Fausto Isidro Meza Flores

Early life and ascension

Meza Flores (known in the criminal world as El Chapo Isidro) was born on June 19, 1982. He began his criminal career in the 1990s, at first working for the Juárez Cartel under the tutelage of the then-leader Amado Carrillo Fuentes. After the drug lord died of plastic surgery complications in 1997, Meza Flores deserted the organization along with several other drug traffickers and decided to join the forces of the Beltrán Leyva Cartel. As a member of the Beltrán Leyva brothers, he proved to be a "skilled sicario, capable of daring, cunning and bravado." When the leader Arturo Beltrán Leyva was gunned down and killed by the Mexican military in December 2009, many within the cartel deserted and left to form an independent criminal organization with Edgar Valdez Villarreal, known as La Barbie. Meza Flores, however, remained loyal to the Beltrán Leyva brothers and possibly forged an alliance with Vicente Carrillo Fuentes.

Tubutama, Sonora shooting

A fierce gunfight between members of the Sinaloa Cartel (with the backing of Gente Nueva) and the Beltrán Leyva Cartel (with the support of Los Zetas and Meza Flores' men) left about 30 dead in the town of Tubutama, Sonora in northern Mexico on July 1, 2010. The drug gangs clashed just a few miles across the international border with the U.S. state of Arizona – an area notorious for being a smuggling route for narcotics and human trafficking. Reportedly, Meza Flores and a drug trafficker nicknamed El Gilo were the ones that carried out the surprise ambush attack on the gunmen of the Sinaloa Cartel. Eleven late-model, bullet-ridden vehicles were found at the scene, along with dozens of high calibre assault rifles. Some of the vehicles had "X" painted on their windows, a method often used by the Mexican drug trafficking organizations to distinguish the vehicles of rival drug cartels during armed confrontations.

Los Mazatlecos era

His gang, Los Mazatlecos, is based in the region of Guasave, Sinaloa, and is responsible for smuggling large quantities of methamphetamine, heroin, marijuana, and cocaine since 2000. He is one of the principal leaders of the Beltrán Leyva Cartel in the city of Mazatlán and in the mountainous areas of Sinaloa state. Since 2010, he is one of the leading rivals of Joaquín "El Chapo "Guzmán, the current leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, along with Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, and Juan José Esparragoza Moreno; the fight between the two drug trafficking groups has generated a wave of kidnappings and executions in Sinaloa. Meza Flores is the right-hand man of Héctor Beltrán Leyva, the top leader of the Beltrán Leyva Cartel; his area of operations is in Mazatlán, Guamúchil, Los Mochis, Choix and Los Cabos. On April 28, 2010, Meza Flores was nearly captured by Mexican law enforcement in the mountains of Choix, Sinaloa. However, the operation left two soldiers dead and twelve of his gunmen killed, including his right-hand man Omar Alfonso Rubio (alias "El Chonte", i.e. the mockingbird). On December 12, 2013, one of Meza Flores's top lieutenants, Ignacio "Nacho" González was arrested in Guasave, Sinaloa by the Mexican Army.

Status

Meza Flores was a fugitive wanted by the United States government for drug trafficking charges. His last known residence was in the state of Nuevo León, where he was reportedly seen with some of his family members at a youth basketball game in San Pedro Garza García on January 19, 2013.

Kingpin Act sanction

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Department of the Treasury announced on January 17, 2013 that they froze the assets of Meza Flores, seven of his family members, and three companies that had connection with his criminal organization through the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (sometimes referred to simply as the "Kingpin Act").