “El Chapo,” “El Mayo” — whose moniker is a nickname for Ismael — is responsible for billions of dollars of drug money laundered in Mexico, millions in annual corruption payoffs to local officials, and countless kidnappings and murders since the late 1980s, prosecutors said.

Zambada didn’t say much during Friday’s court appearance, which lasted around 30 minutes.

“ Si, señor ,” he responded when Cho asked at the start of the hearing whether he was in fact Ismael Zambada Garcia.

When the judge asked him how he was doing, Zambada responded, through a Spanish-language interpreter, “Fine, fine.”

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The judge then read through a list of the 17 charges that Zambada faces, including an “operating a continuing criminal enterprise” rap that carries a mandatory life sentence, before Zambada entered his not guilty plea.

After the hearing finished, Zambada, who was uncuffed, again limped with the help of federal marshals toward the courtroom’s side door.

Other charges he’s facing include drug trafficking, murder conspiracy and money laundering. He’s due back in court on Oct. 31.

In a major coup for US law enforcement, Zambada was arrested alongside one of El Chapo’s sons, Joaquin Guzmán López, in July, after the small plane in which both men were traveling landed in El Paso.

US officials say Guzman Lopez tricked Zambada into boarding a small plane in Hermosillo, Mexico, that led to his arrest, under the guise of securing a real estate deal.

But according to a letter Zambada wrote from jail, which was shared by his lawyer, the alleged narcotics bigwig claims he was ambushed at a meeting in Culiacan, Mexico , and put on a three-hour flight to the US “against his will.”

“El Mayo” made an initial court appearance in Texas federal court in July before his case was transferred to Brooklyn, where it will be presided over by the same federal judge, Brian Cogan, who presided over the El Chapo case.

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