" El Chapo" Isidro Wins Amparo

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: El Universal

Feb 20, 2018
Extra Material from: El Debate

The narco-trafficker and heir of the Beltran Leyva Cartel, Fausto Isidro Meza Flores, has not only evaded Mexican justice in various operations implemented by the Army, the Navy/Marinas, Secretariat of Mexico (Semar) and the Federal Police ( PF), he is also litigating an arrest warrant for organized crime in the courts of Sinaloa, in order to avoid his capture and any persecution against him.

Meza Flores, known as "El Chapo" Isidro, is considered by the US DEA as one of the last leaders of the Beltrán Leyva Cartel. He has obtained the  injunction against an arrest warrant for the crime of organized crime that prevents him for the moment of being arrested, according to public documents of the Federal Judiciary.

Currently, the resolution is in the hands the Tribunal Court of Sinaloa, but he won a first round. 

The PGR, Attorney General of the Republic, has indicated that other orders against him are still in force and the US FBI is offering a $5 million dollar reward for his capture.

The Seventh District Court, based in Los Mochis, Sinaloa determined to provide Federal justice protection of in favor of Meza Flores. 

The Sixth District Judge "rescinds the order of apprehension dated May 3, 2013, issued in the criminal case 53/2013 " and issues a new resolution, which may or may not leave the judicial mandate. On January 4, 2018 the magistrates took the case.

"El Chapo" Isidro became a fierce enemy of the Sinaloa Cartel, co-directed by Joaquín Guzmán Loera , "El Chapo" and Ismael Zambada García, "El Mayo " after the break of Arturo Beltrán Leyva with the Sinaloan federation in 2008, due to the arrest of his brother Alfredo Beltrán, "El  Mochomo".

Since then the name of Meza Flores began to gravitate in confrontations between criminal cells, but it wasn't until 2011 when the state governor of Mario López Valdez (Malova) accredited  to his criminal group a series of bloody events that included ambushes of police  units and clashes within the corridor that goes from  Guamúchil to Guasave and Los Mochis. The government also attributed executions, shootings and disappearances of people to this clan in Mazatlán and Nayarit.

But Meza Flores has survived all wars so far ; Including the he one that he maintained against the Sinaloa Cartel, against the Sinaloa police corporations and the Mexican Armed Forces. 

His group was decimated throughout the six years of the Governorship of Malov,  Lopez Valdez, with several captures.

Key characters in his organization were falling: in 2012 his uncle Agustín Flores Apodaca was arrested by the Federal Police, a year later "El Chapito" and part of his family were booked by the US Department of the Treasury. Then Ignacio González Peña was detained, his right arm in Guasave. 

In 2013, the Navy set up an operation during a wedding in the community of Santa María del Oro, Nayarit. There were dead and wounded, reportedly among them the narcocorridos singer Remmy Valenzuela, the capo's main apologist. Remmy may have survived this incident as well as a hideous car accident which he miraculously survived.

NOTE: I see tickets on sale for his for his concert in Playas de Tijuana for March 3, 2018 ??

In July2014, months after the first capture of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán in Mazatlán;  another Semar operation tried to capture Meza Flores in Guasave and Sinaloa de Leyva were he had a death toll of 12 of his gunmen. "El Chapito" managed to escape with a reduced number of gunmen. In 2015, another of his uncles, Pánfilo Flores Apodaca, the group's financial operator, was also arrested and later extradited to a US court.

That year it was discovered after the extradition of "El Mochomo", the organization that Meza Flores runs collaborated actively with the capo from the prison of Puente Grande, Jalisco. 

According to FBI and DEA investigations, "Beltrán Leyva gave orders from the maximum security prison to all his subordinates, including Fausto Isidro; thus "El Chapo" Isidro continued to operate."

The last DEA Report of 2017:

The DEA report published at the end of 2017, places "the organization of "El Chapo" Isidro Meza Flores  as one of the results of Los Beltrán Leyva working together with Los Rojos, Los Guerreros Unidos and the organization  of Ruelas Torres, which have drug distribution in Phoenix, Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta. " 

The text of the report reveals that beyond the fact that the Beltrán Leyva brothers are dead or imprisoned, these subgroups maintain a strong control of the traffic of drugs, money laundering  and excessive use of violence.

Meza Flores became in charge of the cell called "Los Mazatlecos".

Meza Flores, known as "El Chapo" Isidro, is considered by the US DEA as one of the last leaders of the Beltrán Leyva Cartel. He has obtained the  injunction against an arrest warrant for the crime of organized crime that prevents him for the moment of being arrested, according to public documents of the Federal Judiciary.

With the extermination of this Nayarit group, the violence in the port cities  of Mazatlan and Rosario stopped. In the north, the organization of Meza Flores learned the lesson. The level of violence decreased. According to US agencies, since 2000 he started working for his former bosses in Guasave, when he was 18 years old, but in 2008 he broke it off when he was 26 years old.

He was defined as being on the side of "El Barbas", who was taken down in December of 2009 in Cuernavaca, Morelos during an operation by the Marinas. However, with its arms and reaction power they forced the organization of "El Chapo" Guzmán to retreat. 

It is known that the Sinaloa Cartel could never take Guasave or Sinaloa from Leyva, Isidro's stronghold, but took Los Mochis thanks to the campaign that the State Ministerial Police undertook in charge of the commander Jesus Antonio Aguilar Íñiguez.

                                        Sinaloa's Governor Quirino Ordaz Coppel

But Malova's term ended without hunting down the great prize that was El Chapo. Instead, on August 25, 2017,  with the PRI's  Quirino Ordaz Coppel in the governorship of Sinaloa and with an internal war of the Sinaloa Cartel and  the Beltráns, the lawyers of Fausto Isidro filed an amparo lawsuit. The trial of guarantees was extended until December 1, when the Seventh District judge of Los Mochis granted the amparo in favor. The appellate court will have the last word.