He Led The Sinaloa Cartel, Now He Writes Songs About It

The brother of legendary Sinaloa Cartel founder Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada is launching a new career as a narcocorrido singer. 

Jesús ‘El Rey’ Zambada was arrested in 2008 and extradited to the U.S. He was a key witness in the high-profile trial of Mexico’s former security chief, Genaro García Luna. The former high-level Sinaloa Cartel operative was released from prison in 2022 and is still under probation in the U.S. for the next five years. 

And now he wants to sing for a living. 

In an interview during which Zambada wore a bucket hat, sunglasses and a cholo-like mustache, he told Mexican musician and podcaster José ‘Pepe’ Garza on his show La Oficina [The Office] this week that his drug trafficking days are now over and wants to be a corridos songwriter. 

“I am no longer involved in crime or anything I was involved with in the past. Otherwise I wouldn’t be sitting here with you today,” Zambada said.  “I became a songwriter while in prison. God gave me a gift and I learned to exploit it. I also can sing and I like to sing.”

“El Rey” Zambada is the youngest brother of mythical drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a shadowy figure who founded the Sinaloa Cartel with Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán and has never been arrested. 

But after his youngest brother was detained, Mexican authorities revealed how El Rey controlled Mexico’s City airport from where he smuggled hundreds of tons of drugs into the U.S. When El Chapo broke out of prison in 2001, El Rey allegedly arranged to have him picked up in a helicopter and driven into the Mexican capital with a police escort for safekeeping, according to the details revealed by U.S. prosecutors during García Luna’s trial. 

El Rey said he started working for the Sinaloa Cartel after his brother (whom he calls dad) El Mayo, became a “public figure”. 

“I was working at a major company after graduating college. But when my bosses learned that I was El Mayo’s brother, they asked me to leave. After that I asked my brother for a job working alongside him,” he said. 

El Rey claimed Mexico City as his turf, which he protected via attacks against rivals. He also nurtured strong relationships with Mexico’s top politicians there, including Mexico’s former chief of police Genaro García Luna, according to U.S. prosecutors. 

García Luna is currently in a U.S. prison awaiting sentencing for drug charges. During his trial in January, El Rey served as the main witness and alleged he handed over millions of U.S. dollars to be able to run drugs through Mexico’s city airport. 

But now El Rey said he is “singing” in a more conventional style, like his debut track “El Prisionero” (The Prisoner). 

“You will soon see me as a free man. I’m paying what I owe the government. My name is El Rey Zambada and I was born in Sinaloa,” go the lyrics to his first song. 

The track tells his life story, from being born in Sinaloa to being arrested, extradited and held in isolation for over six years. 

“I wish everyone in prison that one day you could be free,” El Rey sings. 

At the end of his interview with José Garza, El Rey uses his last minutes to send a heartfelt hug to his infamous brother “El Mayo” in Sinaloa. 

“I know that we will never see each other again, because I would hate to cause him trouble for trying to communicate, so I would like to send him a big hug with all of my heart,” he said.