El Mayo, the infamous Mexican drug lord, to be sentenced on federal charges
Members of the DEA attend a press conference at the U.S. Attorney’s Office on August 25, 2025 in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Ismael Zambada Garcia, known as “El Mayo,” will be sentenced Monday in a New York City federal court on drug trafficking charges that accused him of being one of the most prolific and powerful narcotraffickers in the world.
Together with Joaquín Guzmán Loera, known as “El Chapo,” he founded the Sinaloa cartel and oversaw the shipment of millions of kilograms of lethal drugs, including cocaine, fentanyl, and methamphetamine. He employed armed sicarios who assaulted, tortured, and murdered and he paid millions in bribes at all levels of the Mexican government, officials said.
“It would be difficult to overstate the magnitude of the defendant’s crimes and scale of the corruption, violence, and other harm he spread throughout Mexico, the United States, and the world,” federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said in a sentencing memo that called for life in prison.
The sentence is not in doubt. El Mayo pleaded guilty last August to a charge of committing a continuing criminal enterprise, a catch-all that included 85 violations of the law, and agreed to the mandatory life imprisonment along with a $15 billion forfeiture.
As part of his plea, El Mayo, 76, admitted he was responsible for at least 1.5 million kilograms of cocaine and vast quantities of heroin and fentanyl.
Federal prosecutors said El Mayo represents “serious security concerns” that must be considered when the judge recommends a prison where he will serve his sentence.
“The defendant is the co-founder of one of the world’s most violent criminal organizations, and for decades directed its operations, including its violence. Moreover, many members of the Cartel remain loyal to the defendant, including one of the defendant’s sons, who remains a key leader of the defendant’s faction of the Cartel in the defendant’s absence,” federal prosecutors said.
The defense noted that El Mayo spared the judicial system a trial and “helped protect the safety of potential witnesses who will not need to be disclosed or called to testify.”
In a statement, El Mayo said he recognized the “grave harm that illegal drugs have done to the people of the United States, of Mexico and elsewhere.” He also said he recognized the “human toll of the violence and lawlessness that my criminal organization engaged in.”
El Mayo said he took responsibility for his role in all of it and apologized to “everyone who has suffered or been affected by my actions.”
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during an event in the Oval Office of the White House on May 21, 2026, in Washington, DC. Trump announced an extension of Biden-era EPA deadlines for the phase-out of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) under the 2023 Technology Transitions Rule, claiming that phasing out deadlines and exempting road refrigeration equipment would lower grocery prices. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(ESCONDIDO, Calif.) — A 69-year-old Southern California man known for the display of American flags and Make America Great Again memorabilia he kept in his front yard has died, days after being attacked and beaten outside his home, authorities said.
Kerry George Sheron, whose family members said was an Army veteran and a supporter of President Donald Trump, was assaulted last week outside his Escondido residence that locals dubbed the “Trump House.”
Sheron was pronounced dead at a hospital on Sunday, according to a statement from the Escondido Police Department.
Thomas Caleb Butler, 32, of Escondido and served in the Navy was arrested in connection with the incident, police said.
Police have yet to comment on a possible motive.
According to military service records provided by the Navy to ABC News, Butler enlisted in the Navy in December 2011. He served as an information systems technician and was discharged in January 2023, records show.
Butler was being held without bail on Wednesday at the San Diego County Jail, where he was booked on May 21, on suspicion of attempted murder, elder abuse, making criminal threats and battery, according to online jail records.
“The case is in the process of being presented to the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office, which is reviewing the circumstances to determine whether charges will be amended,” police said.
The cause and manner of Sheron’s death are pending an autopsy by the San Diego County Medical Examiner.
In a GoFundMe campaign that as of Wednesday afternoon has raised more than $40,500 to cover Sheron’s funeral expenses, family members called the incident that claimed Sheron’s life “brutal and unprovoked.”
Sheron’s wife, Maria Garcia, told ABC San Diego affiliate station KGTV that she wants her husband to be remembered as a man of service and faith.
“I want to remember my husband, you know, how he was [a] very good man, you know, [his] service in the church, service in the army,” said Garcia, who called her husband “my hero.”
Jim Gillie, one of Sheron’s friends, told KGTV that Sheron’s front-yard MAGA decorations had been targeted in the past.
“Back in March, people came through with razor blades and cut up a bunch of Kerry’s flags,” Gillie said. “Kerry was used to it because he’d come out here with his Trump signs and stuff during the week and flags, and people would drive by and honk and wave, and most of the people are good, but when someone would flip him off, he’d just look at me and say, they have their right to freedom of speech, too.”
Escondido police said the incident with Sheron unfolded around 2:14 p.m. on May 20, when officers were called to Sheron’s home to investigate a report that an assault had just occurred.
“Upon arrival, officers located an elderly male suffering from significant injuries,” police said in a statement. “A bystander who intervened during the incident was also injured. Officers learned the suspect had fled the area on foot prior to their arrival.”
Sheron was taken to a hospital in critical condition, police said.
Officers immediately searched Sheron’s neighborhood and located Butler, who matched the description of the person witnesses said attacked Sheron, according to the statement.
Tanya Sierra, a spokesperson for the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office, told ABC News on Wednesday that an announcement on whether to amend the charges against Butler is expected to be made at the suspect’s next court date on June 3.
President’s House Site, Memorial Wall. The names of the nine enslaved members of President Washington’s household who lived at this site. (NPS)
(WASHINGTON) — As the city of Philadelphia fights to preserve the slavery memorial at the President’s House, a federal appeals court ruled that the Trump administration can remove and replace the exhibit at the site of President George Washington’s former home.
The Thursday ruling comes after the Trump administration stated in a court filing on Wednesday that it removed panels at the exhibit — some of which were restored in February following a judge’s order — because they allegedly “disparage” Americans.
The outdoor memorial, “From Enslavement to Emancipation,” is located at Independence National Historic Park. The exhibit tells the stories of the nine people enslaved by Washington.
The unanimous appeals court decision tosses a February district court ruling that ordered the National Parks Service (NPS) to restore the panels that were removed from the site. NPS took down the outdoor memorial in January before it was partially restored in February after a district court ruling, but not all materials were returned to the site.
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that while the city had standing to sue, the lower court wrongly interpreted the contract claims brought by the city and determined that they don’t have merit.
“In sum, the City has standing to sue because it alleges that its contractual rights were violated, but we should not, as the District Court did, mistake that jurisdictional determination for a conclusion that the City’s underlying statutory and contract claims have merit. They do not,” the appeals court ruling said.
ABC News reached out to the city of Philadelphia but requests for comment were not immediately returned.
Asked about the appeals court ruling and about a potential timeline for replacing the exhibit, a spokesperson for the Interior Department on Thursday provided ABC News with a three-word statement: “Trust in Trump.”
The city of Philadelphia argued in a lawsuit filed in January that by removing the panels “without notice,” NPS violated various congressional laws, as well as a 2006 agreement NPS made with the city and laid out the terms for building the exhibit, which opened to the public in 2010.
Amid pending litigation, NPS shared proposed changes to the panels at the slavery memorial that were published on its website in April.
The images shared by NPS don’t show photos of the original panels, but share proposed new panels and revised text. Of note, are proposed changes to the panels titled “Presidents Washington and Adams on Slavery,” and “The Constitution and Slavery.”
The appeals court’s ruling said, “These new panels are full of historical context. They highlight the momentous events that took place in the President’s House and the other sites at Independence National Historical Park. They acknowledge the evil of slavery, including its injustices and hypocrisies, and, by telling the story of the nine slaves that Washington kept in the President’s House, remind us of their essential humanity.”
The ruling added, “Given all these developments, we cannot agree with the District Court that the exhibit removal six months ago was NPS’s last word on the matter.”
Avenging the Ancestors Coalition (ATAC), the advocacy group founded by attorney Michael Coard in 2002 to advocate for the building of the memorial, criticized the [proposed changes in an April statement, calling the replacement panels “deeply offensive.”
“The National Park Service’s most recent posting of proposed replacement panels at the President’s House Slavery Memorial is deeply offensive and represents yet another troubling attempt to distort and censor American history,” the group’s statement said, criticizing NPS for not consulting with ATAC before proposing the new panels.
“What we are seeing now is not restoration–it is revision,” ATAC’s statement added. “It is an attempt to sanitize history and present a version of the past that is more comfortable, but far less truthful.”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Interior Dept. told ABC News in a statement on April 9 that the changes underscore the administration’s commitment to “celebrating and acknowledging the full breadth of our nation’s history.”
“The hard work and sacrifices of the men and women who built this nation deserve to be remembered and honored,” the spokesperson said. “By telling the full story, every triumph, every challenge, and every step towards a more perfect union we strengthen our shared understanding and ensure that future generations inherit not just the land we love, but the truth of the journey that brought us here.”
The Interior Department told ABC News in several statements that the removal of the exhibit was made in compliance with a March 27, 2025, executive order in which President Donald Trump ordered the Interior Dept. to remove content that cast the United States’ “founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light.”
In the public filing on Wednesday, which stems from a separate lawsuit challenging the removal of materials at national parks across the country, the Interior Department indicated that while most glass panels at the slavery exhibit were restored in February after a judge’s order, the “large format metal panels were damaged and not restored.”
The government did not specify in the list the process for recreating the metal panels, writing “TBD” in that section.
Federal authorities say this explosive device was found at a TSA checkpoint at the Sacramento International Airport on May 30, 2026. (TSA)
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — A man was arrested and faces a federal charge after an explosive device was allegedly found in his carry-on bag at a California airport, federal authorities said.
Kimani Osayande Jones, 49, was detained at the Sacramento International Airport on Saturday after attempting to go through a security checkpoint, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
Jones was “wearing a scarf covering his face and latex gloves on his hands” at the time, TSA said in a press release on Wednesday.
In his carry-on bag, he had an M-type explosive device — meaning an improvised explosive — and a “torch lighter capable of lighting the explosive,” TSA said.
His carry-on bag also contained a knife, scissors, scissor blades, an aerosol can and zip ties, according to an affidavit in support of the complaint.
He was traveling with five cellphones, one of which had a 15-minute timer ready to start and another with a message from an unidentified number on the screen stating, “we will be awaiting your call,” according to the affidavit.
Bomb technicians safely removed the device, and upon further examination, its powder and fuse were found to be “viable and energetic,” TSA said. If it had detonated mid-air near a window on a plane, the device had the “potential to damage the aircraft and cause a possible loss of cabin pressure,” the agency said.
Jones, of Sacramento, has been federally charged with unlawful possession of explosive material at an airport. If convicted, he faces five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
He is being held without bail at the Sacramento County Jail on a federal hold, online jail records show. Online court records do not list any future court dates or any attorney information for him.
Jones’ luggage was also screened at the airport prior to being loaded onto an American Airlines flight headed to Charlotte, North Carolina, and did not trigger anything suspicious, according to the affidavit. Upon arrival in Charlotte, a search of his bag and an inspection of all luggage from the plane using specialized canines found nothing concerning, it said.
According to the affidavit, local authorities had prior contact with Jones, who “had a history of being paranoid.” A man believed to be Jones had previously reached out to the FBI tip line 13 times this year, including the day of his arrest, to report that he was being threatened and intimidated, according to the filing.
