The 11 Captains Of Mayo Zambada In The War Against Los Chapitos

One of the allies that the La Mayiza clan would have is El Guano, brother of his former partner El Chapo Guzmán.

El Mayo has a large number of allies who are hunting El Chapo’s sons

Although Ismael El Mayo Zambada has been in jail for 62 days, his organizations firepower hasn’t diminished.

Imprisoned more than 1,065 kilometers from Culiacán, the 74-year-old capo is still present through a team of “captains” who lead the game against the Guzmán brothers whom he once considered his godchildren.

MILENIO had access to a list prepared by the National Defense Secretariat (Sedena), which identified 11 criminal leaders who have positioned themselves –for now– as the defenders of El Mayo Zambada.

These criminals have become generators of violence in Sinaloa, having human, material and financial resources for the task of expelling Los Chapitos from Culiacán and pushing them to extinction to avenge the supposed betrayal that has the Señor del Sombrero imprisoned since July 25.

What do El Mayo’s allies have in common?

The 11 captains are different from each other, but they share three important characteristics, according to a source who asked to remain anonymous in exchange for telling this newspaper the details of the document:

They have a large social base. They have first-level contacts with state authorities.

They handle money in abundance, capable of financing a long war with weapons, bribes and hiring “cannon fodder.”

This criminal selection isn’t drafted by the National Defense in order of danger, so in order not to alter its meaning it is presented in alphabetical order by the captains’ surnames: the ABC of Ismael Zambada García’s lineup

El Aquiles, La Rana and El 00

The first are the Arzate García brothers, Alfonso and René, nicknamed El Aquiles and La Rana. 

Their strength is in Tijuana, the old home of other violent brothers, Los Arellano Félix. Each one is worth 20 thousand dollars in a reward payable by the FBI, although there’s also another way to assess their value: they are the most important fentanyl traffickers in southern California, which means they have millions of dollars in funds. 

A DEA file describes them as “violent” and “experts in kidnapping and homicide.” 

Their most famous massacre paints a full picture of them: 10 race car drivers were killed by their gunmen at the Cachanillazo 2023 sporting event in Ensenada, Baja California, their other stronghold. They killed a dozen while trying to finish off a rival who was interfering in their drug routes. With that vehemence they defend El Mayo. 

Next is René Bastidas Mercado, El 00, a 41-year-old veteran who has been in almost all the tribes of the Sinaloa Cartel. He started as a gunman for Dámaso López, then with Los Chapitos and now with La Mayiza. His troops are smaller compared to other captains, but what they lack in people, they make up for in money.

Los Cabrera, Caro Quintero and El Músico

Third on the list are the Cabrera Sarabia brothers, José Luis and Alejandro, not counting Felipe, who is currently in prison in the United States. In the northwest they are called the lords and masters of Durango, loyal for years to El Mayo Zambada. 

Their connections with local politicians make them indispensable players, the municipal police from Tamazula to Gómez Palacio in Durango respond to their requests. 

In the files of the Mexican Army it’s been established that Los Cabrera lent the Señor del Quinto Mes a safe house in Vascogil, municipality of Santiago Papasquiaro. 

Since it was a community of less than 500 people, José Luis and Alejandro, El 03 and El 02, dissuaded everyone with money from not betraying the new inhabitant. This care evolved into the current gun-toting guard.

The fourth is the only captain who, according to the document, operates from a prison: the recaptured Rafael Caro Quintero, El Narco de Narcos, inhabitant of the maximum security prison El Altiplano and founder of the Caborca ​​Cartel. 

Although he doesn’t directly support El Mayo Zambada, his armed wing La Plaza has chosen to side with the senior citizen and supports his revenge in Sonora from Cajeme to San Luis Río Colorado.

In Sonora, La Plaza is known for its cutting-edge weaponry: long weapons modified to be automatic, vehicles with armor capable of withstanding attacks from armed helicopters, explosive drones with cameras that identify body heat and an arsenal of Barret 50 Cal rifles that they move through the desert.

Amparos and health: Challenges in the extradition of Caro Quintero

In fifth place is a captain with an international outlook: Óscar Manuel Gastelum Iribe, El Músico, nicknamed thus for allegedly laundering money with the profits of dozens of Sinaloa bands of the regional Mexican genre. 

In the extinct structure of the Beltrán Leyva brothers he reached the rank of boss thanks to his contacts with mafias from Honduras, El Salvador, Panama, Colombia, Brazil and Spain. 

He has pending accusations in the district courts of Illinois, California and Columbia, where in addition to being violent he’s also considered a wealthy drug trafficker: he has companies in Mexico in branches such as music production, event logistics, shows and even a newspaper and magazine company, the Editorial Mercado Ecuestre

El Guano, El Limón, El Ruso and Los Salazar

In alphabetical order, this is sixth place, but in terms of hatred for Los Chapitos it could well be first: Aureliano Guzmán Loera, El Guano, El Chapo’s older brother and for whom the United States Department of Justice is offering a $5 million reward.

According to the document, El Guano, 78 or 79 years old, has offered his army nicknamed El Cartel del Guano or CDG to hunt down his nephews, a mission he has longed for for years, but which remained on hold until December 2023, when his mother María Consuelo Loera Pérez died.

If El Guano had just half of his brother’s fortune at the top of criminal power, he’s a criminal with at least $500 million in his pocket.

Seventh is the ‘adopted son’ of El Mayo Zambada: Alfonso Limón Sánchez, El Limón, captain of a squad that uses as a distinctive patch a green lemon in reference to the distinctive color of his Ferrari and the murderous Limón Special Forces. Born in 1971, at 36 years old he became a partner of the founder of the Sinaloa Cartel.

In 2007 he was part of a high-level group of the Sinaloa organization, known as Los 5 Magos, who escaped from the Aguaruto prison, Culiacán: along with him escaped El Azulito, ‘El 20, El Changuito Ántrax and El Pancho Chimal.

Enlarged by his reputation for violence and elusiveness, El Limón took El Mayo Zambada’s side looking after his interests in exchange for the protection of his businesses from Culiacán to Riverside, California.

El Mayo came to feel such confidence and appreciation for him – something unusual – that El Limón was considered by state security agencies as the possible successor to the elderly boss, in case his biological son, El Mayito Flaco, couldn’t occupy his throne.

Alfonso Limón Sánchez is one of El Mayo’s favorites to lead the Sinaloa Cartel.

Juan José Ponce Félix or Alexander Sánchez Félix, El Ruso, occupies the eighth place. Another unconditional loyalist to El Mayo since 2008, when Gonzalo Inzunza Inzunza, El Macho Prieto, noticed him and entrusted him with the task of building tunnels and warehouses, as well as hiring couriers and drivers to send cocaine from Sonora to the United States.

El Mayo was so impressed with his work that he gradually gave him more important tasks until in 2013 he took the place of El Macho Prieto, who was murdered in Puerto Peñasco.

Since then, El Ruso has not only built infrastructure for his boss, but has also raised one of the most lethal armed wings in the north of the country: Los Rusos, which according to military documents, has about 2 thousand members, one of the largest in the country.

Ninth place goes to Captain Crispín Salazar Zamorano, leader of Los Salazar and heir of Adán Salazar Zamorano, Don Adán, an old friend and operator of El Chapo and El Mayo until his extradition in August of last year.

Formerly allies of Los Chapitos, the Salazar clan claims that they were betrayed by them after the fall of Ovidio Guzmán and that their order to stop fentanyl trafficking to the United States was unilateral and only helped Los Menores, they rebelled and now fight against them to expel them from their former stronghold, the Sonoran Desert.

El Gigio, El Yuko and El Mayito Flaco

Tenth place: Sergio Valenzuela Valenzuela, El Gigio and head of Los Gigios. He went from being an unknown criminal to one of the most wanted men in Mexico and the United States in April of this year, when the Joe Biden government named him The King of Fentanyl.

Trained by a deserter from the US Army, El Gigio has worked for El Mayo since 2004. First, he consolidated the Nogales plaza for his boss; then, he gave him the Sonoran plazas held by the Beltrán Leyva brothers; finally, he was considered The Lord of Wars, Zambada García’s spokesman to declare conflicts or truces.

He is so loyal that his armed wing is called The Seven Demons, inspired by the passage from The Seven Men of Faith chosen to serve God unconditionally.

The eleventh and last captain is a ghost. An unknown. He has no full name, date of birth or photograph. He is only known by his mentions on the radio frequencies used by police and drug traffickers in the state: El Yuko, head of the Yuko Special Forces.

At the end of the document, the authors state that a name has been omitted on purpose. That of Ismael Zambada Sicairos, El Mayito Flaco, for an exceptional consideration: he’s the only person 100 percent loyal to Ismael Zambada García, his father. 

All the others have, at least, a history of disloyalty to an old boss of the Sinaloa Cartel. Servile, but not so much. Lacking the unmatched blood connection. 

Under the name of the 42-year-old narco-junior, are his three armed branches, the only ones marked with a rectangle. Those who join the attack against Los Chapitos, but no longer from the leadership of a captain, but from the sole director and successor. 

There is La Mayiza, La Gente del Comanche, Los Rugrats and Los Meños, considered as exceptional cases for their lethality and youth. Those who will die, without question, if they are ordered to. The suicidal martyrs of El Mayo.

Source: Milenio