Chapitos are one of the most powerful criminal groups in Mexico.
Heirs to one of the country's most infamous families in the country, the chapitos are four of the sons of the former boss of the cartel of Sinaloa Joaquín Guzmán Loera, alias “El Chapo»: Joaquín Guzmán López; Ovidio Guzmán López; Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar; And Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar.
The Sinaloa cartel was created by the barons of drug trafficking El Chapo and Ismael Zambada García, alias “El Mayo. “Their children grew side by side, learning the drug trade from an early age.
Unlike their infamous father, who grew up among campsinos in the mountains, the chapitos were born in a luxury life paid by El Chapo's drug fortune.
And although many initially rejected them as spoiled and privileged, they turned out to be strong criminal leaders and net businessmen.
They also changed the rules of the game.
El Chapo was a major figure of power in agricultural communities surrounding Culiacán and, in the absence of the government, often acted as a figure of de facto authority. He cultivated goodwill and a lasting life for residents by buying cannabis and poppy harvests, investing in local development, establishing community disputes and controlling – or even punishing – small crimes.
Despite the threat of omnipresent violence, people came to respect El Chapo's criminal authority, and hundreds even protested his 2016 arrest and extradition in the United States.
While El Chapo aged and hunted more and more, his sons began playing a more important role in the family business. And the chapitos took a different tact. They are not afraid to use violence and display their power and their wealth.
In October 2019, when the Mexican security forces captured Ovidio Guzmán López in Culiacán, the chapitos instantly mobilized their forces. Hundreds of men from all over the city have retaliated in armored vehicles equipped with heavy weapons like rocket launchers. The Mexican soldiers were taken hostage and the armed men of the chapitos even took control of a housing complex for the families of the military. On the order of the president of the time, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Ovidio was quickly released.
The brothers have become “narco-influencers”, publishing photos of their sumptuous lifestyles on social networks, including creative clothes, fantasy cars and luxury weapons.
The chapitos also widened the drug trafficking empire which they inherited to include synthetic drugs, becoming one of the main suppliers of illegal fentanyl and methamphetamine in the United States.
But they have competition: the co-founder of the sons of Chapo de Sinaloa, El Mayo. MayizaAs this faction is known, is in the running for many of the same territories and criminal benefits.
Tensions have been preparing between chapitos and Mayiza for many years. During the El Chapo trial in 2019, one of the star witnesses was the son of El Mayo, Vicente Zambada Niebla. Fast advance of five years, and it was Joaquín Guzmán López, one of the sons of El Chapo, who betrayed El Mayo and deceived him.
Since then, a blood quarrel between the two criminal families has paralyzed the state of Sinaloa.
Joaquín Guzmán López is currently in the American prison, after being arrested alongside El Mayo in 2024. Ovidio Guzmán López, who was captured and extradited to the United States in 2023, pleaded guilty to accusations of drug trafficking in July 2025 and awaits his conviction.
Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar remain in freedom, with a reward of $ 20 million in the United States to obtain information about them.
