Camilo Ochoa, the YouTuber that before was a member of the Sinaloa Cartel
Camilo Ochoa was a restaurant owner, then he was kidnapped and voluntarily joined the Sinaloa Cartel, but he went to jail and is now a YouTuber
Camilo Ochoa has captured the attention of the Mexican public and authorities for his transformation from restaurant entrepreneur to member of the Sinaloa Cartel, and now as a content creator on YouTube after leaving prison.
His channel, with more than 346,000 subscribers and more than 3,000 videos published, has become one of the main platforms that address, and profit from, the narrative of drug trafficking in Mexico.
Ochoa, born in Sinaloa, comes from an entrepreneurial family that founded the restaurant chain El Pollo Loco. Although he enjoyed a privileged childhood, his life took an unexpected turn in 2004 when he was kidnapped by Los Zetas in Tamaulipas.
He was very young and working managing the family business when an armed group disguised as the Federal Investigation Agency kidnapped him. He was held captive for seven days until his father paid a multimillion-dollar ransom, according to the website Infobae.
After his release, and still affected by the after-effects of the kidnapping, Ochoa briefly returned to business. However, in 2014, he made a drastic decision: he sold his stake in an El Pollo Loco branch and moved to Guadalajara, where he began his career in organized crime.
According to his testimony, he voluntarily joined the Sinaloa Cartel and eventually took over a plaza in Mazatlán. "It wasn't because of hunger, it was adrenaline," he said in an interview with Univision News.
Ochoa was arrested and spent seven years in prison. After his release, he claims to have retired from drug trafficking and dedicated himself entirely to creating content.
His YouTube channel, active since May 2022, focuses on narrating episodes of drug trafficking in Mexico, with special emphasis on the internal dispute between Los Chapitos and La Mayiza for control of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Despite insisting that his content is informative, his closeness to sources and crime figures has raised suspicions.
In January 2025, his name appeared on flyers dropped from small planes in Culiacán, where he was identified as a suspected collaborator of Los Chapitos along with other public figures such as the singer Peso Pluma and the influencer Markitos Toys. Despite these accusations, Ochoa has denied any current links to illicit activities.
His most recent videos, however, address sensitive topics, such as cartel movements, territorial disputes, and alleged internal betrayals.
YouTube has allowed Ochoa to monetize his channel through memberships ranging from $8 to $27, offering everything from personalized emojis to direct contact with him.
The description of his videos states: Here we talk about what many keep quiet about: drugs, violence, rotten politics, movements in the north, and the real stories behind criminal groups.
The video platform has established policies against promoting criminal organizations, but Ochoa and other creators like Ocran Leaks or Culiacanazo News have found ways around them, distorting names or blurring explicit images. Even so, their channels remain online and generating income.
Ochoa has acknowledged that his main motivation for talking about organized crime is to prevent other young people from following the same path. However, his detractors question the true intention of his videos, which often end up humanizing criminals or suggesting loyalties within the conflict between factions of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Although he claims that his criminal past is behind him, his name remains under scrutiny. For many, Camilo Ochoa represents the fine line between denunciation and apology, and his YouTube channel is an example of the power and dangers of monetizing violence.