8 Most Wanted Drug Lords by DEA in 2020

6. Ismael Zambada

One of the few old school drug lords still out there is Ismael Zambada, who is 72 years old and still heading the Sinaloa cartel. Better known as El Mayo, he was initially a farmer who slowly entered the illegal drug trade, starting with smuggling small amounts of drugs at a time, maxing out at a few kilos. Well, small is relative for drug lords I guess. We earlier talked about Gallardo as the first true drug lord; his death saw his faction split and led to El Mayo, along with a few others which they called the Sinaloa cartel. When Mexico launched the war on drugs in 2006, it hurt El Mayo’s rivals, the Tijuana Cartel, faced the force of the Mexican government, allowing Zambada to grow significantly in this time, taking over rival turf. This led to a major Mexican drug war, which caused a lot of death and misery in Mexico.

Even though he has been wanted by Mexico since 1998, he has always managed to evade arrest. While heading the Sinaloa cartel with El Chapo, he took full control after El Chapo’s arrest and was actually the force behind the release of El Chapo’s son after arrest. If you want to learn more about how evil this man is and the destruction he’s paved over the years and decades, you should consider taking a look at the Netflix show ‘World’s Most Wanted’.

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