FBI adds ‘El Chapo’ Isidro, an old enemy of ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, to its most wanted list

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Tuesday added the Mexican drug trafficker Fausto Isidro Meza Flores, “El Chapo Isidro,” to its list of the 10 most wanted fugitives. El Chapo Isidro, 42, is accused by American authorities of being the leader of a transnational organization responsible for trafficking and importing large quantities of heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, fentanyl and marijuana into the U.S. In Mexico, El Chapo Isidro is an old acquaintance. A drug lord during the time of the Beltrán Leyva group, and an enemy of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán for decades, he is also considered one of the warlords in Sinaloa, which has been the scene of an internal battle between factions of the cartel for almost five months now.

The FBI claims that El Chapo Isidro is the leader of the Meza Flores Cartel, “a large, heavily armed drug trafficking organization based in Sinaloa.” He was also behind the shipment of more than a ton of fentanyl doses seized last December and classified as the largest seizure in the history of Mexico, consisting of more than 20 million doses of the drug. In addition, the FBI notes that since 2012 he has had pending accounts with the U.S. courts for drug trafficking and possession of weapons. For these reasons, the authorities are offering a reward of $5 million to anyone who provides information on how to locate the drug lord.

“Known as El Chapo Isidro, he’s accused of spending the last 20 years flooding the U.S. with fentanyl, cocaine, heroin, and other deadly drugs, first as an independent drug trafficker and later as the head of the Meza Flores Cartel,” said FBI Acting Director Brian Driscoll. “In addition to the scourge of illicit drugs Meza Flores and his organization have unleashed into the United States from across our southern border, they’re also accused of heinous crimes ranging from kidnapping and extortion to torture and murder.”

According to another official release, the Treasury Department has included El Chapo Isidro and several members of his family — wife, father, uncles — on its list of drug trafficking leaders whose assets can be blocked and seized. It also notes that Meza Flores has gained prominence in recent years, first as a staunch rival of El Chapo Guzmán, and then, after the arrest of the capo, “as his potential replacement” in the region.

El Chapo Isidro’s origins

Isidro Meza Flores began his career in the 1990s as a gunman for the Juárez Cartel, under the tutelage of the group’s then-leader, Amado Carrillo Fuentes, known as “El Señor de los Cielos” (The Lord of the Skies). After the latter’s death in a hospital bed in Mexico City in 1997, he joined the Beltrán Leyva brothers, to whom he remained loyal after the break with the Sinaloa Cartel led by Guzmán, with whom he shared a nickname, something that, according to some sources, he boasted about with pride.

However, the Beltrán Leyva brothers’ 2008 break with the Sinaloa Cartel changed everything. The brothers blamed El Chapo for the capture of Alfredo Beltrán and decided to take revenge by killing Guzmán Loera’s son, Edgar Guzmán López, which triggered a war between the two factions in Sinaloa. It was then that Meza Flores took on an increasingly important role within the organization, to which he was loyal, until he allied himself with Vicente Carrillo — then leader of the Juárez Cartel — and the brother of Amado Carrillo, to forge a strategic link.

Documents from the Mexican Ministry of National Defense also indicate that another of these key alliances forged by Chapo Isidro, by then already at the helm of the Beltrán Leyva Cartel, was with Caro Quintero, one of the founders of the Guadalajara Cartel, to reinforce his presence in the north of the country. Meza Flores was arrested four times between 2011 and 2015 and appeared in 19 previous investigations, most of them for organized crime.

Furthermore, his name came into the media spotlight on July 10-11, 2014, when a confrontation between federal forces and members of the Los Mazatlecos cell — also founded by Meza Flores and sometimes referred to as a synonym for the Guasave Cartel — left 12 of its members dead, including the head of Chapo Isidro’s gunmen in northern Sinaloa. The then-state security coordinator, Moisés Melo, revealed a few days after the confrontation that the operations were aimed at capturing Meza Flores, who was already in the sights of the U.S. authorities.

Lord of war in Sinaloa

Sinaloa has been plagued by violence and insecurity since July 25, 2024, when Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán López, one of El Chapo’s sons, were arrested after landing in New Mexico. The unexpected capture of El Mayo, who had not set foot in prison in five decades of criminal career, was celebrated by the United States as “a blow to the heart” of the Sinaloa Cartel and caused a media and political earthquake in Mexico.

Amid speculation about a supposed surrender and his deteriorating health, Frank Perez, Zambada’s lawyer, said in a statement that his client had been betrayed by Guzmán López, his godson, and kidnapped to be handed over to the United States. El Mayo’s version set off alarm bells in Sinaloa, amid fears of revenge and a violent confrontation between his faction of the cartel and Los Chapitos, El Chapo’s heirs. The suspicions were well-founded. Over the following months, the two groups have been engaged in a battle in which the civilian population has been trapped, caught up in murders, kidnappings, and disappearances.

Some local media and security sources have indicated that, while the two groups descend further into a drug war that seems to have no end, El Chapo Isidro is looking, from his hiding place, for the right moment to re-emerge and take back leadership. A source linked to the El Mayo faction assured the website CrashOut Media that Mayito Flaco — son of Zambada — created a “war council” at the beginning of last September with two new partners: José Gil Caro Quintero, nephew of Rafael Caro Quintero, and El Chapo Isidro. Both are old enemies of El Chapo Guzmán. According to this version, El Chapo Isidro’s people promised to send 200 hitmen and Caro Quintero another 150 to “fumigate Los Chapitos.”

Last December, in the midst of Christmas celebrations, the Guasave Cartel also featured in several festivities: the narcoposadas. Food supplies, toys, candy and unlimited food were distributed in several communities; parties livened by musical bands singing narcocorridos lauding the people who provided the resources for the celebration. In images recovered by the media, bags of food, motorcycles, furniture and other utensils were placed in public squares with the label “Empresa de Guasave,” presumably by orders of El Chapo Isidro.

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