Heirs to one of Mexico’s most infamous crime families, the Chapitos are the sons of Sinaloa Cartel co-founder Joaquín Guzmán Loera, alias “El Chapo.”
The family has long held huge sway in Sinaloan communities, at times acting as a parallel government. For decades, it acted as a benefactor, buying up heroin poppy and marijuana plants cultivated on clandestine patches around the state and employing locals in the drug trade, which is now hyper-focused on synthetics like fentanyl and methamphetamine. Despite the threat of violence, people came to respect their criminal authority. Hundreds even protested El Chapo’s arrest in 2016.
But as power shifted to the Chapitos following El Chapo’s extradition, that dynamic changed.
A new crime war between the Chapitos and the rival Mayiza, controlled by the sons of Sinaloa cartel founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, is now ravaging those same communities.
Read about the criminal legacies of these brothers and bosses, and how they are reshaping Mexico’s criminal landscape.
