Los Mayitos Faction Supplies CDN Drug Smugglers, According to DEA Reports

 "Socalj" for Borderland Beat

The DEA released their National Drug Threat Assessment this week highlighting Mexican cartels and transnational gangs recently designated as FTOs. 

A key takeaway is regarding the shift in alliances and cartel factions. Most notably the cooperation between the Los Mayos faction of the Sinaloa Cartel and CDN.

The DEA reports that Los Mayos supplies CDN with fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine which CDN then smuggles northbound into the United States. The CDN facilitates the sale and distribution of these drugs using routes under control of the Sinaloa Cartel. 

Historically, as the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel, Los Zetas did not have their hands directly in drug manufacturing or smuggling directly from South American sources but rather acting as protection for CDG operations.

Extortion, kidnapping, human smuggling and other organized crime staples were used by the Zetas in order to fund their expansion when breaking away from the Gulf Cartel. As a part of that expansion, Los Zetas began operating in other countries including Colombia to source cocaine and facilitate human smuggling. It has been reported that CDN took over Colombian connections from Los Zetas.

Last year, former CDN leader Juan "El Huevo" Treviño-Chavez pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to import and distribute marijuana, cocaine, and methamphetamine in Texas.

Longtime Rivals

When Osiel Cardenas, Gulf Cartel leader was arrested in 2003, the Sinaloa Cartel saw it as an opportunity to take territory from them with plazas and routes into eastern Texas at stake. Their battles helped militarize the cartels and created an arms war in Mexico.

This also gave rise to Los Zetas as their own cartel and other cartels around the country that formed in response to the expansion of Los Zetas, many initially allied with Sinaloa.

In 2021, Mayo Zambada gunmen showed support for "El Rodo" for an independent cartel in Nuevo Leon, seperate from CDN. The cartel group, led by Joel Rodolfo Ramones Barda had said to be working with Mayo for years. The independent group has threatened the Gulf Cartel factions and CDN alike.

In October 2023, Los Chapitos released a video threatening Cartel del Noreste while interrogating a captured rival in Doctor Arroyo, Nuevo León. Last year, an armed group of CDN, "Chukys" threatened to rid the Nuevo Leon area of "rats" from the Sinaloa Cartel, CJNG, Gulf Cartel, and other groups.

Z-40, the founder of CDN and former Los Zetas leader, in a WhatsApp message supposedly sent from prison threatened the Sinaloa Cartel as well in the area.

The DEA has finally acknowledged that the Gulf Cartel is no longer a single entity, even though it is listed among those designated as terrorist groups. "As of 2025, CDG is no longer a unified cartel, having split into multiple factions. The two most powerful factions are Los Metros and Los Escorpiones."

It is noted that the Los Metros faction is aligned with CJNG for protection from Los Mayos, CDN, and other CDG factions. The Los Metros faction has effectively become an enforcement arm of CJNG in northeastern Mexico and assists in protecting and transporting CJNG-owned shipments across the border. 

In addition, Los Metros traffics cocaine acquired from Colombia and methamphetamine sourced from LNFM across the US Mexico border

Possible CJNG/Chapitos Alliance

The DEA report also noted a possible alliance between Los Chapitos and the CJNG citing Mexican news sources.

"CJNG could capitalize on the conflict between the Los Mayos and Los Chapitos factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, essentially by choosing sides in favor of their former rivals, Los Chapitos, against Los Mayos. A strategic alliance between CJNG and Los Chapitos has the potential to expand these groups’ territories, resources, firepower, and access to corrupt officials, which could result in a significant disruption to the existing balance of criminal power in Mexico and could serve to increase northbound drug flow and southbound weapons trafficking at the U.S.-Mexico border. 

Should all of this play out as the DEA suspects, there could be an alliance amongst Mexican cartels not seen since the time of the Sinaloa Federation some 20 years ago. The Mayito Faction allied with CDN and the Guasave/BLO Cartel against the CJNG, Los Chapitos and Los Metros could reshape the landscape of Mexican organized crime and drug cartels.

Sources DEA