Mexican drug lord ‘El Mayo’ enters guilty plea

Published

1 week ago

August 25, 2025

Mexican drug lord, Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada, has entered a guilty plea to two drug smuggling and conspiracy charges in a court in New York, bringing an end to one of the longest and most notorious criminal careers in the history of organised crime.

Zambada was not just any drug lord.

He was the founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, for years the biggest and most powerful criminal organisation in Mexico – with an astonishing global reach.

Last year, he pleaded not guilty to a raft of drug smuggling, gun-running and money laundering offences. But now, he has changed his plea before a federal judge in Brooklyn.

In doing so, he officially accepted his role in creating the vast criminal network which has sent huge amounts of cocaine and other drugs into the US since he co-founded the cartel at the end of the 1980s.

The Associated Press reported that in court Zambada apologised for his actions.

“I recognise the great harm illegal drugs have done to the people in the United States and Mexico,” he said through a Spanish-language interpreter, the AP reported. “I apologise for all of it, and I take responsibility for my actions.”

Local Mexican media has also said that Zambada admitted “the organisation that I headed fed corruption in my country by paying police, military commanders and politicians who allowed us to operate freely.”

The step comes weeks after US prosecutors confirmed they would not be seeking the death penalty against the 77-year-old Mexican kingpin.

Zambada was arrested in Texas last year following an extraordinary double-cross by the sons of his former ally, the jailed co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán.

El Chapo was sentenced to life imprisonment in the same court in 2019.

After his arrest, the cartel splintered into two main factions: one led by El Mayo, and its rival, led by Guzman’s sons, known as ‘Los Chapitos’. The conflict between the two sides continues to rage, particularly in the state of Sinaloa itself.

In late July 2024, Zambada was allegedly lured to a meeting with one of El Chapo’s son, Joaquín Guzmán López.

Initial reports suggested Guzmán López then duped his rival into boarding a light aircraft, but Zambada later claimed he was ambushed and overpowered by Los Chapitos, and forcibly removed to Texas.

US law enforcement officials were waiting for the aircraft when it landed near El Paso and both men were immediately taken into custody.

By entering a guilty plea, Zambada is expected to receive a more lenient sentence. In his late 70s and reportedly in poor health, he may have reasoned that it was futile to continue to claim his innocence, especially given Guzmán’s conviction and life sentence in 2019.

“El Mayo will spend the rest of his life behind bars. He will die in a US federal prison where he belongs,” US Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters.

It was confirmed last year that both the Guzmán sons – Joaquín and his younger brother, Ovidio – were negotiating plea bargains with the US government.

In May, 17 members of the Guzmán family were escorted into the US by officials. Last month, Ovidio pleaded guilty in Chicago to multiple charges of drug smuggling and involvement in a continuing criminal enterprise.

At his height, Zambada was probably the most powerful drug lord in the world.

More shadowy than other kingpins – particularly El Chapo whose escapes from prison in 2001 and 2015 made headlines around the world – Zambada was no less ruthless or calculating.

For some five decades, he successfully evaded arrest or capture. During that time he oversaw the transport of vast quantities of heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine into the US via land, sea and air.

Now, in a US courtroom, one of the most enduring names in global drug trafficking has accepted his role at the top of the one of the biggest and most sophisticated criminal networks in the world.

He is due to be sentenced in January 2026.

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Billionaire family offices bet on drones, nuclear energy in August

Published

3 hours ago

September 4, 2025

Hayley Cuccinello

Key Points

Billionaire family offices inked high-profile investments in an otherwise slow month for deal-making, according to Fintrx.
Four billionaires’ private investment firms joined an $863 million fundraise for a nuclear fusion startup.
Peter Thiel, a longtime investor in defense tech, backed a German drone maker as other high-net-worth investors flock to the sector.

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Philips Hue launch turns bulbs into motion sensors, doorbell, more

Published

3 hours ago

September 4, 2025

Ben Lovejoy

We’ve known for some time that there was major news on the way from Philips Hue, and the company has now announced all of the details.

One of the headline features is a new Bridge Pro which turns your existing smart bulbs into motion sensors. Bulbs also get more affordable, light strips get brighter, and there’s support for Matter-over-Thread. Finally, the smart doorbell leaked earlier in the year is now official …

Plans to turn existing Philips Hue light bulbs into motion sensors were leaked at the beginning of this year. We also discovered there was a smart doorbell on the way through an update to the Hue app.

Turning existing Hue bulbs into motion sensors

Although you won’t need to update any of your bulbs to get this new functionality, you will need to swap out your existing Hue Bridge for the new Bridge Pro.

This is a $90 purchase, but there are some other new features to help ease the pain. The Verge reports that It can support three times as many devices and store over 500 lighting scenes to provide faster response times.

[It adds] features like lighting scenes, dynamic effects, schedules, and out-of-home control. Sporting a new black look, it has a faster processor, more memory, and increased capacity. Designed to appeal to Hue super-users, it can connect 150 lights and 50 accessories (a soft limit) […]

Additionally, the Pro can store over 500 custom lighting scenes and provide faster response times […] The Pro finally brings Wi-Fi (2.4GHz) to a Hue bridge, so it doesn’t have to sit next to your router.

If your head aches at the thought of reconfiguring all your Hue devices to swap bridges, the company says that a migration tool will transfer all of the settings for you. If you have multiple bridges, then you’ll want to hold fire for a while as there will be support for migrating these to a single Bridge Pro by the end of the year.

Hue Secure smart doorbell

The new Hue Secure Doorbell is intended to compete with Ring and Nest by offering a higher resolution 2K fisheye camera. Engadget reports that it also includes 24-hour video history without a subscription.

It of course pairs with Hue lights so that you can set it to automatically turn on outdoor lights as somebody approaches the front door, as well as the option to trigger interior lights to supplement the chime with visual alerts.

It will go on sale in the US, Europe and the UK next month for $170. However, Apple Home support won’t be available at launch, the company instead promising that this will arrive at an unspecified later date.

Cheaper Hue lights

A new range of Hue Essential lights are being launched with prices starting at just $20 each when purchased as a pack of four. Hue Blog has the details.

With the new Hue Essential series, Philips Hue will in future offer simple light bulbs with E27 and GU10 sockets at an affordable price. The Essential series is based on the same software and connectivity as the main Philips Hue product range, but with a smaller white spectrum, slightly less brightness, and less deep dimming.

But the prices are impressive. The colored bulbs cost $24.99 each, and multi-packs are even cheaper. Four bulbs in a pack cost only $59.99. The new Hue Essential bulbs are available now.

The Hue Essential portfolio will be expanded in December 2025 with two new light strips, each 5 or 10 meters long: the Hue Essential Lightstrip (starting at $59.99) and the Hue Essential Flex Lightstrip (starting at $99.99). The latter appears to be an adaptation of the previous Hue Ambiance Gradient Lightstrip.

Five new light strips

There will also be five new light strips, with the first of these available from next month. These have closer LED spacing to provide brighter and more uniform lighting. The company also promises that they are more flexible, making it easier to turn corners and flow curves.

Hue OmniGlow Lightstrip (3/5/10 meters) from $139.99 – launching in November 2025 (EU&US)
Hue Flux Gradient Lightstrip (3/4/5/6/10 meters) from $69.99 – launching in October 2025 (EU) and March 2026 (US)
Hue Flux Ultra Bright Gradient Lightstrip (3/5/10 meters) starting at $99.99 – launching in October 2025 (EU)
Hue Flux Gradient Outdoor Lightstrip (5/6/10 meters) starting at $149.99 – launching in October 2025 (EU) and March 2026 (US)
Hue Neon Gradient Outdoor Lightstrip (3/5/10 meters) starting at $139.99 – launching in October 2025 (EU) and March 2026 (US)

Finally, there will be new outdoor Festavia Globe string lights.

Hue Festavia Globe with outdoor power supply in 7, 14, and 21 meters starting at $159.99
Hue Festavia Globe without power supply in 7, 14, and 21 meters starting at $129.99
2-pack replacement bulbs for $19.99
The 7-meter short versions will be available in September, and the longer string lights in December 2025

Check out the video below for a look at all the new products.