The daughters of Mayo Zambada under the scrutiny of US investigations for money laundering

U.S. authorities have kept the daughters of ‘El Mayo’ Zambada under surveillance for years, focusing on their possible links to illicit financial operations connected to the Sinaloa Cartel. Following Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada García’s guilty plea on August 25, 2025, in a federal court in Brooklyn, New York, attention on his family, particularly his daughters, has intensified even more.

Zambada admitted to U.S. courts his role as the leader of the criminal organization from 1989 to 2024. His sentencing is scheduled for April 13, 2026, when a judge will determine the sentence he faces after decades leading the cartel he co-founded with Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán. But while the legal fate of ‘El Mayo’ is being decided, his daughters remain on the radar of U.S. investigations for their alleged involvement in money laundering operations and suspicious financial transactions.

Family ties: Rosario Niebla and the daughters from the first marriage

In 1969, when Zambada García was just 19 and beginning to establish himself in the drug business, he married Rosario Niebla Cardoza, his first wife. They had five children: four daughters and one son. Among them is Jesús Vicente Zambada Niebla, known as ‘El Vicentillo’ (born May 10, 1975), who was extradited and later convicted in the United States.

However, the daughters of ‘El Mayo’ from this first marriage have also faced federal scrutiny. Their names and birth dates appear in U.S. intelligence reports as persons of interest in money laundering investigations. According to U.S. Department of the Treasury documents, these women may have indirectly participated in companies that were part of the financial structure used by the Sinaloa Cartel to launder money from its criminal operations.

Daughters under suspicion: María Teresa, Midiam Patricia, Mónica, and Modesta

María Teresa Zambada, the oldest daughter, was born on June 17, 1969. According to U.S. Treasury documents, she has been linked to criminal activities through her involvement in businesses identified as part of the cartel’s money laundering network.

Midiam Patricia and Mónica del Rosario are also of interest to authorities. Midiam Patricia was born on March 4, 1971, and Mónica del Rosario was born on March 2, 1980. Both faced sanctions in 2019 related to money laundering investigations, though they were later removed from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) blacklist.

Modesta Zambada, born November 22, 1982, is the youngest of the group. Although she has maintained a more discreet profile than her sisters, her name appears in journalistic reports as part of the family circles under surveillance, presumably for business activities connected to the cartel.

In a 2010 interview with journalist Julio Scherer, ‘El Mayo’ revealed details about his family life that help contextualize why his daughters attract investigative interest. The drug trafficker confessed to living with six women: his wife and five others, as well as having fifteen grandchildren and a great-grandchild. “They, the six of them, are here, on the ranches, they are children of the land like me,” he said at the time, suggesting the deep integration of the family into the cartel world.

The succession of the empire: other children of El Mayo in the cartel structure

Beyond the five children he had with Rosario Niebla, ‘El Mayo’ fathered children with different romantic partners. Among these other children is Ismael Zambada Sicairos, nicknamed ‘El Mayito Flaco,’ who is considered by U.S. analysts as one of the potential successors to the cartel leadership and head of the faction called La Mayiza after his father’s fall.

Zambada Sicairos is the son of María del Refugio Sicairos Aispuro, one of ‘El Mayo’s’ known partners. Since 2013, he has appeared on the DEA’s most-wanted list, and he was even named “fugitive of the week” in 2023, highlighting his strategic importance to U.S. authorities.

Other known children of the drug trafficker include Ismael Zambada Imperial, aka ‘El Mayito Gordo,’ who was granted parole in 2022, and Serafín Zambada Ortiz, known as ‘El Sera,’ who was released in 2022 for “good conduct.” The dispersal of his children across different levels of the criminal network and the U.S. penal system reflects the complexity of the family web that ‘El Mayo’ built over decades leading the Sinaloa Cartel.