Born Near Disneyland, Renamed by a Phoenix-Area Court at 19: Records Show How ‘Mayito Flaco’ Became ‘Fernando Sicairos Aispuro,’ El País Reports
Ismael Zambada Sicairos, “Mayito Flaco,” the U.S.-sanctioned leader of the Sinaloa Cartel’s Los Mayos faction, was born at 6:27 a.m. on March 7, 1982, at a hospital in Anaheim, California, a few miles from Disneyland. At 19 he got a court in Maricopa County, Arizona, to change his name to Fernando Sicairos Aispuro. EL PAÍS reported both facts on Oct. 5, 2026, after reviewing Orange County civil records and the name-change filing.
What the Anaheim birth record shows
El País says the certificate lists his father as “Ismael G. Zambada,” with the initial of El Mayo’s maternal surname written as a middle name. It spells the baby’s second surname “Cicairos,” with a “c,” and names his mother as María R. Cicairos, 30. She gave birth at the Martin Luther King Medical Center on Romneya Street, and the building now houses a community college. The paper says the birth was registered on March 17, 1982, and that the DEA kept his U.S. origin quiet for years for reasons that remain unclear.
A new name in a Phoenix-area court
In 2001, El País reports, he was living on Krall Street in a middle-class neighborhood about 10 miles from downtown Phoenix. A Maricopa County judge approved the name change on Nov. 1 of that year. The filing still lists Ismael G. Zambada and María Cicairos as his parents. El País says he wanted to avoid being found by his father’s enemies and by the authorities. The U.S. Treasury, announcing sanctions against him on Sept. 29, said the change was an attempt “to obfuscate his cartel bloodlines.” It calls him a dual Mexican-U.S. national and the “undisputed head” of Los Mayos (see our Los Mayos profile).
A federal grand jury in San Diego indicted him in July 2014 on drug-trafficking and money-laundering charges. According to El País, that indictment alleges he worked in his father’s trafficking operation from at least May 2005. These are allegations. He has not been arrested or convicted, and El País does not name a lawyer for him.
A second Orange County-born boss
El País also reports that Juan Carlos Valencia González, identified as a leader of the CJNG since El Mencho was killed in February, was born on Sept. 12, 1984, in a Santa Ana hospital a little over 10 miles away.
Sources
- EL PAÍS English (Isaías Alvarado), “Mayito Flaco’s hidden past in the US: El Mayo’s son was born near Disneyland and changed his name in Arizona,” Oct. 5, 2026: english.elpais.com
- U.S. Department of the Treasury, “Treasury Sanctions Sinaloa Cartel Leadership and Corruption Networks,” Sept. 29, 2026: home.treasury.gov
- Photos: Isaías Alvarado, via EL PAÍS; U.S. Department of the Treasury, via Fox News
Reported Oct. 5, 2026, from the EL PAÍS report and the Treasury release above. The Orange County and Maricopa County records were not independently reviewed.