El Mayo’s Quintana Roo Empire Exposed

QUINTANA ROO — Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a historic capo of Mexican drug trafficking, pleaded guilty in a Brooklyn court to having led an international drug network for more than half a century. The Sinaloa native, who has trafficked thousands of tons of cocaine since the 1970s and corrupted police, military, and political figures in Mexico to sustain his empire, apologized for the damage caused in his final statement before the judge.

His judicial downfall has reopened the hidden files on Quintana Roo, a state that was a key piece in the expansion of drug trafficking toward the United States.

Vicente Zambada: Bloodshed in Cancún

The life of El Mayo took a turn when his brother, Vicente Zambada, was executed inside his home in Cancún. This occurred during the 1990s, under the governorship of Mario Villanueva Madrid, a time when Quintana Roo became a refuge for drug lords and a strategic hub for drug trafficking.

The assassination shook the organization. Witnesses from that era recounted that El Mayo himself traveled to Cancún to bid him farewell, discreetly attending the burial at the Jardines de Paz funeral home. The ceremony, protected by a security cordon and under the complicit silence of the authorities, became an emblematic scene of the criminal power entrenched in the Mexican Caribbean.

The Capos' Attorney General

The funeral was reportedly guarded by Miguel de Jesús Peyrefitte Cupido, then the Attorney General of Quintana Roo. Years later, it was revealed that Peyrefitte was among the officials accused of protecting and favoring the operations of the Juárez Cartel, which was firmly established in Cancún under the political cover of Villanueva Madrid.

The story took a sinister turn in 2025 when Peyrefitte Cupido was found dead in a house in Cuautla, Morelos. Although the official report cited a "visceral infarction," confusion was immediate: for hours, the version circulated that the federal Attorney General's Office (PGR) would take over the case. The delegate of the Attorney General's Office in Morelos, Raúl González Duhart, even stated that it was a homicide. His death closed a chapter of impunity but also confirmed the ghosts that have haunted Quintana Roo for three decades.

The Shadow of Mario Villanueva

The name of Mario Villanueva Madrid, a former fugitive governor prosecuted for drug trafficking, remains linked to that era in which Cancún functioned as an enclave for organized crime. During his administration, capos from the Juárez Cartel and emissaries from Sinaloa operated with institutional protection, establishing a network of complicity that still resonates in federal case files today.

The assassination of Vicente Zambada, the heavily guarded funeral, and the protection of cartels are all pieces of a puzzle where politics and crime merged in the Caribbean.

Cancún: Tourism and Intertwined Crime

The tourist appeal of Quintana Roo was, paradoxically, its Achilles' heel. The air routes, ports, and hotel facade offered drug trafficking the opportunity to launder money, move shipments, and weave corruption networks. El Mayo Zambada, with his chameleon-like ability to adapt, knew how to exploit these gaps.

Today, as he faces justice in the United States, the lessons from Cancún remain relevant: organized crime imposes itself not only through violence but also by entrenching itself within institutions and camouflaging itself amidst luxury tourism.

The Echo of the Past

The story of El Mayo cannot be understood without Quintana Roo. The execution of Vicente Zambada in Cancún, the protection of officials like Peyrefitte Cupido, and the political power of Mario Villanueva are all part of the state's dark memory. While the capo asks for forgiveness in Brooklyn, his shadow continues to be cast over the Mexican Caribbean.

The routes, the complicities, and the ghosts of those years did not die; they remain, a reminder that behind Cancún's white sand beaches, part of Mexico's longest-lasting criminal empire was woven.