Ivan Guzman, Dead to Rights - In English

"HEARST", "Redlogarythm", and "Buggs" for Borderland Beat 

The following is an exclusive story given to Borderland Beat. It contains some information which has never been published before. The information came to us from someone known by the codename ‘Shelby’, who we know to have personal knowledge of the incidents described below.

We have also decided to release a Spanish version of this article to inform readers of both languages.

IVAN ARCHIVALDO GUZMÁN SALAZAR

Parentage

The son of Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera, alias “El Chapo”, and Maria Alejandrina Salazar Hernandez 

Date of Birth

August 15, 1983 

Aliases

Chapito

Tocayo (namesake)

Archi 

Arqui

Batman

Rengo

Luis

Rey de la Cocaína (King of Cocaine)

Rey del Fentanilo (King of Fentanyl) 

The Beginning of Ivan’s Criminal History

On January 19, 2001, Chapo escaped from the Puente Grande prison. After the prison doors were opened and he was escorted outside the facility, he made a call to his eldest son Cesar, but Cesar did not pick up his call. Chapo then opted to call Ivan, who did pick up, and he, surprisingly, received his father's instructions. 

Ivan picked up Chapo and left him in a parking lot. His father said goodbye and informed him that they would not hear from him for a few months, but not to worry, and to tell the family that everything will be fine.

In December 2003, Ivan was involved in a deadly automobile accident while leaving the Olidya nightclub in Culiacán Sinaloa, which killed the passenger he was driving with. Ivan was street racing at the time in his beige-colored BMW M3 when all of a sudden he hit the back of a pickup truck (with wooden panels) that had a busted taillight, on the Jorge Almada bridge.  

During the crash, Ivan got pinned inside his vehicle. After EMTs removed him from his car, he was taken by plane to Guadalajara for medical attention. This is what caused his chronic medical condition which causes him to walk a little lame.

In April 2004, Ivan murdered a Canadian woman named Kristen Paige Deyell and a Mexican man named Cesar Augusto Pulido Mendoza while they were leaving a nightclub called Bali Bar in Zapopan, Jalisco. 

This double homicide remains unresolved because Chapo, with his power and influence, managed to get the case against Ivan dismissed. Chapo paid for people, like nurses and doctors, to provide false testimony saying that Ivan was in a wheelchair, unable to walk, and in another part of the country when it happened so Ivan was never prosecuted. 

Hopefully, someday, he will be made to pay for this crime because they were innocent young people who died purely because Kristen rejected Ivan’s attempted romantic advances. 

In February 2005, municipal police officers from Zapopan arrested Ivan after encountering six criminals, who hours before had executed three men in Guadalajara on the orders of Ivan. 

Ivan was sent to prison for three years. Over those years, José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, the former head of the SIEDO, psychologically tormented Ivan, trying to make his life as difficult as possible while he was in prison. Ivan used to cry himself to sleep every night out of an all-consuming fear of being murdered. 

In April 2008, Ivan was released from prison. This was - in part - due to his lawyer buying off the judge who was assigned to his case, but more so due to Chapo making an agreement with the government for the release of his son. After being released, Ivan traveled to Guadalajara and on the next day, he traveled to Culiacan, where he was welcomed home with open arms.

When he arrived in Culiacán, a war had just broken out between the Sinaloa Cartel and the Beltrán Leyva Cartel. 

Ivan later learned that his father, Chapo, had gotten him released from prison by agreeing to turn in El Mochomo to federal authorities. Just a few months before Ivan was released from prison, Mochomo was arrested. And now the fallout from Chapo’s trade had begun and violence overtook over the city. 

Being around that many guns made Ivan uneasy - he was afraid that the government would take notice of their gun cache and arrest them for firearm possession, sending him back to prison. Little did anyone know,  the very guns Ivan feared would become his favorite tool for meting out death and destruction for so many. 

Ivan joined the Sinaloa Cartel cartel prior to being sent to prison and he continued his criminal activities even while he was in jail. Chapo regularly entrusted a certain amount of “product” to Ivan and Ivan’s brother, Jesus Alfredo. Chapo continued doing this during Ivan’s jail time, except he gave Ivan’s share to Jesus Alfredo who divided it for them. 

Ivan began working under the tutelage of Manuel Fernandez Valencia, aliases "La Puerca" and "El Animal", who helped him smuggle cocaine from Mexico, to the United States, to Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. Ivan began coordinating shipments of all kinds of narcotics, distributing them to different parts of the United States.

Psychological Profile

[Note: The following section is the direct text of a psychological profile written in 2005 on Iván. Sin Embargo journalist Humberto Padgett published this profile in 2015 in this article.]

He is anxious, suspicious, reserved and evasive. He is sensitive to passive aggressiveness. The psychologist believes Ivan has a poor ability to recall long term memories of events

He has a poor ability to recall memories accurately and he interprets reality through the lens of archetypes. 

He shows a diminished capacity for critical thinking, both when thinking of himself and of others, with an irregular capacity of organization or planning. Both his capacity for analysis and synthesis was considered to be medium-low. He moves towards recreational activities, motoring. 

He shows probable psychological violence towards people he does not consider to be of his socioeconomic level.

He appears to have low achievement motivation, with a low-average level of procrastination, frustration tolerance, and impulse control. 

He has a tendency to channel aggressiveness towards psychological violence. He is considered to be developmentally immature and insecure. He shows a need for support and affection, however he is sensitive to the opinion that others have of him. 

The type of relationships they establish is utilitarian and of dependence or domination towards people they consider of lower rank or level. They use denial, repression and fantasy as a defense mechanism. Due to his personality characteristics, he is vulnerable due to his proclivity to affiliate himself to para and antisocial groups and also represents an institutional risk.

Occupation

Drug trafficker, the leader of the Sinaloa cartel. He is the leader of the Chapitos faction and he is the brother ultimately in charge. He alone has the final decision making power. 

Out of all of Chapo’s sons, Ivan is the most bloodthirsty and sadistic. His organization is built upon fear and violence, thus he rules by intimidating, threatening, and terrorizing his brothers.

His organization produces, trafficks, and distributes narcotics which causes the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people a year, both in the United States and in Mexico. And that's not even counting the people that are killed through cartel wars, revenge attacks, and attacks fueled by envy.

He murders anyone who poses a threat to the organization. Ivan deals and distributes marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, fentanyl.

He crosses drugs into the United States through most of the port of entries, namely: Tijuana, Mexicali, Nogales, Agua Prieta, Juárez, and various port of entries in Tamaulipas. 

In previous years, at least two of the large quantities of cocaine seized in Mexico City were owned by Ivan and his associates.

He pays around 4 million pesos total to various hawks (lookouts) in the city of Culiacan. He recently authorized his men to start stealing and extorting civilians because he said he could not afford to pay their salaries in the coming months.

They have seized a series of tunnels in the border with the United States which they use to cross drugs and migrants. They are mainly located near Tijuana and San Luis Rio Colorado.

Caution

Ivan has a group of SEMAR soldiers on his payroll who protect him and act directly on his orders. This Marines group patrols the Sinaloa towns of Cosalá and La Cruz de Elota.

As of the writing of this story, Ivan’s personal liaison with the SEMAR group is Leobardo García Corrales from Potrerillos. [He is wanted by the US government and a $4 million USD reward is being offered.]

Ivan protects his men embedded within the government, at the federal, state, and municipal level (and in the military), through blackmailing various corrupt officials with images and videos he took of them, which he keeps on file. He began collecting these videos and images after hearing that Servando Gómez Martínez, alias “La Tuta”, from the Knights Templar, would secretly record all the politicians he met with. 

I’d like to say the following to all the politicians and law enforcement agencies that work with Ivan: sever that relationship now and start actually doing your job because we have a list of names of Ivan collaborators, as well as the evidence to prove your corruption and we are going to reveal it all. Governors, senators, deputies, municipal presidents, members of the Navy, members of the Army, members of the Attorney General's Office and police commanders.

Ivan's Crimes

The list of the crimes they are involved with is long, but to mention a few: 

Organized crime

Human trafficking

Homicide

Kidnapping

Carrying a weapon for the exclusive use of the military [Mexican law]

Money laundering

Torture

Kidnapping

Conspiracy to smuggle and sell drugs into the United States

Property theft

Terrorism

Election Related Crimes (Vandalism of campaign posters, robbing polling locations, the threatening and kidnapping of political candidates)

Here are some of the activities that Ivan’s organization is involved in: 

• Drug trafficking 

• The sale of counterfeit dollars

• Drug dealing  

• The theft of gasoline from pipelines (Huachicolero)

• Human trafficking

• Slot machines

• Kidnapping

• Fees imposed on mines 

• The sale of pirated cigarettes

• Fees on timber harvesting 

• Fees on the sale of eggs

• Fees on fishermen

• The sale of electronic cigarettes

• Credit Card cloning

• Fees on farming / agriculture 

• Fees on unlicensed bars / beer halls

• Unlicensed casinos

• Fees on [licensed] casinos

• Car theft

• Collects fees from drug labs

• Extortion of different types of businesses

• Fees on taquerias after 11 P.M. 

• The sale of pirated movies and music

• Prostitution and imposing fees on brothels and strip clubs

• Hackers scamming/phishing for money transfers

• Fees on agricultural water distribution 

• The illegal fishing of the Totoaba fish 

• Robbing bank customers by coordinating with bank employees

• The robbery of bank tellers

• Imposing fees local drug dealers

• Murder for hire 

• Bait & Switch car sales scams

Ivan’s Murders

-In late 2016 or early 2017, Ivan attempted to have the Secretary of Defense [head of the Army], General Salvador Cienfuegos killed while he was in Mexico City, in the Cuauhtemoc neighborhood, in an apartment that the general had on Lerma Street, two blocks from the Angel of Independence. Ivan ordered the hit because General Cienfuegos had launched a campaign to kill Ivan and had sent three groups of special forces to Sinaloa to find him and eliminate him, following an earlier ambush on the military that Ivan had ordered in Culiacan.

- In November 2008, he orchestrated the death of José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos which was said to have been “accidental”. Ivan did this because when Santiago Vasconcelos was the director of SIEDO, he tormented Ivan during his time in prison, and he tried to get Ivan to turn in Chapo. [Santiago Vasconcelos died in an aviation "accident" that took place in Mexico City.]

- In August 2015, Ivan ordered the murder of Nayeli Medrano Pompa, a military office worker. [The woman was found executed with several gunshots from automatic rifles, inside a Ford Fusion vehicle in Culiacan, Sinaloa.]

- In February 2021, Ivan ordered the murder of Pedro Camilo, a military officer in Culiacán. 

- In July 2022, Ivan ordered the assassination of Juventino, a military officer in Culiacán.

- In January 2022, Ivan ordered the murder of the ex-wife and son of a lieutenant colonel. The wife’s name was Reina and the son's name was Luis Santiago, in Culiacan.

- In 2020, Ivan ordered the assassination of El Chino Antrax. [He was killed in Culiacan, Sinaloa, on May 16, 2020.]

- In 2022, Ivan ordered the assassination of Hector Infante, alias “Tolin Infante”. The hit was carried out while Tolin was accompanied by his three children. Ivan’s hitmen ended up shooting Tolin’s five year old son, hitting him in the back and the leg. Tolin only survived because he was traveling in an armored truck, but he was later detained by police. 

- In September 2016, Ivan ordered that a group of soldiers be ambushed in Culiacán, Sinlao. The attack led to the death of five military soldiers. 

- Ivan has attempted to have the secretary of Sinaloa state security, Cristóbal Castañeda, assassinated in the past and to this day, Ivan still continues to try to have him killed. 

- In April 2022, Ivan ordered the assassination of the Youtuber "El Compa Jorge" in Culiacán. [Shortly before Compa Jorge was killed he told his youtube audience that he “had met a son of El Chapo.” This is the likely motive behind the hit.]

- Ivan ordered the execution of Julio César Carrillo Leyva, the son of Amado Carrillo Fuentes, alias “El Señor de Los Cielos” or the Lord of the Skies. [The hit was carried out in August 2020.] 

- In June 2020, Ivan had Juan Valenzuela Ortiz, the nephew of drug trafficker Luis Gabriel Valenzuela, [alias “Grimaldi Paredes”] murdered in a hotel in the Santa Fe neighborhood of Mexico City. 

- Ivan finished off the Antrax cell by having several of its members executed in Culiacán.

- In 2012, Ivan had  Leopoldo Ochoa Juárez, alias “Polo Ochoa”, murdered in order to avoid paying the $8 million Ivan’s family owed to Polo.

- In 2022, he ordered the assassination of Rosario Lilian Rodriguez Barraza, a mother who was searching, from the group of women who are looking for their missing children in Sinaloa. Ivan ordered the hit because years earlier he had ordered the “disappearance” of her son Fernando Ramirez Rodriguez and Rosario was making too much noise and protesting too often. 

- In 2022, Ivan ordered the murder of journalist Luis Enrique Ramirez Ramos in Culiacán, Sinaloa.

- In 2015, two Middle Eastern men, who Ivan knew were terrorists, paid to be smuggled into the US through a tunnel under Tijuana for $200,000 each. Ivan’s brothers advised him against smuggling them, but Ivan ignored them and allowed the deal for transport to go forward. 

- He has ordered the assassination of women, military, federal, transit, municipal police, state police, ministerial police, politicians, journalists, doctors, witch doctors or fortune tellers, musicians, farmers, teachers, restaurateurs, just to name a few.

- Ignoring Emma Coronel's threats, Ivan ordered her to hand over all the properties that El Chapo had given her, because those properties belonged to her children [with Chapo], and were not Emma's.

Ivan told Emma that, as her children’s older brother, he was going to manage their property for them until they grew up, and that if she [Emma] kept even one thing he would kill her.

- Just like how El Chapo turned El Mochomo into the government, Ivan also turned in his nephew Alfredo Beltran Guzman, the son of El Mochomo. 

Except Ivan’s deal with federal police was actually for them to kill El Mochomito, however federal police happened to find him in a public place and there were many people watching, so they decided to capture him, and this history repeats itself.

- Ivan wanted to kill Nini because he was fed up with all the complaints he was receiving about Nini’s behavior and because Nini was heating up the plaza. Ivan also didn’t like that Nini was gaining a lot of attention from his social media posts and a series of corridos. Ivan resented that there was another CDS character that was on everyone's lips. 

But Jose Angel Canobio asked Ivan not to kill Nini. He told Ivan that it was better to have Nini where he was, because many people followed him and were afraid of him and that was good for business. 

Ivan reluctantly accepted the advice because he did not like to go against Jose Angel’s wishes because he’s the one who brings in the most money in the company. [Read about who El Nini is here.]

Ivan the Thief

- When Juan Guzmán Rocha, alias “El Juancho”, was killed, his widow was robbed of close to $100 million dollars. Her money was split between Juancho's aid / personal assistant (secretario) and the Guzmán family, and Ivan kept most of that money for himself.

- When Polo Ochoa was killed, Ivan stole money, property, cars, watches from him. The Easter week after Polo's death, Ivan bragged in Mazatlan about a gray SuperDuty pickup truck and a diamond watch on his wrist. He mockingly said “This is what Polo left me.”  Also in social gatherings he mocked Polo, saying, “we paid Polo the $8 million that we owed him out on the pier”, implying that they had paid him by murdering him.

- Ivan has stolen a lot of things from Luis Gabriel Valenzuela, (the Sinaloa Cartel financier, alias “Grimaldi Paredes”), including but not limited to: houses, apartments, gas stations, shopping centers, ranches, warehouses, agricultural land, weapons, money, watches, vehicles, armored vehicles, heavy machinery, horses, trailers, drugs, and many other things. Ivan stole all of this because he was envious that Gabriel bought more sophisticated and powerful weapons than Ivan. 

- Ivan was also troubled that Gabriel told people that he was the financier of the Chapitos and that he was the one who supported them.

- Ivan has also stolen property from the Lopez Nuñez family. Ivan stole houses, ranches, shopping centers, agricultural land, commercial land, warehouses, airstrips, gas stations, apartments, event venues, and a series of diverse businesses, money, watches, weapons, vehicles, armored vehicles, agricultural machinery and heavy machinery, trailers.

- Abundio Lares was robbed of properties such as houses, commercial land, offices, event halls, ranches, casinos, money, vehicles, and retail spaces. 

- The Mercedes-Benz car dealership in Culiacán was robbed of a super luxury sports car valued at more than $300,000 dollars. [More on this later in the article]

- Ivan has stolen several boats that were loaded with shipments of 700 kilograms of cocaine, from Colombian drug traffickers. Ivan also stole a semi-submersible that was loaded with 4500 kg of cocaine. He regularly uses this scheme.

He conducts normal business with him for a while so the supplier learns to trust him. Every time he does business with them, he increases the amount he buys. Then, on the 3rd or 4th shipment, he steals their vessel and the cocaine on board. 

- In May 2023, in San Luis Río Colorado he had kidnapped more than 100 people from different countries: Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras, Cuba, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Senegal, El Salvador, China, Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Peru, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Angola, Afghanistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Jamaica, Guatemala.

Ivan, As a Person

Here are some personal facts about him: 

- Ivan’s childhood and adolescence were spent in the city of Guadalajara, Jalisco.

- Ivan has never given any interviews to the press, even though newscasts and journalists sometimes claim they have gotten one with him. 

- He does not have any account that mentions his name on social media. Not on Facebook, on Instagram, on TikTok, or on Twitter. All the accounts that there are, that have his name, are false. If he has an Instagram account, or Tik Tok account, or so on, he has them under a fake name. 

- Ivan is a fan of Adolf Hitler. The eagle featured on his embellished pistol that was shown off in the Codigo FN’s song “Ivan El Mayor” is meant to be the Nazi Eagle shield. 

- He is a fan of the series Game of Thrones and has a collection of pistols and diamond holsters with the house shields that appear in the series.

- Ivan has a room [BDSM dungeon] set up like the one featured in the movie 50 Shades of Grey.

- Ivan has a taste for psilocybin mushroom chocolate edibles.

- Sometimes when he is out of his mind, either due to alcohol or mushrooms, his secretary gives him a gun with no bullets in the magazine, for fear that he will kill someone as he has done on some occasions.

- He likes to hit on married women and sleep with them. 

- One of the songs he likes the most is "Vida Recia".

- He has a taste for thoroughbred horses, luxury watches and sports cars. 

- He has a soft spot for the fruit drinks (aguas frescas) that are sold near the church Sagrado Corazon de Jesus. He goes there personally to buy them.

- He refers to people who work under Mayo as the “DEA” in a derogatory way because he says Mayo’s people are all snitches and make deals with the US.

- He does not sleep at night, between 11 pm and 6 am. Instead he spends his time in an office because he is afraid that if they carry out an operation to capture him, they might find him asleep. So instead Ivan goes to sleep around 6 - 7 am and he wakes up between 2 and 3 pm in the afternoon.

- He has threatened and bought different media outlets in the state of Sinaloa, which is why most of the time they hide the truth.

- He has a fleet of different vehicles he uses to move around in, such as ambulances, SEMEFO vans [coroner’s office vans], and pickup trucks for transporting valuables.

Known Rivals

Jesús Alexander Sánchez Félix, alias “El Ruso”

Dámaso López Serrano, alias “El Mini Lic”

Part of the Quintero family 

People from the Juárez Cartel / La Linea

His Involvement in the Culiacanazos

Ivan was involved in the two Culiacánazos, in the following way:

- During the first Culiacánazo, he went into hiding with Ovidio in the Sierra mountains near Badiraguato, in a region controlled by Manuel Valenzuela, alias “Manuelito”, located between the Portezuelo ranch and the sites.

- When the second Culiacanazo kicked off, Ivan was at the Piedras Blancas ranch, in the municipality of Mocorito.

One of Manuel Valenzuela's gunmen, who has the alias "El Texas", helped Ivan move during that night, bringing him back to Culiacan. He took them back without an entourage, just Ivan and El 200 [Ivan's personal aid / secretario] sitting in the back of a Mazda pickup truck.

Arrests

These are some of the times that the government has arrested and then released Ivan: 

2009

One night in 2009, in the city of Culuiacan, a flashy sports car was delivered to the Mercedes-Benz dealership. 

Ivan, Alfredo and Sergio [likely Sergio Vega Mendoza, alias “El Látigo”] rolled up to the dealership in a large armored Jeep Grand Cherokee SUV while protected by two escort vans which had eight bodyguards inside with handguns and long-barrel firearms, with grenade launcher attachments. 

When they were taking the sports car off the platform, federal police officers snuck up behind Ivan and surprised everyone - their bodyguards barely had any time to react. The federal police convinced everyone to surrender and everyone who was present was taken to the closest PGR offices. 

Sergio began to negotiate with the federal police. He told them that everything that was there was his property, claiming that the sports car, the armored trucks, the bodyguards and the weapons were all his. He told the federal police officers that they had only detained him and they had let his friends, who were uninvolved, go. 

The federal police accepted approximately $50,000 to $100,000 dollars and released everyone they detained, only seizing the weapons and the armored SUV.

2014

In February 2014, Ivan, Alfredo and others were dining at the restaurant “Mar & Sea”, when the military passed near the restaurant, they noticed a number of luxury vehicles that were parked there. When the military checked out the parking lot, they found that there were firearms inside the vehicles so the soldiers entered the restaurant and gathered up all the diners inside. 

Ivan and Alfredo exited the restaurant dressed as a waiter and a cook. The soldiers took pictures of each and every one of the people present and then they began to let them go in small groups. First, they let Alfredo go, and then Ivan. It was later learned that someone called up an Army commander requesting that the Guzmán brothers be let go.

[Read the Milenio newspaper article on this incident here]

2015

In August 2015, Navy (SEMAR) soldiers arrived at a home in the Isla Musala subdivision in Culiacan, Sinaloa. They were close to capturing Ivan, but unfortunately the Marines arrived at the house next door which gave Ivan time to escape. 

Ivan got into a Toyota Tacoma pickup truck and sped away from the house. As he left, the Marines spotted him, and they started shouting and hitting the pickup truck, but he ignored them and accelerated. 

Ivan traveled directly to the town of La Tuna [located in the municipality of Badiraguato] where his father was hiding out at the time. Ivan stayed there with him, in hiding. 

There the Marines seized luxury cars and motorcycles from Ivan’s property.

2017

On May 1, 2017, Army soldiers who were on a patrol in the vicinity of Imala discovered the vehicles that Ivan and his people were being transported in. 

The soldiers detained them but Ivan offered them 30 million pesos to release him. The soldiers, led by their captain, accepted the money and let Ivan go. After learning of the incident, the Army arrested the captain, who was assigned to Military Zone #1, after he confessed. The Army demoted him and sent him to Guerrero as punishment. 

Ivan’s Properties

Here are a series of locations that belong to Ivan, that vary from houses to hideouts to businesses, etc:

He has quite a few houses and offices in Culiacan, Sinaloa. 

His houses in Culiacan are the ones he uses the most. They are located in the neighborhood of Colinas de San Miguel, Chapultepec, Tres Rios Urban Development, Musala Island, Alamo Grande, Interlomas, Las Quintas Grande, Interlomas, Las Quintas.

He has properties in Altata Beach and in Nuevo Altata, in Navolato, Sinaloa 

In Mazatlan he uses condos and houses in private subdivisions such as el Cid, la Marina and more.

In Mexico City he has apartments and properties in Polanco, Santa Fe, Interlomas, bosques de las Lomas.

In Guadalajara, which is where he grew up, he has a number of properties in the most exclusive subdivisions.

Iván’s Shopping Plaza in Santa Aynés, Culiacán

GPS: 

24° 48’ 50" N 

107° 25’ 59" W

Lola Beltrán Ave

Fraccionamiento Santa Aynés

Culiacán, Sinaloa

Iván's Jewelry Store in Las Quintas, Culiacán

GPS:   

24° 49' 09.1" N 

107° 22' 45.9" W

Gran Avenida El Dorado 1139

Las Quintas 

Culiacán, Sinaloa

Special thanks to Socalj and Sol Prendido