‘El Mantecas,’ head of Beltrán Leyva cartel faction, arrested in Sinaloa

Mexico’s Secretary of Public Security Omar García Harfuch announced on Monday the arrest in Sinaloa of Iván N., alias “El Mantecas,” who is allegedly the head of a faction of the Beltrán Leyva Cartel, one of the criminal organizations that have been vying for control in the state following the split within the Sinaloa Cartel. The arrest, announced via the social media platform X, took place in the city of Badiraguato, where seven of his hitmen were also captured, along with the seizure of weapons, vehicles, and a synthetic drug production facility.

According to information from the National Guard, the arrest occurred Monday morning as the result of a military operation conducted between 4:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. in the communities of La Noria de Abajo and La Noria de Arriba, in the mountains of the Mocorito municipality, which borders Badiraguato.

During the operation, members of the Mexican Army, the National Guard, the Attorney General’s Office, and the state police seized at least eight military-grade long guns, four magazines, 105 rounds of ammunition, five pickup trucks reported stolen, and another vehicle with factory-installed armor, according to a statement from the Sinaloa Public Security Secretariat.

Federal authorities reported that in 2023 Iván N took part, along with a group of gunmen, in armed attacks against military personnel and National Guard officers involved in the arrest of Ovidio Guzmán, alias “El Ratón,” the youngest son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. This confrontation became known as the second Culiacanazo — the first was used to describe the scenes of chaos, panic, and violence that plagued the city following the attempts to arrest El Chapo’s son in 2019.

In 2017, the Beltrán Leyva organization sought to reconquer Sinaloa, the birthplace of El Chapo, their former partner. At that time, the northern state was engulfed in a wave of violence — a criminal backlash following El Chapo’s arrest in January 2016 and his extradition to the United States a year later.

Security sources consulted by this newspaper say that El Mantecas was part of the structure led by Fausto “El Chapo Isidro” Isidro Meza Flores, who has emerged in Sinaloa amid the war between Los Chapitos — led by El Chapo’s sons — the followers of El Chapo’s former partner, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who co-founded the Sinaloa Cartel.

Mexican authorities place “El Chapo Isidro” at the head of the Beltrán Leyva faction, even above the son of Alfredo Beltrán Leyva, one of the cartel’s founding brothers, who is currently serving a prison sentence in the United States. That son, Jesús Alfredo Beltrán, alias “El Mochomito,” is another target of the Trump administration, though not to the same extent as Meza Flores, who was added a few months ago to the FBI’s list of the 10 most wanted fugitives.

Chapo Isidro rose to power with the backing of his uncles, Agustín and Salomé Flores Apodaca. Following the arrest of the former in 2012 and his subsequent extradition, Chapo Isidro took command of the faction. “He took over the entire Beltrán business, overseeing Guasave and the mountain region in that area, all the way to León Fonseca and Sinaloa de Leyva,” said an agent with Sinaloa’s security forces.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition