Adira Edeza Morales was the lawyer for Ismael Zambada Imperial, also known as “El Mayito Gordo,” before becoming the Fifth District Judge in Mexicali, Baja California. The attorney ran as a candidate for a mixed-specialty judgeship in the judicial election held on June 1, 2025, and received the most votes of all the candidates for federal judgeships of various specialties in the First Judicial District of Baja California, with 62,329 votes.
According to the newspaper Reforma, on January 3, 2026, Edeza Morales represented the son of Sinaloa drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García until a few months prior, when she resigned from his defense. The popularly elected judges assumed their positions on September 1, 2025.
The First Collegiate Court of Appeals in Criminal Matters of Mexico City published a ruling on October 8 specifying that Edeza Morales resigned on May 28 of the same year—four days before the election—from representing Zambada Imperial in a sentence enforcement proceeding. The court added that, consequently, she also resigned from legal representation in the appeal that was being processed before that judicial body, although it is unclear whether she relinquished her defense in this legal appeal in October, when she was already a judge, or at the same time as in the enforcement proceeding.
“The document signed by Yadira Edeza Morales, private defense attorney for Ismael Zambada Imperial, is hereby added, in which she states that on May 28, before the Fifth District Court Specialized in Sentence Enforcement in Mexico City, she resigned from her position, and therefore also resigns from the defense in this criminal case,” says the ruling published in October by the collegiate court.
According to her resume, Edeza Morales worked from 2007 to 2011 as an administrative officer, court clerk, and secretary in various federal courts and tribunals in Baja California. She later worked as a litigating attorney at the Estrada Casian law firm and holds a Master’s degree in Criminal Procedural Law obtained between 2018 and 2020 from the Center for Postgraduate Studies, with her degree awarded on September 21, 2020.
During her campaign as a judicial candidate, Edeza Morales stated: “I want to hold the position of Judge because today I see little commitment in the people who should be administering justice.” The slogan was part of her campaign platform presented to the voters who participated in the extraordinary election to renew the Federal Judiciary.
Ismael Zambada Imperial was arrested on November 12, 2014, in El Salado, in the municipality of Culiacán de Rosales, Sinaloa, while driving a truck containing five assault rifles, most of them AK-47s. He was initially sentenced to 13 years and 4 months in prison for aggravated possession of a firearm for the exclusive use of the Army, Navy, or Air Force. A Unitary Court later modified the sentence, reducing it to 10 years and 8 months. In March 2019, the Fourth Collegiate Court in Criminal Matters further reduced the sentence to 8 years in prison.
On April 30, 2021, Zambada Imperial pleaded guilty in the United States to importing and distributing methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana. On June 24 of the same year, he was sentenced to 9 years in prison. The following month, he was released in San Diego, California, after a federal judge determined that he had already served most of his sentence, counting the time he spent detained in Mexico.
The aforementioned newspaper also reported that “El Mayito Gordo” filed an appeal against a decision by an Enforcement Judge to suspend the calculation of his 8-year prison sentence in Mexico, which has been on hold since his extradition to the United States, where he is currently on parole.
The son of drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García is asking the Mexican federal courts to resume the calculation of his sentence, arguing that the suspension of the punishment wasn’t properly justified or reasoned, which would violate the principles of legality and legal certainty.
A Collegiate Court of Appeals denied the appeal filed by Zambada Imperial on February 4, 2020, when the calculation of his sentence was paused. The court declared the appeal inadmissible, considering that the challenged act doesn’t fall within the decisions explicitly enumerated in Article 132 of the National Law on Criminal Enforcement.
The Collegiate Court of Appeals’ ruling, issued on December 5, specifies that Judge Diego David Jiménez Roldán, acting secretary, resolved the matter in accordance with section II of numeral 470 of the National Code of Criminal Procedure, which isn’t contemplated in any other provision of the aforementioned law. “The appeal against the order of February 4, 2020, was declared inadmissible,” the resolution states.
If the time Zambada Imperial spent detained in Mexico and the United States is counted, according to federal records, he would only have 3 months and one week left to serve in prison in Mexico. However, since the calculation of his sentence was paused on February 4, 2020, when he had served 5 years, 2 months, and 23 days in prison in Mexico, he formally still has 2 years, 9 months, and 7 days left to serve of his sentence.
The original sentence against Zambada Imperial in Mexico was for aggravated possession of a firearm for the exclusive use of the Army. He was captured on November 12, 2014, in El Salado, in the municipality of Culiacán de Rosales, Sinaloa, in a truck in which he was transporting five assault rifles, mostly AK-47s.
Initially, he was sentenced to 13 years and 4 months in prison. A single-judge court later modified the sentence to 10 years and 8 months. The Fourth Collegiate Court in Criminal Matters further reduced the sentence to 8 years in March 2019, by which time Zambada Imperial was already incarcerated at Federal Social Rehabilitation Center Number 4 “Northeast” in Tepic, Nayarit.
Zambada Imperial was extradited to San Diego, California, in December 2019. On April 30, 2021, he pleaded guilty before U.S. authorities to importing and distributing methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana. On June 24, 2021, he was sentenced to 9 years in prison in the U.S. He was subsequently released on parole after it was determined that he had served most of his sentence, taking into account the time he spent incarcerated in Mexico.
Source: Zeta Tijuana
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