Ismael Zambada Imperial, known as “El Mayito Gordo,” reportedly escaped from the United States approximately two months ago to return to Mexico and join the war for control of the Sinaloa Cartel, according to journalist Luis Chaparro.
In doing so, he allegedly violated the supervised release period imposed on him by a federal court in San Diego in July 2022, which expires in 2027.
Sources within the US federal government based in San Diego, California, revealed to Luis Chaparro’s news outlet, Pie de Nota, that Zambada Imperial crossed into Mexico around May 2026 and traveled to the state of Durango, where he would fight alongside the Cabrera Sarabia criminal family, allies of the La Mayiza faction.
His objective, according to the same sources cited by Chaparro, would be to vie for leadership of the cartel alongside his half-brother Ismael Zambada Sicairos, alias “El Mayito Flaco,” in order to exterminate Los Chapitos, led by Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, sons of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
El Mayito Gordo reportedly fled while his father surrendered in Brooklyn. Chaparro stated it directly on his newscast on July 8: “While the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada, surrenders to U.S. authorities after being kidnapped by the neighboring country’s government, one of his sons has returned to Mexico to fight for control of the cartel his father left behind.”
