Los Chapitos—the Sinaloa Cartel’s last major kingpins known by name—have operated for years within a paradox: they are the most wanted heirs of the Mexican drug trade while simultaneously acting as the architects of an alliance with their worst historical enemy.
Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, sons of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, have led the Sinaloa Cartel’s most powerful faction since their father’s arrest in 2016. Both appear on U.S. wanted lists on drug trafficking charges, yet neither has been captured, despite more than two decades of “kingpin strategy” enforcement in Mexico.
The catalyst for their rise was the fracture of the Sinaloa Cartel in September 2024. Los Chapitos blamed Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García for facilitating their father’s capture; this led Joaquín Guzmán López to lure El Mayo onto a private flight bound for El Paso, Texas, where both men were arrested by the FBI. Zambada alleged kidnapping. Guzmán López pleaded guilty in December 2025 to that offense, among other charges.
Since then, the Sinaloa Cartel has operated as two factions in open warfare: Los Chapitos—backed by Aureliano “El Guano” Guzmán Loera, El Chapo’s brother—and the *Mayiza* faction, led by Ismael Zambada Sicairos (alias “Mayito Flaco”), El Mayo’s son, who also remains at large.
The relationship between Los Chapitos and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) began violently. In August 2016, an armed commando stormed the La Leche restaurant in Puerto Vallarta and kidnapped Iván Archivaldo and Alfredo, along with four other men. The objective, as revealed by Dámaso López Serrano—alias “Mini Lic”—was not to demand a ransom: “They snatched them to kill them. That was the order. It wasn’t for money, it wasn’t just to scare them; it was to kill them.”
