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Over the past two decades, the drug lord has expanded his sphere of influence into Sinaloa, Baja California Sur, Sonora, Durango and Nayarit. The Army places him on the same level as El Chapo Guzmán and El Mayo Zambada.
Chapo Isidro, the drug lord who grew up under the watchful eye of the Army. Illustration: by Ani Cortés
INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM WRITTEN BY: MIRIAM RAMIREZ
FEBRUARY 9, 2025
Fausto Isidro Meza Flores, alias Chapo Isidro, or as some refer to him, the “other Chapo,” has just been listed by the FBI as one of the 10 most wanted criminals in the world, and is offering 5 million dollars, about 100 million pesos, for information leading to his arrest. He is considered the head of a “large-scale” organization. The United States government accuses him of introducing fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana into that country. With the designation that occurred just last Tuesday, Meza Flores entered the “big leagues” of international crime, however, in Mexico there is a history of almost two decades that precedes him and is recorded by military intelligence; it includes his arrest and release on at least four occasions and satellite images of the addresses where until a few years ago he took refuge in the mountains of Sinaloa.
In 2008, at just 25 years old, he assumed the war leadership of the Beltrán Leyva brothers' organization when they separated from the Sinaloa Cartel. At that time, the Beltráns began a battle against Joaquín Guzmán Loera, alias El Chapo, and Ismael Zambada García, alias El Mayo, similar to the one currently being fought by the Guzmáns and the Zambadas. These have been the two largest splits of the Cartel.
Just a few years later, on May 4, 2011, Chapo Isidro was arrested in Culiacán, accused of committing crimes against health, illegal deprivation of liberty, and violating the Federal Law Against Organized Crime, according to an identification card prepared in May 2020 by the General Adjutant of the Secretary of National Defense. However, he was released without detailing the reasons or the institutions that participated.
According to internal Sedena documents that can be consulted through the mega-leak of Guacamaya Leaks, in 2012 the Guzmán Loera and Zambada García factions managed to displace the Beltrán Leyva from Sinaloa, and established their hegemony in most of the municipalities of the state. And although they were seriously weakened, the Beltráns never really disappeared.
In that year, in parallel, the United States issued the first accusation against Meza Flores. It was filed in the Court for the District of Columbia.
Free and in operation, El Chapo Isidro established himself in the north of Sinaloa and took total control of the municipalities of Guasave and Sinaloa de Leyva. And although they tried hard, neither El Chapo nor El Mayo were able to take those territories from him.
While Chapo Isidro was increasing his military, logistical and political capabilities in the northern zone, he was arrested three more times in a period of two years, according to the same document from the Aide: on July 9, 2014, in Guasave; on August 8, 2014, in Ahome and on April 16, 2015, in Guasave again.
Beginning in 2016, Meza Flores' structure expanded its areas of operation to 13 of the now 20 municipalities of Sinaloa. He made sure to flank the state with a presence in the north, south, coast and mountains.
Due to his imminent growth, in 2018 the Army classified him as the leader of several criminal cells that operated not only in Sinaloa, but also in Sonora, Baja California Sur, Durango and Nayarit.
Although this drug lord had kept a low profile and that had helped him not to be heavily pursued by the authorities, as happened with El Chapo or El Mayo, on November 26, 2019, a federal indictment and a federal arrest warrant were issued against him in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Then came the production of fentanyl, the new great enemy of the United States and, according to the Mexican and American governments, Chapo Isidro also entered the manufacturing of the now famous blue tablets. In December 2024, the Mexican government seized a ton of fentanyl in Sinaloa, and it was immediately awarded to him. That, inevitably, put him on the priorities of the Mexican and American authorities.
For this work, dozens of emails, diagnoses and analyses of the security situation were reviewed. The reports were prepared by the Ministry of National Defense, the National Guard and the CERFI of the West and Northwest, intelligence centers that provide information to Sedena, the Ministry of the Navy, the Attorney General's Office, the Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection and the National Intelligence Center.
The reports track the movements of El Chapo Isidro. Year after year, they mapped his presence in the country, traced the sea and land routes he used for drug trafficking, and placed him on the same level of hierarchy as Joaquín Guzmán Loera, Ismael Zambada García, Rafael Caro Quintero and, in recent years, Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, alias El Chapito.
The FBI has included Meza Flores on its list of the 10 most wanted fugitives in the world. It is offering a reward of five million dollars, approximately 100 million Mexican pesos.
The takeoff
In February 2016, a document prepared by the Criminal Investigation Agency included Meza Flores among the 122 priority targets of the federal government. El Chapo Isidro was then eleventh on the list and was identified as the leader of the Beltrán Leyva organization in Sinaloa. That same year, the Sedena recorded that he was engaged in an intense dispute with the Sinaloa Cartel in other territories with the intention of extending his production areas beyond Guasave and Sinaloa de Leyva. In December 2017, the Third Military Region reported that Meza Flores had managed to enter the neighboring municipalities of El Fuerte, Ahome and Angostura, the latter two allowing him to have access to the Sinaloa coastline and, from there, create a new maritime route. It also began to establish itself in the mountainous area of southern Sinaloa, in the municipalities of San Ignacio, Mazatlán, El Rosario and Escuinapa, places that share borders with Durango and Nayarit.
At that time, according to military intelligence documents, Meza Flores used a maritime route for drug trafficking that started in the port of Topolobampo, in the northern municipality of Ahome, then stopped in Bahía de Kino, in the municipality of Hermosillo, Sonora, and ended in Puerto Peñasco, very close to the border with Arizona.
At the end of 2018, the Sedena identified a new maritime route. With control of Ahome and Angostura, Meza Flores planned the trip to Loreto, Baja California Sur, through the Gulf of California.
As for the land route, Chapo Isidro has used Federal Highway Mexico 15, the most used to travel from Sinaloa to Sonora.
The combination of the surnames Meza Flores began to stand out in documents on drug trafficking and armed power in Durango, Nayarit and Baja California Sur. In a criminal diagnosis of the Western Region of Mexico, dated December 2018, the Sedena stated that Isidro was the leader of criminal cells that operated in the northern, central, northern coastal and mountain regions of Nayarit. Meanwhile, in Durango, the Third Military Region estimated that Meza Flores maintained a 15% presence in the state, especially in the mountain municipalities of San Dimas, Pueblo Nuevo and Mezquital, areas close to the south of Sinaloa and north of Nayarit.
In August 2022, an intelligence operation carried out by the Sedena and the United States government managed to obtain aerial images of the capo's location.
El Chapo Isidro had stopped being a local leader to become one of the major players in Mexican crime. By July 2019, the Sedena stated that the capo had formed the “Triple Alliance” in Baja California Sur, a union between the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel, the local organization “Los Renés” and himself. The objective of this meeting was to fight the Sinaloa Cartel for control of the municipalities of La Paz, Los Cabos, Comondú and Loreto.
The power accumulated by El Chapo Isidro already allowed him to fight different battles simultaneously. In that same year, but in Sonora, he sought control of drug trafficking and sales in Guaymas, another strategic municipality due to its location on the Pacific Ocean coast.
Between 2020 and 2021, Sedena reaffirmed Meza Flores' total control in Guasave and Sinaloa de Leyva, and added its partial presence in Choix, El Fuerte, Ahome, Angostura, Salvador Alvarado, Navolato, Concordia, San Ignacio, Mazatlán, Escuinapa and El Rosario.
The image was obtained after an overflight carried out by the United States government in coordination with the Sedena, according to internal Army documents.
Dozens of emails exchanged between the director of Air Operations and Customs and Border Protection Services of the United States and a high-ranking Sedena official, whose position was not identified, show an intelligence operation carried out by both countries between 2019 and 2022, in the first part of the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
They called it Operation Mongoose, and it carried out overflights in Mexican territory with aircraft and pilots from the United States government through Sonora, Sinaloa and Nayarit. It also intercepted radio signals and recorded conversations.
On August 8, 2022, Operation Mongoose obtained two key images of El Chapo Isidro. Aerial photographs show a complex of 10 cabins located in the mountain community of El Batamote, Guasave, Sinaloa. Another image shows a country-style hacienda in the community of Estación Bamoa, Sinaloa de Leyva. The documents that contain the exact coordinates of the locations are titled “The house where Chapo Isidro slept” and “Chapo Isidro’s cabins.”
Today he is free, and is one of the FBI's 10 most wanted fugitives.
