Bloody war for power in Sinaloa

After a series of internal fights, experts believe that the "New Generation Jalisco Cartel" will displace them all; After the extradition of "El Chapo", there is a power vacuum, only "El Mayo" remains, they say.

Made in Sinaloa. It is the seal of the main Mexican drug traffickers founders of the organization that bears the same name and has survived more than two decades of fighting and betrayals.

Although it was created by relatives and real good friendships, which emerged for more than 27 years ago, today the Sinaloa Cartel is fragmented and in dispute. If the internal problem is not resolved, the New Generation Jalisco Cartel (CJNG) could be the organization that will take control, warn the experts on the issue.

Antonio Mazzitelli, regional representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), says that El Chapo Guzmán's organization has become the most powerful in the world.

"With the recapture and extradition of El Chapo to the US, only one leadership remains there, the one of Ismael El Mayo Zambada, which means there is a power vacuum."


Alejandro Hope, a security analyst said, that the Sinaloa Cartel has had several fragmentation's, the most important was when the Beltran Leyva left the group that they originated "a bestial dispute". He reports that the group that was headed by Arturo Beltrán had contacts with the leaderships of the Colombian organizations, and a total access to Sonora and the United States.

The beginnings go way back to the conformation of the Guadalajara Cartel in the 1970, headed by Miguel Angel Félix Gallardo, The Godfather; Rafael Caro Quintero, Narco de Narcos, and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, Don Neto. All under the school of Pedro Avilés Pérez, pioneer of the drug trade in Mexico.

There was also Héctor El Güero Palma, one of the closest to Félix Gallardo, and Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán, who was beginning to become notorious in the 1980s.

"The matrix is ​​the old Guadalajara Cartel, there was a break up with the Carrillo, the Arellano and five factions were form: that of El Chapo, El Mayo, the Beltran, Nacho Coronel and El Azul; Of those old leaders only El Mayo and maybe El Azul are left, "says Alejandro Hope.

Felix Gallardo felt betrayed when he learn that El Güero Palma was looking to do his own drug business; That was the trigger for the first breakup that gave rise to two cartels between 1989 and 1990, The Tijuana Cartel, headed by the Arellano Felix and Sinaloa, headed by Hector Palma, Joaquin Guzman Loera and later would include Ismael El Mayo Zambada, Juan Jose Esparragoza El Azul and Ignacio Nacho Coronel, who left the Juárez Cartel headed by Amado Carrillo Fuentes, the Lord of the Skies.

The first arrests. Caro Quintero, Fonseca Carrillo and Félix Gallardo went to prison for the kidnapping and murder of DEA agent Enrique Camarena Salazar and pilot Alfredo Zavala Avelar in February 1985. The road was cleared for the Sinaloa Cartel.

Over time that organization began to gain a lot of power, so much power to became the most important drug cartels in the world, to do so it had alliances with others, for example, Los Beltrán Leyva. Antonio Mazzitelli said, that organization was successful with Joaquín Guzmán Loera thanks to innovation in drug trafficking, opening new markets and routes, as well as the ability to solve internal problems. In time, Guzmán Loera was arrested in June 1993 in Guatemala and transferred to Mexico to be imprisoned in Puente Grande. The group was still together and he was operating from prison. The business was growing, and the clashes with the other cartels were growing as well, while El Chapo prepared his first prison escape with the help of Dámaso López Núñez, El Licenciado. Guzmán Loera escaped in January 2001.

The Sinaloa Cartel began to spread, gaining ground in Sonora, Nayarit, Colima, Durango, Baja California, Guanajuato, Michoacan, Zacatecas, Guerrero, Coahuila, Tlaxcala and Puebla. The Guzman dynasty grew. Joaquín Guzmán procreated children with Alejandrina Salazar Hernández, they were César, Ivan Archivaldo and Jesus Alfredo; With Griselda Lopez he had Joaquin, Ovidio, Griselda and Edgar; Years later with Emma Colonel, niece of Nacho Colonel, he procreated to twins.

With the so-called war against drug trafficking, the other criminal organizations were weakened in their structures and finances. In January of 2008 Alfredo Beltrán Leyva, El Mochomo was captured. His brother Arturo El Barbas accused El Chapo of delivering him. In May of that same year Edgar Guzman, son of El Chapo, was assassinated, and it was presumed that it was the revenge of Arturo Beltrán Leyva. The confrontations between these two organizations also occurred when Alfredo Beltrán, El Mochomito, reached the leadership.

In February 2014, eight years after the drug war began, Joaquín Guzmán was arrested and transferred to El Altiplano. The organization began to have internal problems before the possible extradition of Guzman; However, El Chapo still had the command along with El Mayo Zambada and Jose Esparragoza, El Azul. He showed his power and command with his second escape in July 2015, but in January 2016 his recapture was announced. The internal conflicts increased with the extradition of El Chapo. It was clear in the entity by the tens of clashes.

Martín Robles Armenta, Deputy Attorney for Justice of Sinaloa, stated that in the first 28 days of 2017 at least 58 people were executed. According to the local prosecution, between January 21 and 28, 25 more murders were committed in various parts of Mazatlan. The first weekend of February, according to the prosecutor's office, there were at least 12 others killed in various criminal acts.

Aureliano Guzmán, El Guano, brother of Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, fights for the leadership against his nephews Iván and Alfredo Guzmán. But the sons of El Chapo denounced a few days ago, in a letter that is not yet authenticated, that Dámaso Lopez had attacked them when they had been summoned to a meeting where El Mayo would be present. Another character that, although external to the Sinaloa Cartel, is in the dispute and is Fausto Isidro Meza, El Chapo Isidro, who controls what remains of Los Beltrán Leyva with his cell of Los Mazatlecos. "Now there is a fight between the sons of El Chapo, Aureliano and Damaso. It will continue to be fragmented and the inter-generational dispute will result in a new group. Outside they face El Chapo Isidro and the New Generation Jalisco Cartel, "says Alejandro Hope.

Antonio Mazzitelli affirms that the role of El Mayo will be fundamental. "The new [the sons of capos] are not willing to find negotiated solutions and want to fight. The Jalisco Cartel could be the successor of what was the great organization of the Sinaloa Cartel in the face of internal weakness. "

This article was translated from El Universal