Judge Revokes Arrest Warrant Issued Against 'Chapo Isidro'

"MX" for Borderland Beat

Fausto Isidro Meza-Flores ('Chapo Isidro') 

Mexico's Attorney General's Office (FGR) issued an arrest warrant against Fausto Isidro Meza Flores ('Chapo Isidro'), but he was able to get it revoked by a judge in Los Mochis, Sinaloa.

The arrest warrant was issued by the FGR in May 2018 and alleged that Chapo Isidro was involved in organized crime and drug trafficking. Chapo Isidro's defense team issued a motion last December and claimed the evidences brought forward by federal authorities were insufficient. The judge in Los Mochis agreed and canceled the arrest warrant this week.

This is the second time that Chapo Isidro manages to revoke a federal arrest warrant. The first one occurred in 2013, when the FGR issued an arrest warrant under the same charges. The evidence brought forward included nearly ten confessions from suspected cartel members who worked with him. However, the judge said the testimonies were not sufficient and dropped the warrant.

US and Mexican authorities allege that Chapo Isidro is the head of the Beltran Leyva Organization (BLO) in northern Sinaloa. He reportedly commands Los Mazatlecos, a BLO cell responsible for smuggling heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana, into the US from the Mexican states of Sinaloa, Sonora, and Nayarit.

Chapo Isidro is no stranger to the world of the cartels, having been involved in drug trafficking since the 1990s. It is said that Chapo Isidro began his climb up the cartel corporate ladder under Amado Carrillo Fuentes, the legendary kingpin of the old Juarez Cartel. He was one of many who abandoned the Juarez Cartel when Carrillo Fuentes died in 1997. Chapo Isidro then joined the BLO.

With time he proved himself to be a skilled sicario, capable of daring, cunning and bravado. A skilled tactician with an eye for details, Chapo Isidro has had many successful operations which have propelled him to the status of other "old school" capos.

Throughout the early 2000s, Chapo Isidro was the right-hand man of Alfredo Beltran Leyva ('El Mochomo'). At that time, the BLO worked with the Sinaloa Cartel by smuggling narcotics into the US.

But things changed in 2008, shortly after El Mochomo arrest.

The BLO and the Sinaloa Cartel split after the Beltran Leyva siblings believed that Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman had been behind the arrest. Chapo Isidro led a violent war against them and police officers on their payroll. Over the years, the BLO suffered multiple high-profile arrests and/or deaths that weakened the group and splintered it throughout Mexico.

Matters got worse for Chapo Isidro in 2013, the year he was sanctioned under the Kingpin Act. Three companies he owned in the gas, construction, and automobile industry in Guasave, Sinaloa, were publicly uncovered and had their US-based assets frozen. In 2019, Chapo Isidro was placed on the FBI's international wanted list and was issued a US$5 million bounty.

If he's ever arrested in Mexico, Chapo Isidro will likely face a US extradition request and must answer for his outstanding drug charges at the US District Court in Washington, DC.

Sources: Riodoce; SillaRota; USA v. Chapito Isidro; Borderland Beat archives