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Less than a week after suspected members of "Los Chapitos" faction of the Sinaloa Cartel <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.latintimes.com/mexicos-top-security-official-blames-los-chapitos-cartel-killing-spree-sinaloa-rehab-centers-580226">stormed</a> a rehabilitation center in <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.latintimes.com/topics/sinaloa">Culiac&aacute;n</a>
five such centers in the city have closed due to fears of suffering similar attacks
the closures have left nearly 270 patients without treatment
The ongoing violence against rehab centers is tied to turf wars between two Sinaloa cartel factions: "Los Chapitos" and "La Mayiza," which have terrorized the region since September 2024
For months, drug cartels in Sinaloa's capital have been using rehabilitation centers to recruit new members. There were <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.latintimes.com/cartels-are-recruiting-people-rehab-centers-promising-them-job-opportunities-569016">reported</a> cases in which patients were offered "job opportunities" if they joined either faction
But the situation escalated last week when a group of alleged members of "Los Chapitos" attacked the Shaddai Rehab Center
leaving nine people dead and five others injured
the attack took place during the early hours of April 7
when a group of armed men broke into the property and started to shoot at residents of the rehab center
they asked people if they were part of another criminal group
owner of the Shaddai Rehab Center and leader of the Union of Rehabilitation Center Networks in the state
was kidnapped inside his home and was later killed by alleged members of "Los Chapitos" at a different location
four other rehab center executives have been killed in Culiac&aacute;n
state authorities have launched operations surveilling the 256 registered rehabilitation centers across the city
Vida and Transformaci&oacute;n centers &mdash;all owned by the late Rodr&iacute;guez Gaxiola&mdash; are the only ones that have closed their doors
releasing patients to their families and cutting off their treatments
Authorities attribute these crimes to the conflict between "Los Chapitos" and "La Mayiza" factions, a feud that has left more than 1,000 people dead since September 2024. As reported by <a rel="noopener nofollow" href="https://oem.com.mx/elsoldesinaloa/local/violencia-en-sinaloa-obliga-a-cerrar-centros-de-rehabilitacion-276-pacientes-quedan-sin-tratamiento-22656918" target="_blank">El Sol de Sinaloa</a>
seven rehab centers across the city have been sites of violent incidents during that span
most of them related to forced recruitment
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A body wrapped in a tarp in front of a local cemetery on the outskirts of Culiacán
and Rosa Lidia Félix Camacho is struggling to set up the white tent where she protests each day
She staggers as she fumbles with the makeshift shelter as the heat of the day rises
The 56-year-old mother has been on hunger strike for almost a month in a desperate bid to draw attention to the disappearance of her 28-year-old son
it is late November and the lack of nutrition is taking its toll
according to official figures from the state prosecutor
and at least 600 more have gone missing across the northwestern Mexican state of Sinaloa since September 9
when clashes broke out between rival factions of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel — one of the largest criminal organizations in the world
has borne the brunt of the wave of terrifying violence as supporters of the sons of the now-jailed cartel leader El Chapo
do battle with those backing the son of rival leader El Mayo
in the aftermath of El Mayo’s arrest this summer
The city has been paralyzed by gun battles between the two sides
as well as shootouts with Mexican government soldiers brought in to impose order
Rosa Lidia Felíx Camacho holds up a missing persons poster of her son
His mother says she doesn’t understand what happened
She has tried to piece together clues about the night he went missing to try to track him down
All she knows is that the night Jesús Tomás disappeared
The friend told Rosa Lidia that they’d had a good evening taking pictures
Rosa Lidia went house to house in the neighborhood where he was last seen
asking if anyone had footage from security cameras
She managed to obtain a few images confirming that her son really had left his friend’s house behind the wheel of his car
but she could only trace him for a few blocks
Neither the banks nor restaurants in the area agreed to give her copies of their recordings
As she hit a wall with her own investigations
demanding that the Sinaloa state governor take action and provide more support for her search
Rosa Lidia said that although state prosecutors had started looking into her son’s case
she thought they were slow and ineffective
leading her to take matters into her own hands
Next to her tent outside the cathedral is a cooler with honey
nutritional supplements and intravenous drips
which doctor friends have recommended she take to keep her strength up
“Please have mercy on us for the pain we’re in
It&#039;s been too many days,” Rosa Lidia begs her son’s captors
the government — or whoever else will listen
Shortly after reporters spoke with Rosa Lidia
after finally managing to speak to the governor directly about her plight
But her son was still missing at the time this article was published
confusion and grief are being played out across the city as residents search for missing loved ones
with some accusing state authorities of looking the other way
Reporters from OCCRP partner El Universal went to Culiacán to speak to residents about life under siege
The Sinaloa Cartel is one of the most powerful criminal organizations in Mexico
Its origins date back more than half a century
to what was then called the Guadalajara Cartel
the Guadalajara Cartel splintered into various groups
where locals who had been powerful within the Guadalajara Cartel took over
law enforcement had identified Joaquín Guzmán Loera
The two cartel chiefs had maintained an alliance for decades
El Chapo was sentenced to life in prison in the United States in 2019
known as &quot;El Chapo,&quot; escorted by security personnel upon his arrival at the Attorney General&#039;s Office in Mexico City
Then, on July 25 this year, the U.S. announced <a href="https://www.occrp.org/en/news/experts-arrest-of-sinaloa-leaders-will-not-disrupt-operations">the stunning arrest of El Mayo in Texas</a>
alongside El Chapo’s son Joaquín Guzmán López
There are conflicting accounts of what happened, but <a href="https://insightcrime.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/el-mayo-zambada-statement.pdf">in a statement released on August 10 through his lawyer, El Mayo accused El Chapo’s son of betraying him</a> by luring him to a supposed meeting with Sinaloa’s governor and another official
where he expected to be called upon to mediate a political dispute
then driven to a landing strip and forced onto a private plane
Guzmán López was also on board and bound El Mayo to the seat with zip ties
authorities detained both El Mayo and Guzmán López
El Mayo, who has <a href="https://apnews.com/article/el-mayo-ismael-zambada-sinaloa-cartel-court-7b2da1495672028c14de30dec329f542">pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges in the U.S.</a>
saying: &quot;Nothing can be solved with violence
We’ve gone down that road before and everyone loses.&quot;
the state of Sinaloa was engulfed in internecine clashes as the faction behind El Chapo’s remaining sons
apparently sought to annihilate each other
the future of the cartel they co-founded is up for grabs in what looks to be a battle of succession
In October, a lawyer for Joaquín Guzmán López and another of El Chapo’s sons Ovidio, who was already in custody in the U.S.,<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1cA2OIaamNBuiXoA1JZV7rwFLLJODstoUxt_XcgFBGDY/edit"> said they were negotiating for a plea deal </a>with the U.S
sparking speculation that the two “Chapitos” might become cooperating witnesses in the case against El Mayo
Both Joaquín and Ovidio have pleaded not guilty to drug charges at previous hearings
A lawyer for Joaquín has also denied El Mayo’s accusation of kidnapping
As the rift between the warring factions of the Sinaloa Cartel widens
The unpredictability of what will happen as the power balance shifts within the cartel is a recipe for chaos
an expert on organized crime at the Center for Mexican-American Studies at the University of California
“The uncertainty generated by these changes also generates other opportunities for violence
it seems incorrect to assume that all the violence we see in the state is the result of an instruction or directed by criminal groups
It is possible that there is also ‘disorganized’ violence,” she said
Most of the brutality has been concentrated in Culiacán
where both factions have their strongest  presence
A group of mothers with missing family members hold a protest at the Sinaloa State Government headquarters
demanding an audience with Governor of Sinaloa
This is not the first time that Sinaloa’s capital has been the epicenter of a cartel battle: in 2019 the so-called “Battle of Culiacán” saw a massive backlash from cartel gunmen that briefly turned the city into what looked like a warzone after Mexican security forces captured El Chapo’s son Ovidio
a prominent human rights defender for a civil group called the Commission for the Defense of Human Rights of Sinaloa
said that while insecurity brought by organized crime had long been a feature in the state
the current crisis was having the most severe impact on the local population he had ever seen
“It’s damaging us on an emotional and psychological level,” he said
“This is leaving an indelible mark on us.”
As violence took hold once more in September
Culiacán began experiencing chilling daily reminders of just how weak state control was in Sinaloa
compared to the power of the cartels: A state policeman was kidnapped
convoys of armed men patrolled the streets
and highways were blockaded by cartel factions
schools were closed and hotel reservations were canceled
the violence had also spread to the south of Sinaloa
where an armed group of men brought their wounded into a local hospital and demanded immediate medical treatment for them
“If they die, you die,” they told the hospital workers, according to <a href="https://revistaespejo.com/2024/09/15/personal-del-hospital-imss-bienestar-villa-union-denuncia-irrupcion-armada/">local media</a>
Bodies were dumped around the outskirts of Sinaloa’s capital, including <a href="https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/estados/bienvenidos-a-culiacan-hallan-varios-cuerpos-en-una-camioneta-abandonada-en-la-capital-de-sinaloa/">five corpses found in an abandoned white van </a>with a message scrawled on its side in black spray paint: “Welcome to Culiacán.”
Battles between the cartel factions and the army also added to the chaos. One confrontation in Culiacán’s commercial district <a href="https://www.noroeste.com.mx/seguridad/balacera-en-sector-tres-rios-provoca-evacuacion-en-complejo-departamental-en-culiacan-FX8606869">forced a shopping mall to be evacuated</a>
around 1,000 citizens marched through Culiacán demanding peace
but the violence has shown no sign of abating
and car bombs run through conversations between residents
and anonymous WhatsApp channels have become a main source of information — and disinformation
authorities said they had arrested more than 180 people and seized hundreds of weapons and vehicles
including some that had been reinforced with homemade armor
More than a thousand vehicles have been stolen in three months – stolen cars are often used by the cartels for criminal activity
Thousands of Mexican government troops remain in the state
the army converted a primary school in Culiacán into a military barracks
Often when  a shooting is reported in the city
schools in the area shut down and switch to the virtual classes common during the Covid pandemic
anger has grown among the relatives of people who have disappeared since the wave of violence began
a group of women who have missing family members demonstrated in front of the Sinaloa Government Palace
The women demanded an audience with Sinaloa’s governor
whom they accused of closing his door to dialogue
protester Carolina Verástica said her family had not heard from him since the previous day
when he contacted her aunt to say he was heading home from his shift
Carolina Verástica holding a “Missing” poster of her father
His colleagues told her that a search operation was already underway
Carolina made announcements on social media and local radio stations, then in groups set up to search for the missing, including the Culiacán-based <a href="https://www.facebook.com/1234sabuesosguerreras/?locale=es_ES">Sabuesos Guerreras</a>
a group of women trying to track down those who have disappeared
“I’m no longer asking for the guilty to pay
the only thing I ask is that they return him safely home
His entire family is together waiting for him
we don’t understand what happened,” she told reporters at the time
Carolina said she had inquired about accessing the city’s video surveillance recordings
but was told that groups of criminals had shot many of them
which made the search for her father complicated
two days after his last contact with his family
&quot;I found you daddy, not the way I wanted but I found you,&quot; Carolina wrote in a social media post, according to <a href="https://www.debate.com.mx/sinaloa/policiaca/Te-encontre-papi-no-de-la-manera-que-queria-pero-te-encontre-el-mensaje-de-despedida-de-hija-de-policia-levantado-en-Culiacan-20241129-0013.html">local media reports</a>
so close to her ear that he could almost speak in a whisper
so that there won&#039;t be so many stalkers around,” he said
Reporters witnessed the conversation and left without commenting
and without knowing whether the men ended up putting their cameras up
Cartel rivals often fight over control of security cameras — those of their enemies are seen as a threat
while those they control are seen as an asset
Three days before reporters witnessed this exchange in a bakery
dozens of the city’s security cameras had been destroyed by unidentified armed groups
The destroyed cameras had been connected to the state security headquarters
while the cartels want to set up their own closely monitored camera network
Sinaloa had actually seen a comparative lull in violence
with homicide figures below the national average in the past few years
Now the streets are almost empty after 7:00 p.m
as the majority of residents are not comfortable venturing outside when the sun is down
including the year’s most important cattle fair
According to <a href="https://forbes.com.mx/perdidas-economicas-por-violencia-en-sinaloa-superan-los-18000-mdp-coparmex/">Mexican business organization Coparmex </a>
the conflict has led to  losses of at least 18 billion Mexican pesos(about US$890 million) and 25,000 formal jobs
co-owner of cocktail bar and restaurant Canario in Culiacán
said sales had dropped 70 percent since September
“It’s been pretty exhausting and difficult,” he says
the flow of customers drops from 20 to one.” 
like other small businesses in the besieged city
Since Culiacán residents are more willing to go outside in the morning
Canario is emphasizing its breakfasts rather than late-night drinks
“Our concept has been totally modified to focus on breakfasts,” he says
the head of a civil society group that works with local businesses to revitalize historic parts of Sinaloa
He is working on a new initiative with hotels in downtown Culiacán — which are struggling with high vacancy rates — that would allow people who stay out after dark at bars and restaurants to book rooms at a discount
a commercial district with cobblestone streets and colonial architecture
strengthened coordination with the police and are trying to think up new cultural events and shows to encourage people to go out
have become adept at finding ways to ease the pressure
next to businesses that are either closing down or adapting
and just a few blocks from where Rosa Lidia held her hunger strike
Catherine Quiñónez Morales slowly paints her first mural
Catherine Quiñónez Morales painting a small mural in downtown Culiacán to promote mental health during a time of social crisis
She is part of <a href="https://www.instagram.com/colectivabachia/">the Bachia Collective</a>
a group of nine female artists who are seeking to beautify the city’s downtown area and boost the morale of local residents
The theme of Catherine&#039;s mural is mental health
I want this painting to speak of getting out of depression
of getting out of the hole that many people are in right now,” says the 24-year-old
Her mural depicts a woman blooming thanks to water dropped on her from above by the hand of God
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 Police agencies have long known that Mexican drug cartels help supply Europe’s nearly US$10 billion annual cocaine habit,..
 Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández
who for years has been a principal suspect in a transnational drug..
 The United States sanctioned on Wednesday a Sinaloa cartel boss and seven other Mexicans for smuggling tons of fentanyl and..
The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has released the locations of the Culiacán Mexico Temple and Tuguegarao City Philippines Temple
An exterior rendering of the house of the Lord in Tuguegarao City has also been released
and the groundbreaking ceremony for the Lethbridge Alberta Temple has been announced
The Culiacán Mexico Temple will be built on an approximately 5-acre site located off of Avenida Milenium in the Colonia Country Tres Rios
between the cross streets of Miguel Tamayo Espinoza de los Monteros and Boulevard José María Figueroa Díaz
Plans call for a one-story temple of approximately 10,000 square feet
Church President <a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/learn/russell-m-nelson?lang=eng">Russell M. Nelson</a> announced this house of the Lord during the <a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2021/10/59nelson?lang=eng">October 2021 general conference</a>
“Please make time for the Lord in His holy house,” he said then
“Nothing will strengthen your spiritual foundation like temple service and temple worship.”
Mexico is home to more than 1.5 million Latter-day Saints in nearly 1,900 congregations. Missionary work began in <a href="https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/facts-and-statistics/country/mexico" target="_blank">Mexico</a> in 1875
The Tuguegarao City Philippines Temple will be built on a 6.3-acre site south of Enrile Avenue
Plans call for a single-story temple of approximately 18,850 square feet
Patron housing and a distribution center will also be constructed
An exterior rendering has also been released for the temple
President Nelson announced this temple during the <a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2023/04/58nelson?lang=eng">April 2023 general conference</a>
“Jesus Christ is the reason we build temples
Making covenants and receiving essential ordinances in the temple
as well as seeking to draw closer to Him there
will bless your life in ways no other kind of worship can.”
There are nearly 870,000 Latter-day Saints in almost 1,300 congregations in the <a href="https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/facts-and-statistics/country/philippines" target="_blank">Philippines</a>
Since the country officially opened for missionary work in 1961
Church growth there has been among the fastest in the world
The groundbreaking services for the Lethbridge Alberta Temple will be held on Saturday, April 26, 2025. Elder <a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/learn/randall-k-bennett">Randall K. Bennett</a>
This temple will be built on more than nine acres located at the corner of Whoop Up Drive West and Mauretania Road West
Plans call for a multistory temple of approximately 45,000 square feet and an accompanying distribution center
President Nelson announced the Lethbridge Alberta Temple during the <a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2023/04/58nelson?lang=eng">April 2023 general conference</a>
The first known Latter-day Saints to enter what is now Alberta were Simeon F
who contracted work in 1883 on the Canadian Pacific Railroad between Medicine Hat and Calgary
They were joined by other Saints from Utah working on the contract
Latter-day Saints worship in temples for several reasons: to feel God’s love and peace
to learn more about God’s plan for His children and the gospel of Jesus Christ
to make promises with God and with one’s husband or wife and to unite families in this life and the next through sacred ordinances
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While some are back dancing in the street, the lives of others touched by cartel violence in Mexico’s Culiacan will never be the same. For the past six months, the city has been the battlefield for the two main factions of the Sinaloa drug cartel. (AP video: Martín Silva Rey).
A student participates in an active shooter drill at the Socrates elementary school in Culiacan, Mexico, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
A pedestrian walks over a sign that reads in Spanish, “Where are they?” referencing missing people, at Obregon square in Culiacan, Sinaloa state, Mexico, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Police officers and soldiers inspect drivers at a checkpoint in Culiacan, Sinaloa state, Mexico, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
The body of a slain woman is covered with a blanket in Culiacan, Sinaloa state Mexico, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Students welcome retired municipal police officer Elias Sanchez prior to a workshop about security at a public school in Culiacan, Sinaloa state, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
A teacher spins a ball on his finger during a class at Socrates Elementary School in Culiacan, Sinaloa state, Mexico, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Forensic workers remove the body of the body of a slain woman in Culiacan, Mexico, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Retired people play dominoes at Obregon square in Culiacan, Sinaloa state, Mexico, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Students participate in an active shooter drill at the Socrates elementary school in Culiacan, Mexico, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Soldiers patrol a highway in Villa Juarez, outside of Culiacan, Sinaloa state, Mexico, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Retired people dance in Obregon square in Culiacan, Sinaloa state, Mexico, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
CULIACAN, Mexico (AP) — Before dawn, an elementary school principal in the capital of Mexico’s Sinaloa state checks various chats on his phone for word of shootouts or other incidents. If there’s danger, he sends a message to his students’ parents suspending classes.
The violence has limited the hours to bury the dead. Bands that played big parties now play for money at intersections. Any loud noise sends children scurrying for cover. And those who live on the shifting front lines fear for their lives daily.
It unleashed a power struggle between both cartel factions and the unwritten agreement to not attack residents uninvolved in the drug trade was broken.
A resident of Costa Rica, a small town south of the capital, traced the front line on the horizon: on one side the “Chapos,” on the other the “Mayos.” He, like most others, requested anonymity because of the danger. 
An old man there said he saw gunmen dump two bodies in the street.
And sometimes people just disappear. Julio Héctor Carrillo, 34, never arrived home from visiting a relative in late January. According to his brother-in-law, Mario Beltrán, his only transgression was not respecting the locals’ self-imposed curfew.
His family didn’t dare to put up signs for their search, instead sticking to social platforms. A search collective looking for the disappeared found a body that is undergoing DNA testing.
“At no other time in the last 30 to 40 years that we have crime stats, have we had so many families with disappeared (relatives),” said Miguel Calderón of the State Public Security Council, a citizen organization. Some are simply picked up, interrogated and released, but others end up on the wall of faces at Culiacan’s cathedral.
“Truly, we’re very tired, very tired of being among the bullets,” said a 38-year-old small business owner who has imposed his own family security protocol: no cycling for their 18-year-old son, who they take everywhere, including to visit his girlfriend, and track in real time through his cell phone.
Their 7-year-old daughter asks in the morning: “‘Dad, am I going to be able to go to school today? Did you already check (Facebook)?’”
“There are things you can’t hide from children,” he said.
How Mexican authorities are addressing the violence has changed notably in the past month and locals believe Trump is the reason.
When it started, Mexico was led by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who minimized cartel violence and expressed no interest in going after cartel leaders. His close ally, Sinaloa Gov. Rubén Rocha did the same. Rocha’s spokesman, Feliciano Castro, maintains that the U.S. set off the violence by arresting Zambada.
The number of security operations and arrests in Sinaloa have multiplied and now there is direct federal supervision of all security action.
“We have never seen such an overwhelming and daily operation against the cartels,” said Ismael Bojórquez, a veteran Sinaloa journalist covering organized crime, who was critical of López Obrador’s hands-off approach.
In Culiacan, authorities took down more than 400 cartel surveillance cameras, double what authorities had. 
The recent actions have weakened both cartel factions but the government can’t let up if it really wants to decimate them, Bojórquez said.
“I never thought (Trump) would have so much power to do that … but I’m grateful,” said the owner of a beer store stopped at a police checkpoint. 
A 55-year-old woman sitting on a bench watching a forensics team load a murder victim’s body into a truck agreed. The day before, she had attended a Mass for her son-in-law who was killed five months earlier by a stray bullet while he was walking with his daughter a few blocks away. 
“We leave home but we don’t know if we’ll return,” she said.
In the halls of Socrates Elementary school in downtown Culiacan, signs explain what to do in case of a shootout and children drill suddenly dropping to the ground when the alarm sounds.
Principal Victor Manuel Aispuro says he can’t remember what it was like to have all of his nearly 400 students in school. Some 80 families fled the city and there were days when no more than 10 kids attended. He decides each day if there will be in-person classes.
The last time he closed was late last month when intense firefights and low-flying helicopters panicked residents. Two key cartel members were arrested.
At a workshop, a nongovernmental organization of ex-police led students through an exercise writing down what scares them. One listed spiders, gun shots and white trucks (the preferred cartel transportation). Another said he’s afraid of being extorted or killed.
“The people are full of a sense of collective anguish, anxiety, social anger and that’s different from other crises,” said Calderón, the coordinator of the citizen security group. He said he hopes it could dissolve the complicity of citizens, who for years saw the cartel as protectors, heroes or figures to emulate.
writing by Laura Gottesdiener; Editing by Rosalba O&#x27;Brien
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where a war between rival factions of the Sinaloa Cartel has claimed scores of lives in recent weeks
The bodies of five men were found in the Miguel de la Madrid neighborhood of the state capital while one was located near the town of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costa_Rica,_Sinaloa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Costa Rica</a> in the municipality of Culiacán and another was found in the Ejido Echeverría area, <a href="https://fiscaliasinaloa.mx/boletines/contenidoboletin?id=1262" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to the Sinaloa Attorney General&#8217;s Office</a> (FGE)
located in the south of the city of Culiacán
were dumped in the street near a motel and cemetery
The victims — all of whom had been shot and whose bodies showed signs of torture — were semi-naked
but sombreros had been placed on their heads
They were reportedly aged between 20 and 30
The news magazine Proceso reported that at least 15 bodies with sombreros on their heads have been dumped in southern Culiacán in recent weeks. <a href="https://www.tvazteca.com/aztecanoticias/encuentran-cinco-cuerpos-sin-vida-con-sombrero-sur-culiacan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TV Azteca reported</a> that the hats are a &#8220;clear reference to an organized crime group&#8221; but didn&#8217;t elaborate
About two weeks ago, Mexico-based crime journalist Ioan Grillo published an article on his website talking about the <a href="https://www.crashoutmedia.com/p/on-the-ground-in-sinaloas-new-war?utm_source=substack&amp;utm_medium=email" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bodies that have been dumped in Culiacán in recent weeks with sombreros placed on their heads</a>
He also said a severed head was left in the street inside a pizza box
&#8220;Sombreros&#8221; is a nickname for Los Mayos — Sinaloa Cartel members loyal to arrested leader Ismael &#8220;El Mayo&#8221; Zambada — whereas pizza is a reference to Los Chapitos
whose nickname is &#8220;Chapiza,&#8221; Grillo said
Los Chapitos are the Sinaloa Cartel faction run by the sons of former Sinaloa Cartel leader
it wasn&#8217;t clear whether the symbols were being placed with the bodies to represent the killers or to mock the victims
The FGE said that homicide investigations in connection with the discovery of all seven bodies in Culiacán on Thursday had commenced
There have been more than 130 homicides and around 160 abductions in Sinaloa in the past four weeks, according to official data. Six kidnappings were reported in Culiacán on Thursday. Many of the <a href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/death-kidnappings-in-sinaloa-another-week-violence/">murders and kidnappings</a> are linked to the battle between the Los Chapitos and Los Mayos factions
Their long-running feud intensified after <a href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/ismael-el-mayo-zambada-sinaloa-cartel-leader-arrested-texas/">the arrest in the United States in late July of alleged Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Ismael &#8220;El Mayo&#8221; Zambada García</a> after his <a href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/el-mayo-statement-arrest/">alleged kidnapping by Joaquín Guzmán López</a>
one of the sons of convicted drug lord Joaquín &#8220;El Chapo&#8221; Guzmán
Both are facing charges in US federal court
The situation has been particularly bad since Sept. 9, when clashes between armed civilians, and between alleged criminals and the army, <a href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/2-soldiers-injured-1-civilian-dead-after-violence-in-culiacan/">occurred in the La Campiña neighborhood of Culiacán</a>
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A group of volunteer mothers who specialize on searching for graves and missing persons in northern <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.latintimes.com/topics/mexico">Mexico</a> discovered remains of a decomposed body in the municipality of <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.latintimes.com/topics/culiacan">Culiac&aacute;n</a>
Known as "Sabuesos Guerreras," the Culiac&aacute;n-based collective notified authorities of their findings on when they were searching for missing individuals near the town of Costa Rica
the first body was found at a remote location in El Alhuate
a rural community located about 30 miles south of Sinaloa's capital city
According to <a rel="noopener nofollow" href="https://oem.com.mx/elsoldesinaloa/policiaca/localizan-restos-humanos-en-avanzado-estado-de-descomposicion-al-sur-de-culiacan-22024459" target="_blank">El Sol de Sinaloa</a>
the human remains were found facing up and showed advanced signs of decomposition
The man is yet to be identified by authorities
The outlet reports that the body was found still wearing jeans along with a black t-shirt
and added that the victim's hands were tied with a rope
Earlier this week, authorities were also <a rel="noopener nofollow" href="https://www.dallasnews.com/espanol/al-dia/mexico/2025/03/03/asesinato-policias-carretera-la-12-sindicatura-costa-rica-culiacan/" target="_blank">notified</a> of three bodies found with signs of torture along the Culiac&aacute;n-Eldorado highway
The victims were later identified as members of the Culiac&aacute;n municipal police force and were still wearing their uniforms
the officers had responded to a homicide reported along the highway when a group of about 20 armed men kidnapped them
Culiac&aacute;n Mayor Juan de Dios Gamez Mend&iacute;vil said the three police officers requested backup and alerted authorities about the attack
but only the police car was found by authorities when they arrived at the scene
In the six months since "Los Chapitos" and "La Mayiza" started to fight over territories and control of the Sinaloa cartel
as well as forced kidnappings and vehicle theft have remained high
As of March 5, Noroeste <a rel="noopener nofollow" href="https://www.noroeste.com.mx/seguridad/informe-diario-4-homicidios-el-miercoles-2-abatidos-y-9-autos-robados-AG8923570" target="_blank">reports</a> that there have been at least 20 homicides reported for an average of four per day
286 people have been killed in Sinaloa due to the ongoing violent conflict
The numbers got out of control since September
with at least 120 homicides reported every month
In the six months since Chapitos and Mayos declared war to each other
authorities in Sinaloa have reported 956 homicide cases
The bloodiest month was October with a total of 187 cases
The outlet reports that forced disappearances or kidnappings surpass the number of homicides reported since September
1,094 kidnappings have been reported but only 645 complaints have been officially filed to the state's Attorney General's Office
Eght people were reported missing in March by Wednesday
A Mexican National Guardsman stands guard next to a body found lying on the side of a road in Culiacan
A resident pedals his bicycle past the temporarily closed Lazaro Cardenas elementary school
National Guards and Army forces patrol the streets during an operation in a neighborhood of Culiacan
A blue sheet covers a body found lying on the side of a road in Culiacan
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Local police in the cartel-dominated city of Culiacan
Mexico have been pulled off the streets after the army seized their guns
But rather than announcing a stepped-up police presence
said Monday the entire 1,000-member municipal police force would not return to duty until they get their weapons back
state police and National Guard will take over patrolling until then
Rocha said the seizure of the weapons for inspection of their permits and serial numbers was not a routine check
but rather was “exceptional,” and said “we hope it will end soon.”
the Mexican army has seized the weapons of local police forces they distrust
either because they suspect some local cops are working for drug gangs or because they suspect they are carrying unregistered
private sidearms that would make abuses harder to trace
Sunday’s protest was the first such march residents have dared to hold since factional fighting broke out following the events of July 25
Gunbattles have broken out even in downtown areas and upscale neighborhoods of Culiacan
and parents have been loathe to send their children to school since early September
Schools in Culiacan have largely turned to holding classes online to avoid the near-daily shootings
gunmen shot to death the leader of the local cattle rancher’s union
The civic group “Culiacan Valiente,” or Brave Culiacan
organized residents to dress in white Sunday as they carried banners reading “Take back our streets!”
but only if the safety of the schoolchildren is guaranteed,” the march organizers wrote in statement
Rocha acknowledged the battle is between two cartel factions — he called them the “Chapitos” and the “Mayitos” — and pledged to fight both equally
“There are two groups that are confronting each other here,” Rocha said of his state
“The authorities are here to face them down equally
The two groups have taken to leaving strange factional markers on the dead bodies of their rivals: The “Chapitos” leave pizzas (derived from their group’s collective moniker in Spanish
while Zambada’s supporters leave their trademark cowboy hats on dead bodies
The cowboy hats reflect the belief that Zambada’s faction is more old-school than the young Guzmáns
But the situation has gotten so out of control that cartel gunmen have taken to hijacking buses and trucks and burning them to block highways leading in and out of Culiacan
Rocha acknowledged that he himself got caught for hours in traffic Friday after one such cartel blockade
after he went to the nearby resort city of Mazatlan to meet with outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Rochas said he had to drive past the burning remains of one vehicle that had been torched
the governor promised to set up five “anti-blockade” squads with state police and soldiers on highways near Culiacan
But in acknowledgement that the squads wouldn’t be able to stop the hijackings
he said they would at least be equipped with tanker trucks to puts out the flames and tow away the wreckage
acknowledged recently that “We want this to be over as soon as possible
it’s up to the warring groups to stop confronting each other.” 
someone who thinks it’s not right for them — reporters
funeral home workers — to approach a corpse stuffed in a sack
Because there is no peace after death in these dusty streets of northwestern Mexico
“someone” becomes one of the most complex words of all those heard this Sunday morning in Carrizalejo
two formerly brotherly factions of the cartel
and the followers of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada
There are more factions; some support the former
says “the Sinaloa Cartel is a conglomerate of companies,” each with its businesses and interests
sometimes allied and sometimes not so much
the Sinaloa Cartel is nothing more than a cultural convention
the corpses have appeared surrounded by pizza boxes
can buy a cap with a slice of pizza engraved on the front — La Chapizza — a tribute to El Chapo’s boys
But there are no pizza boxes or hats this morning in Carrizalejo
they are not objects that guarantee any security
It is likely that no one would have approached anyway
no matter how many pizza boxes or hats there were
because no one knows if the murderers want the dead man to stay where he is for a while
Because the spot where he was left matters
It is not a random place in the middle of nowhere
it is the main exit from the city on this side and cars
The agents stopped next to the body and looked at it — they looked at the bag that contained the body — then they turned around and left
there is no way to find the families and offer them a wake and funeral plan
Criminals have burned houses and businesses in recent days with militant persistence
They have also shot at public security cameras by the dozens
Reporters can’t keep up and run from one place to another
but no one has thought to go and warn them
A single reporter remains with the dead man
He needs the police for the photo; his newspaper won’t accept a picture of just the corpse
“are you working on one?” He asks if he’s operational
with the little dead guy,” says the reporter
The prosecutor explains that those in charge of collecting the corpse can’t come until some preventive authority — the local or state police
or the National Guard — gives the green light
his call is a complaint about how bad everything has become
because no one in Culiacán has come to Altata — the natural beach for the state capital’s inhabitants — since the war began
“On a Sunday I had 70 or even 80 tables,” says the woman
whose real name is not appearing here for security reasons
there were two.” The sadness of places like this
the first massive round of skirmishes in the city
which left tourism at the bottom of the list of local priorities
“It’s an injustice what they are doing,” says the woman
but it was not until the beginning of September that the volcano erupted in Culiacán
as has happened in other wars — the one between Los Chapitos and the faction of Dámaso López
the battle between El Chapo and the Beltrán Leyva brothers
back in 2008 — people in Culiacán have mobilized to help them
Clients of the restaurants in Altata have formed convoys to travel together to the coast
like the European pioneers in the United States in the 19th century
Chef Miguel Taniyama is one of the few who has raised his voice
With 38 years of experience in the hospitality sector in the capital
“People don’t come after 7:00 p.m.,” he explains
businesspeople from Sinaloa have calculated the economic damage of these months of war at 18,000 million pesos
in addition to the loss of thousands of jobs
the name under which the event was fixed in the collective memory
but the reaction of his loyalists and his brothers on the day of his capture besieged the city again
The population had not yet recovered from the shock of that when the new war arrived this year
“This is like 70 culiacanazos,” says Taniyama
who a few days ago prepared a huge aguachile in the center of Culiacán to try to lift the spirits of the city and make visible the tragedy of the rich scene of local musical bands
installed on corners and street intersections
“Those who have money have left and those who stay do not have an economy...” The chef does not finish his sentence
as if he had opened a door and saw all the horror
“Seeing so much negativity knocks you down,” he adds
All this is happening — the conversations with Taniyama
Irma — while crime continues to spread death in the city
Thousands of Culiacán residents have subscribed to WhatsApp channels where administrators post information and propaganda about what is (supposedly) happening
went for a walk at the beginning of September
seemed to be a way of showing that the shootouts of the previous day
the suspension of classes in schools and a general feeling of terror were temporary issues
or state Secretary of Security Gerardo Mérida
have received a polite and constant refusal
neither of them have sat down to talk with this newspaper
Only some feet were saved them from the fire
head of one of the groups of relatives of missing persons in central Sinaloa
I bought him some sandals just like those,” she says
I got 10 security cameras that prove it and also a witness appeared who recognized his photo and said that the state police had also participated
But the prosecutor’s office has erased all that information,” she explains
prosecutors… The Pulido case illuminates the knots of criminal complicity in Sinaloa
Her story reflects others heard during these days of conflict
Attacks against police have also been a constant in this cartel war
criminals attacked two state patrol cars in the capital
Political authorities are trying to find immediate solutions
to impose the perception that they maintain control and that the situation will improve
“I had been with the police for more than 20 years,” says the agent
The conversation takes place in the courtyard of his house
a muted preacher speaks with confident gestures about heavenly matters
protests against his dismissal from the Culiacán police
he was discharged for “not passing the confidence checks.” The agent concludes: “It seems to me that the boss had to come up with some numbers
It was one of the biggest news stories in the first weeks of the war. In late September, the National Defense Secretariat (<a href="https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-02-26/scandals-leaks-and-power-games-the-deas-turbulent-relationship-with-mexico-and-president-lopez-obrador.html">Sedena</a>) intervened in the Culiacán police
It disarmed its more than 1,000 officers under the pretext of checking pistols and rifles
the state government announced that the agents would be subjected to “confidence checks” between late November and early December
It also said that around 100 agents had chosen not to submit to the checks
The obvious suggestion was that those who refused were probably hiding something and therefore it was better for them to leave the force
the anonymous policeman claims that he was forced into this group of 100 and that he never refused to undergo the confidence checks — “I had even submitted my papers” — and that if he was dismissed it was to save money on his retirement payment
a colleague in a similar situation arrives at the house
The latter had been in the police for just under 20 years
but as of four years ago he had spent a lot of time on sick leave
“It’s because of some threats I received,” he explains
the agent has needed to take tranquilizers every day
And now he has been fired for the same reason as his colleague: the confidence checks
both fit perfectly into the image of a broken toy
One of the problems of this cartel war is the climate of suspicion instilled on everything and everyone
It is not that there are no corrupt policemen in Culiacán; there are
It is even possible that the two agents are
But it is a problem that transcends the local police and affects the state police and the prosecutor’s office
The suspicions of corruption also overshadow other parts of the issue
the number of attacks that are recorded against officers of all stripes
was shot to death in a cafeteria in Culiacán
The body of the agent was found shortly after
A cardboard sign had been stuck in his chest with a knife
On it was a message that read: “Stop bringing two boxes and if you catch a pig
The authorites said that Cuén, the former mayor of the city and a federal deputy, had been killed the night before the El Mayo kidnapping, at a gas station during an attempted robbery. But El Mayo, first,<a href="https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-08-13/the-letter-from-el-mayo-zambada-that-widens-the-scandal-in-mexico-a-murder-a-capture-and-a-secret-meeting.html"> in a letter issued from prison in the U.S.</a>
and subsequently the federal prosecutor’s office
said that Cuén had been killed in the same place where Guzmán López had summoned Zambada
Zambada also mentioned two members of his personal escort who had accompanied him that day: one was an active agent of the local prosecutor’s office and the other had been one previously
The obvious involvement of the Attorney General’s Office in the matter reflects similar cases in other police departments
WhatsApp channels have repeatedly mentioned an alleged group operating within the local police
An agent of the local prosecutor’s investigative police
who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity
just as they exist in the prosecutor’s office itself or in the state police
but sometimes you come across a commander who doesn’t do that and then you don’t it either
it’s the same police officer who comes and looks for ways to get money,” he says
alias “El Max” or “El Oso.” There were no wounded
The government reported what happened as if it were an everyday operation
a video of an event in Culiacán in which soldiers seemed to spare the life of a young man
just because one of the uniformed men realized they were being recorded
The flood of news about the war soon buried what had happened in Plan de Oriente. No one questioned it. <a href="https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-08-19/mexicos-claudia-sheinbaum-prepares-to-take-power.html">Claudia Sheinbaum’s government</a> had just taken office
and the situation in Culiacán did not lend itself to serious reflections
it suggested a change in the dynamics of military operations and the security strategy in general
it demanded an explanation for the enormous disproportion between the number of dead and wounded — 19 to 0 — a result that any academic who has studied military performance in police tasks would be placing at the top of their list of examples to analyze
The war in Culiacán has this kind of effect
The boundaries between the acceptable and the execrable are blurred
People suddenly get information through WhatsApp channels and consume content of dead people like Tiktok videos
Things have happened in the city in these months that
what happened yesterday morning is already a distant past
So, in the middle of all the mental <a href="https://elpais.com/america/sociedad/the-beats-of-mi-tierra/2022-09-08/cumbia-a-latino-heart-loved-by-all-the-world.html">cumbia</a>
But any detail that abounds in his identity could cause him problems
because of the signs that the residents have shared
he could know something about what happened that day
“I’m going to have to kill him,” he says in an almost inaudible whisper
“Look,” he says in response to the avalanche of questions
“they got rat-tat-tat!.” And then he raises his hands and pretends to shoot with a rifle
The man in the cap lives and works near the house where the 19 were killed
the boundary between the streets of the ejido and a large area of cultivated fields
“Suddenly the boludos arrived,” he explains
He says he saw and heard them from his place of work on the night of October 21
and that at the same time he saw soldiers on the street
He says he ran to get home but when he saw that there were soldiers aiming at him
The man in the cap managed to get back home
he saw at least one soldier with a “minimi,” a machine gun capable of firing hundreds of rounds per minute
shooting at the criminal group over the wall of the house where they were hiding
because when he started shouting at the soldiers not to shoot
One of the soldiers then asked him for proof: “Take the child out.” He produced him and thus
The dog barks at him again and he freaks out again and pretends to grab a stone from the ground
there are still soldiers guarding the street that leads to the front door of the house
they block the way and say that they cannot enter
The lieutenant in charge says that to do so
they must first ask the Ninth Military Zone
the zone’s communications officer says that the army has not guarded any street in the Plan de Oriente ejido and that passage is free
the chosen route goes around the back of the scene
The remains of the massacre can still be seen through the holes in the perimeter wall at the back
There are two main areas with bullet holes
one closer to the entrance and another more hidden
Contrary to what the man with the cap said yesterday — the story of the minimi shooting over the compound — the holes in the walls suggest that the shots were fired from the front
which would have forced the soldiers to shoot diagonally
The lack of official explanations about what happened fuels the uncertainty and the man with the cap is nowhere to be seen
the agent of the local prosecutor’s office mentioned earlier
who spoke of corruption in the security forces
The local prosecutor’s office only intervened in support of the federal police
but even so… “They shot them,” he says without a doubt
which the government has linked to El Mayo Zambada
and when they saw what they were up against
but then they surrendered and then they were shot,” he explains
It is difficult to understand what is happening
how each of the events described — the death of the 19
the bodies found here and there — fit into the movement
The veteran local politician mentioned in the first part of this story points out that the El Mayo faction has been surrounding Culiacán during these months
“All the fighting has been in the area of Los Chapitos
the Mayo group was able to figure out where their support came from
what they have done is isolate those spaces
“The objective is to prevent reinforcements from reaching Culiacán.”
alias “El Nini.” “What happened to Max was not so important for Los Mayos
Irma has started checking her Instagram in Altata
a text has appeared that one of her waitresses wrote
where there were shootings when a convoy of Culiacán residents tried to reach the coast to eat
“Having to evacuate your house due to the narco pandemic,” she writes
“I am afraid […] It is no longer just the gunshots
they are coming to our houses to check that there are no people who are not family members
they check cell phones and they are asking us to remain normal
How can we remain normal in this situation
[…] The Army only enters the ranch for a few hours and leaves
About this regime of terror imposed by the war
about the evident inability of the authorities to change things or to not make them worse… In a recent report by the state government’s System for the Comprehensive Protection of the Rights of Girls
the authors collect statements from children aged under 15
when the military arrested Ovidio Guzmán in Jesús María
a community half an hour north of Culiacán
It was an operation in the purest Hollywood style
with armed helicopters and soldiers in an assault column
Here are some of the statements: “I would like them to repair my house because the helicopter made holes in the roof”; “I would like there to be more police
and for everything bad to disappear”; “Let Ovidio Guzmán and the criminals go away”; “Let the military go away because the children see them and start crying.”
Irma’s Instagram comes back into the conversation hours later
because of another of the images she has shown
the photo of a missing poster for a man who disappeared the night before
and a telephone number with an area code for Navolato
The number is answered by a man who introduces himself as Horacio Acosta
He says that he is at the headquarters of the Prosecutor’s Office and that yes
the man explains that he has moved to the offices of the Forensic Medical Service (Semefo)
There are a lot of people at Semefo this afternoon
Horacio Acosta is not part of any of the groups
He is sitting on a bench with the funeral home workers
He then says that he has been a teacher for 35 years
that he is part of Alcoholics Anonymous and that he attends meetings of his group every day
“Last night I arrived home at about 9:15 p.m.
The man wanted to talk to his son and ask him to recommend a mechanic
He was wondering whether to call him or leave it for the next day when his daughter-in-law
they took Kevin!’” Pamela said that minutes earlier
jumped over the wall and started breaking the bars and windows
The couple had their four-month-old baby with them
“They were searching everything,” Pamela explained
“looking for weapons.” The attackers took the car keys to look for weapons there as well
Horacio Acosta called the emergency services and told them what had happened
The operator urged him to go to the Prosecutor’s Office the next day to file a formal complaint
the family posted the search form on their social media accounts
the plan was to go to the Prosecutor’s Office
asking if their son might not be one of the five bodies that had appeared hours earlier outside the School of Agronomy of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa in the city
That’s what Horacio Acosta and his wife saw
they forgot to go to the Prosecutor’s Office and returned to Navolato
but they told us it would take a while to identify them.” So they decided to wait back at the Semefo
Before Horacio could begin to narrate the events
his wife had entered the morgue to see if the young man was one of the five
the woman came out of the door of the center and stared at her husband
Acosta suddenly fell silent and looked back at her; it took him a few seconds to react
something so intimate and at the same time so terrible
no more questions were asked; no more answers were needed
His captors ask the boy about the murder of some policemen from Navolato
The second part of this criminal indoctrination video shows some bodies in the dark
Someone on the side of those filming starts shooting
The glare of the explosions allows the iron bars of the wall of the School of Agronomy to be seen
The final scene of the film changes tone again and focuses on a poster with a message: “For those who continue trying to get into Culiacán
Sign up for <a href="https://plus.elpais.com/newsletters/lnp/1/333/?lang=en">our weekly newsletter</a> to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition
Food inspections for the week of Feb. 10 saw only one failure for a seafood eatery, marking an <a href=https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/entertainment/dining/2025/02/12/pair-of-eateries-fail-el-paso-restaurant-inspections/78426125007/ target=_blank rel="noreferrer noopener">improvement from last week, which saw two restaurants with failing scores.</a>
The following <a href=https://foodscores.elpasotexas.gov/ target=_blank rel="noreferrer noopener">are scores from inspections</a> from Feb
Establishments scoring 60 or lower face closure
An inspection carried out on a particular day may not reflect the overall
Inspections are conducted in the city of El Paso
Restaurants failing inspections are given a chance to rectify the violations before a reinspection
Kristian Jaime is the Top Story Reporter for the El Paso Times and can be reached at Kjaime@elpasotimes.com
are closed and security has been increased as violent clashes play out between factions of the Sinaloa cartel
Security forces are “dissuading some violent acts but above all reducing the risks to the population to a minimum,” Rocha said in a video posted to social media Thursday
he said “there will not be any celebration” for the Sept
adding that school will be suspended Thursday and Friday because so few students showed up
The Sinaloa governor maintained the state has sufficient security presence to protect people
but around Culiacan people appear to have a very different view
absolutely nothing,” said Ismael Bojórquez
director of the weekly newspaper Riodoce in Culiacan
which specializes in coverage of organized crime
he said that on Tuesday gunmen in a convoy of 15 trucks drove into the city and later left without any authority stopping them
Bojórquez said that cartel gunmen have their shootouts
then the government arrives to clean up and take away the burned vehicles
residents took their own precautions including not sending their children to school
a professor of philosophy at the University of Sinaloa
said that just between Wednesday and Thursday he came upon three shootouts
He noted that the internal clash created a lot of uncertainty
who lives in a rural community on the outskirts of Culiacan and gave only his first name for safety
said he had asked his children to leave his grandchildren home and to not believe that things are calm even if the government says so
the state prosecutor’s office had reported nine dead
but the actual number of fatalities may be higher since the cartels often pick up their own dead
Zambada was the cartel’s elder figure and reclusive leader
he said in a letter circulated by his lawyer that he had been abducted by the younger Guzmán and taken to the U.S
“There’s obviously a fight for power” inside the cartel
“The only thing the government is doing is watching
observing the clash between the Chapitos and El Mayo’s people,” he said
“There’s no action against the drug trafficking cells.” ___
Mexico’s Security Minister Omar García Harfuch returned to the battle-scarred state of Sinaloa for the second time this month after one of his federal agents was slain Wednesday in Culiacán
in an attack attributed to organized crime
President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters during her Thursday morning press conference that García Harfuch will remain in the northwestern state for an undefined period of time
Sheinbaum also said she will meet with the security minister and Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha in the southern resort town of Mazatlán on Sunday
Security Ministry (SSPC) investigator Halexy Guadalupe Velderrain Con was ambushed and killed in Culiacán
While the SSPC did not provide additional details at the time
at least one other agent was reported wounded
which added that witnesses told local media they had seen two men on a motorcycle approach the SSPC vehicle and open fire
On Thursday, García Harfuch met with the Sinaloa governor. After the meeting, Rocha confirmed that the agent&#8217;s death <a style="user-select: text;" href="https://www.infobae.com/mexico/2024/12/19/asesinato-de-agente-de-garcia-harfuch-fue-un-ataque-directo-confirma-ssp-de-sinaloa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was the result of a &#8220;targeted attack.&#8221;</a>
Sinaloa — and especially Culiacán — has been the scene of near-daily violence since rival factions of the Sinaloa Cartel took up weapons against each other in early September
more than 600 people have been murdered and over 900 people have been kidnapped or “disappeared,” according to the magazine Proceso
The state’s economy has been paralyzed as businesses have closed down or dramatically shortened hours of operation, prompting <a style="user-select: text;" href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/business/sinaloa-65-million-peso-fund-local-businesses-economy-violence/">Governor Rocha to start distributing cash</a> to mitigate the impact of the drug war
State business leaders say the violence has cost the state economy at least 18 billion pesos
Even as <a style="user-select: text;" href="https://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/estados/2024/10/21/infierno-en-sinaloa-que-ruben-rocha-niega-aterroriza-percepcion-de-inseguridad-sube-en-culiacan/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rocha claims the violence is being blown out of proportion</a>
the reality of the situation indicates otherwise
a mid-day shootout in which more than 300 rounds were fired off occurred near a baseball park in Culiacán where Little League games were taking place
players and fans lay on the field waiting for the gunfire to stop
another five-minute-long firefight took place in a residential area of the state capital
One property was shot up as was a recently inaugurated fire station
Some online companies have refused to make deliveries in the state due to concerns about the safety of highway travel
There have been shootouts along the Mazatlán-Culiacán highway — where bodies have also been regularly dumped along the road
Concern about the public’s psychological health has prompted the Autonomous University of Sinaloa to offer virtual counseling to residents who might be suffering from PTSD
Even the army is not safe from the violence
soldiers were ambushed in the village of Elota
The attack resulted in a rapid reaction from the armed forces which summoned the National Guard
Witnesses reported seeing military helicopters transport several wounded soldiers out of the area
Just hours after the United States added the Sinaloa Cartel to its list of foreign terrorist organizations, Mexican authorities arrested two key leaders of the crime gang that has been fighting <a style="user-select: text;" href="https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-02-17/news-of-a-stagnant-war-in-sinaloa.html">a bloody factional war since September</a>
aka “El Güerito,” and Kevin Alonso Gil Acosta
known as “El 200,” were arrested in the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacán after extensive operations carried out by federal authorities
Both men have been described as high-ranking members of the cartel and key associates of Iván Archivaldo Guzmán
Gil Acosta was described by federal authorities as one of the top security chiefs for Iván Archivaldo Guzmán, the alleged leader of the Chapitos and son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. His apprehension was <a style="user-select: text;" href="https://www.gob.mx/sspc/prensa/tras-un-operativo-en-sinaloa-fue-detenido-un-sujeto-responsable-de-la-seguridad-de-un-lider-delictivo?idiom=es">announced by the Mexican government on Thursday</a>
His responsibilities reportedly included the execution of security measures within the faction, as well as high-profile tasks directed by Guzmán himself. <a style="user-select: text;" href="https://x.com/OHarfuch/status/1892563592312221998">Security Minister Omar García Harfuch said in a social media post</a> that “El 200” also coordinated the purchase of weapons and ammunition for “Los Chapitos.”
as well as generating violence in the state,” García Harfuch added
En un operativo conjunto el Ejército Mexicano, Guardia Nacional, Fuerza Aérea <a style="user-select: text;" href="https://twitter.com/SEDENAmx?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SEDENAmx</a> , fue detenido en Culiacán, Sinaloa Kevin Alonso “N” (a) “200”.El “200” era responsable de la seguridad del líder de esta organización criminal y coordinaba la compra de armas y municiones… <a style="user-select: text;" href="https://t.co/xv6JEGIltK">pic.twitter.com/xv6JEGIltK</a>
— Omar H Garcia Harfuch (@OHarfuch) <a style="user-select: text;" href="https://twitter.com/OHarfuch/status/1892563592312221998?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 20, 2025</a>
Canobbio has been identified as the cartel’s financial operator with close connections to significant drug trafficking operations
Allegations link Canobbio to several violent incidents — including assaults on military installations — and tie him to other organized crime activities across the region
His arrest was <a style="user-select: text;" href="https://www.gob.mx/sspc/prensa/en-sinaloa-detienen-a-uno-de-los-principales-operadores-de-un-grupo-delictivo-vinculado-con-distribucion-internacional-de-droga?idiom=es">announced by the Mexican government on Wednesday</a>
Both suspects were found with military-grade weapons and tactical gear at the time of their arrest
Infighting within the Sinaloa Cartel broke out on Sept. 9 after rival drug lords Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Iván’s half-brother <a style="user-select: text;" href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/sinaloa-cartels-joaquin-guzman-lopez-made-surrender-agreement-with-brother-ovidio/">Joaquín Guzmán López were apprehended in the United States</a> after flying there in a small plane on July 25
The Associated Press described the violence
even for residents of Culiacán who have “long been accustomed to a day or two of violence once in a while.”
The apprehension of these alleged cartel leaders demonstrates the intensified law enforcement efforts against drug trafficking being conducted since President Claudia Sheinbaum took office on Oct
The new strategy appears to be targeting the command structure of the “Los Chapitos” faction of the cartel
The dual apprehension was effected using tactics involving both ground troops and aerial support
Authorities utilized helicopters and armored vehicles
while targeting areas known for gang activity
In anticipation of a cartel response and due to the running gun battles that took place the past few days
local authorities announced that public schools and universities in the Culiacán area would be holding virtual classes for the time being
Eight civilians were wounded by stray bullets in the past few days
These latest arrests come shortly after two other principal figures in the Sinaloa Cartel were arrested
was arrested last week in the northern state of Chihuahua
The 51-year-old Rivera — a priority target of the FBI — was flown on Sunday to Mexico City where he now awaits extradition proceedings
alias “Bala.” Sánchez is wanted in the U.S
The Sinaloa Cartel also suffered further disruptions last week
14 that naval intelligence activities helped federal authorities locate and neutralize several clandestine labs used to manufacture synthetic drugs in Sinaloa
MEXICO CITY — Mexican soldiers and marines have seized over a ton of fentanyl pills in two raids in the north
with officials calling it the biggest catch of the synthetic opioid in the country's history
The raids came after a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/09/30/nx-s1-5124997/fentanyl-overdose-opioid-btmps-drug-cartel-xylazine-tranq-mexico-china" target="nx-s1-5124997">sharp drop in fentanyl seizures in Mexico earlier this year</a>
President-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico unless those countries cracked down on the flow of migrants and drugs across the border
Experts say the timing may not be a coincidence
"It is clear that the Mexican government has been managing the timing of fentanyl seizures," said security analyst David Saucedo
it appears President Claudia Sheinbaum's administration is willing to the increase the capture of drug traffickers and drug seizures that Washington is demanding."
Saucedo said it's clear the Mexican government "doesn't see fentanyl as one of its own problems
and fighting it isn't its priority," He added there would only be big busts "when there is pressure from Washington."
Mexico's top security official said soldiers and marines late Tuesday spotted two men carrying guns in the northern state of Sinaloa
In one house soldiers found about 660 pounds (300 kilograms) of fentanyl
and in the other a truck packed with about 1,750 pounds (800 kilograms) of the drug
we achieved the biggest seizure in history of fentanyl," Public Safety Secretary Omar Garcia Harfuch wrote in his social media accounts
Several guns were also seized and two men were arrested
President Sheinbaum said Wednesday that "this is an investigation that had been going on for some time
But that claim contrasts with the seemingly random nature of the bust
which started when a military patrol "noticed the presence of two men carrying what appeared to be guns."
Mexican security forces have sometimes used the story of following armed men running into houses as a pretext to enter homes without search warrants
the government version was disproved by security camera footage
The latest haul was striking because fentanyl seizures in Mexico had fallen dramatically in the first half of the year
under former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador
federal forces reported seizures amounted to as little as 50 grams (2 ounces) per week
Figures for the first half of 2024 show that Mexican federal forces seized only 286 pounds (130 kilograms) of fentanyl nationwide between January and June
down 94% from the 5,135 pounds (2,329 kilograms) seized in 2023
The synthetic opioid has been blamed for about 70,000 overdose deaths annually in the United States
officials have tried to step up efforts to seize it as it comes over the border
often in the form of counterfeit pills made in Mexico from precursor chemicals largely imported from China
López Obrador always denied that fentanyl is even produced in Mexico
though experts — and even members of his own administration — acknowledge that it is
And if Mexico doesn't go after those fentanyl production facilities
then they will still be churning out similar quantities in the future
State Department announced it was increasing the reward for the top leader of another cartel
known by his nickname "El Mencho," leads the Jalisco cartel
is heavily involved in the manufacture and distribution of fentanyl and methamphetamines
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           Print                          CULIACÁN
Mexico&nbsp;—&nbsp;In this city built from the spoils of Mexico’s richest drug-trafficking empire
they’re calling it the “narco-pandemia’’ — not a virus but a deadly reckoning inside the Sinaloa cartel that has left businesses shuttered
schools empty and the streets nearly deserted
exclusive car dealerships and plastic surgery boutiques catering to cartel lieutenants and their entourages are mostly closed
Driving around after dark is a lonesome experience
the eerie consequence of what many label a “voluntary” curfew
there’s a psychosis everywhere in Culiacán,” said Donaciano García
a trumpet player and leader of a band desperate for work since cantinas and dance halls have shut down
More than 140 people have been killed in the last month
many of their bodies dumped on the streets
               </a>         <a class="link" href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation">World &amp; Nation</a> 
Mexican officials are demanding answers from investigators in the case of a politician whose killing appears tied to the capture of Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada
Both sides can call on thousands of heavily armed gunmen. In a <a class="link" href="https://mx.usembassy.gov/security-alert-ongoing-violence-and-security-concerns-in-culiacan-sinaloa-mexico/#:~:text=The%20U.S.%20Consulate%20General%20reminds,Be%20aware%20of%20your%20surroundings." target="_blank" >warning</a> last month against travel to Sinaloa
“We are not calling it a war — not yet anyway,” said Ismael Bojórquez, editor of the weekly Riodoce, whose co-founder <a class="link" href="https://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-mexico-journalist-dead-20170515-story.html">Javier Valdez</a> was assassinated in 2017 — a killing linked to his intrepid coverage
“But no one knows to where this is going to lead.”
  hundreds of demonstrators emerged from their homes for a few hours to march through downtown behind a banner vowing: “We will reclaim our streets!”
Each day brings new shootouts and killings
                    National Guardsmen drive through the main entrance of Jesus Maria
a son of “El Chapo,” was detained in January 2023
  (Martin Urista / Associated Press)       “I was cooking at the stove in my apartment when I heard the shots,” said Waldina Quintero
a house cleaner whose apartment complex in the Tres Ríos district became a battle zone on Sept
listening to gunshots and what sounded like bombs — possibly grenades or tear-gas canisters
she emerged to a battlefield vision: coils of smoke
blood-streaked stairs and blackened walls gouged with scores of bullets
“I just feel lucky to be alive,” Quintero said
Her neighbor Juan Carlos Sánchez was one of three men shot dead at the scene
was an innocent man who was slain as he tried to evacuate his wife and 8-month-old daughter
Authorities did not release details but said that Sánchez may have been a “collateral” victim
his arm marked with a tattoo of the Virgin of Guadalupe
  (Eduardo Verdugo / Associated Press)       : :
the state of Sinaloa was best known for its agriculture and seafood industries
along with the signature beach resort city of Mazatlán
and Mexican authorities broke up what had long been the country’s biggest criminal organization — the Guadalajara cartel — and El Chapo and El Mayo ended up in control of Sinaloa’s marijuana and heroin trade
The cartel they created soon pioneered connections with Colombian mobs to move cocaine to the United States
eventually expanding into methamphetamine and fentanyl
the synthetic opioid blamed for tens of thousands of U.S
Sinaloa became the epicenter of Mexico’s multibillion-dollar drug-trafficking business
Many of the profits wound up in the state capital of Culiacán
a city of a million where gangsters have enjoyed a certain respect for their contributions to the economy
public works and charities — and for tamping down on common street crime
final resting place of many racketeers and their families
While the drug business runs smoothest when there is peace
occasional spasms of deadly violence from cartel infighting have long been a way of life here — earning the city a treacherous reputation
“So what do you eat in Sinaloa — besides bullets?” a restaurant owner
said he was once asked on a trip elsewhere in Mexico
“We have become a society profoundly perverted by narco money,” he said the other day
“We are paying the price of decades of living with the culture of los narcos.”
Despite more than four decades on the run as one of the world’s most wanted fugitives
Mexican drug kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada had never spent a single night in jail -- until now
In <a class="link" href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2024-07-27/el-mayo-zambada-lawyer-says-client-forcibly-kidnapped-by-son-of-el-chapo">a letter</a> distributed by his lawyer
Zambada said his godson’s goons kidnapped him at a resort in suburban Culiacán
drove him to an airstrip and forced him on the plane
On the day of the alleged kidnapping, former Culiacán Mayor <a class="link" href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2024-08-18/kidnapping-capture-cover-up-cremated-body-baffles-mexican-officials-in-el-mayo-arrest">Héctor Melesio Cuén</a> — said to have been close to Zambada — was shot dead in a still-mysterious slaying that Zambada linked to his abduction
as cartel bosses apparently figured out what to do
“Many more people are missing than what the government says,” said María Isabel Cruz
who heads a collective here searching for bodies
presumed foot soldiers of one side or the other in the bloodletting
Some were likely innocents caught in the crossfire
                    Police work a crime scene last month in Culiacán
killers have sent messages to their rivals by adorning remains with cowboy hats — as Zambada was known for wearing — or with pizzas
vandals smashed the ornate family crypt outside Culiacán of an imprisoned former cartel luminary
While “El Licenciado” was a close associate of El Chapo
who are widely blamed here for the desecration of the ancestral tomb
its exterior spray-painted with the salutation
authorities discovered the bodies of six shooting victims
It was unclear to whom the “welcome” message was directed
The government has dispatched more than 1,000 additional soldiers to help keep the peace in Sinaloa since July 25
upping the state total to more than 4,500 troops
Motorcycle lookouts on cartel payrolls track military and police convoys — featuring pickups with mounted machine guns — that regularly circulate through the streets
                    Soldiers arrive at a crime scene in Culiacán
  (Associated Press)       No one seems confident that the reinforcements can rein in the violence
declared that it was up to the cartels to stop the mayhem
 “They are the ones making attacks and costing lives.”
U.S. officials “carried out that operation” to capture Zambada, he told reporters, denouncing it as “totally illegal.” 
Ken Salazar, the U.S. ambassador in Mexico City, has sought to distance Washington from the affair and its lethal fallout. He has said that the aircraft used to spirit Zambada from Culiacán was not a U.S. government plane — and that the pilot was neither a U.S. citizen nor on any U.S. payroll.
                    A truck burns in Culiacan, Mexico, after the arrest of Ovidio Guzmán López in January 2023.   (Martin Urista / Associated Press)       Here in Culiacán, few seem to question that U.S. officials orchestrated the mission. 
“I doubt we’ll ever know what really happened in this case until the Americans make a television series out of it,” said Taniyama, the restaurant owner.
His restaurant is one of the few still open. The shutdowns are causing losses of at least $25 million a day, according to the chamber of commerce.
                    A person cleans a temporarily closed elementary school in Culiacán, Mexico, on Sept. 19.   (Eduardo Verdugo / Associated Press)       “People in Culiacán are used to living with bullets, with violence,” said Óscar Sánchez, who heads an association of vendors. “But what they are calling a treason within the group is causing problems that could escalate into something worse than anything we’ve ever experienced before.”
Across the city, parents have put up banners outside schools declaring that their children will not return until it is safe.
“I’d rather my children lose a year of school than have to bury them,” said one mother who was too frightened to have her name published.
Photos recently went viral of students crouching beneath their desks during a police operation on a nearby boulevard, where fleeing suspects tossed spikes onto the streets to puncture the tires of National Guard vehicles chasing them.
Two days later, none of the 266 children enrolled in the elementary school showed up.
“It’s sad, but I can understand the way the parents feel,” said Rosalva Ramos, the school principal. “Hopefully this will be over soon — the violence will be gone and this place will once again be alive with the presence of children.”
Academic Oswaldo Zavala has pushed back at the notion that Mexico’s drug cartels are all-powerful
arguing that they could not exist without state support
In 2014, some 2,000 residents of Culiacán accompanied by a brass band marched through the streets to protest the arrest of El Chapo Guzmán and his threatened extradition to the United States. These days, no one is reveling in Sinaloa’s heritage of <a class="link" href="https://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-mexico-drugwar28-2008dec28-story.html">narco-folklore</a>.
                    People protest in support of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán in Culiacán, Mexico in 2014.   (Fernando Brito / Getty Images)       “Right now there is a very strong social rejection of what is going on,” said Carlos Ayala, a researcher with the Autonomous University of Sinaloa. “Sinaloa has a legal economy permeated by an illegal economy, but it’s very difficult to measure.”
Almost everyone here knows someone involved in the drug trade. But the topic is mostly relegated to whispers.
“We have a way of perceiving it,” Ayala said. “They are our cousins, neighbors, friends, they are from the same community. We grew up with them. We went to school with them.”
Special correspondents Aarón Ibarra in Culiacán and Cecilia Sánchez Vidal in Mexico City and Times staff writer Keegan Hamilton in San Francisco contributed to this report.
Foreign correspondent Patrick J. McDonnell is the Los Angeles Times Mexico City bureau chief and previously headed Times bureaus in Beirut, Buenos Aires and Baghdad. A native of the Bronx, McDonnell is a graduate of Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism and was a Nieman fellow at Harvard.
<a class="link" href="https://www.latimes.com/footersubscribe" target="_blank" >Subscribe for unlimited access</a><a class="link" href="https://www.latimes.com/sitemap" target="_blank" >Site Map</a>
On its heyday, the Medell&iacute;n Cartel led by <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.latintimes.com/topics/pablo-escobar">Pablo Escobar</a> was characterized by its use of money and power to stock private zoos and residences with exotic animals such as lions, tigers, <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.latintimes.com/colombian-court-orders-hunting-pablo-escobars-infamous-free-roaming-hippos-559126">hippos</a> and venomous snakes
A few decades later, <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.latintimes.com/topics/mexican-cartels">Mexican cartels</a> have seemingly picked up the same habit. And that is why, as the Mexican government led by President <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.latintimes.com/topics/claudia-sheinbaum">Claudia Sheinbaum's</a> conducts its strategy to combat drug cartels
authorities have been finding an increased number of exotic animals being held captive
president of "Ostok," Mexico's largest animal sanctuary
the rescue of big cats such as lions and tigers has increased exponentially since "Los Chapitos" and "La Mayiza" began their turf war for control of the Sinaloa Cartel
Zazueta said such rescues have increased fourfold since September
authorities in Culiac&aacute;n rescued 4 felines that were being held captive by drug cartel members
but between January and November of this yea
with 11 of the rescues taking place in the last three months
Just last year, Mexican authorities <a rel="noopener nofollow" href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mexico-seizes-10-tigers-5-lions-in-cartel-dominated-area/" target="_blank">seized</a> a massive collection of exotic animals in the township of La Barca
the majority of the animals confiscated in the state of Sinaloa have been tigers
Eight of them have been rescued in Culiac&aacute;n since September
along with three lions less than a year old
when two white Bengal tigers were found by military personnel during an operation in the Culiac&aacute;n neighborhood of Barrancos
firearms and armored vehicles during the operation
military personnel found another Bengal tiger chained to an abandoned pickup truck
most of the animals rescued show signs of dehydration as well as physical and phycological stress due to being held in small spaced at a very young age
He added that drug cartel members take their claws and their fangs off in order to coexist with the animals
making it impossible for animal rescuers to release them into the wild as they are left defenseless in their natural habitats
"They can't exercise, they can't develop as they should," Zazueta told <a rel="noopener nofollow" href="https://oem.com.mx/elsoldesinaloa/local/crece-un-400-por-ciento-el-rescate-de-tigres-y-leones-en-culiacan-en-los-ultimos-tres-meses-19325538" target="_blank">El Sol de Sinaloa</a>
the animals are held inside warehouses where they don't get sunlight
The animals experience a lot of traumas when they held in such small cages," he added
An <a rel="noopener nofollow" href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/el-chapo-sons-fed-rivals-to-tigers-corkscrews-electrocution-hot-chiles-torture-justice-department-says/" target="_blank">indictment</a> unsealed in April 2023 revealed that two of Joaqu&iacute;n "El Chapo" Guzm&aacute;n's sons
Iv&aacute;n Archivaldo and Jes&uacute;s Alfredo Guzm&aacute;n Salazar
Prosecutors said that victims of "Los Chapitos" were at times fed dead or alive to the tigers they kept as pets. A few months later, that version was corroborated by <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.latintimes.com/el-mini-lic-whistleblower-who-revealed-key-secrets-chapitos-cartel-arrested-again-mexico-569345">D&aacute;maso L&oacute;pez Serrano</a> alias "El Mini Lic," former ally of "Los Chapitos" until his arrest in 2017
The former Sinaloa Cartel member told investigative journalist Anabel Hern&aacute;ndez that "Los Chapitos" used to throw people inside the tigers' cages
"They threw him inside the cage...the animal teared off one of the hands and his genitals," L&oacute;pez Serrano said in the interview
"The lifeless body was then thrown to one of Culiac&aacute;n's major streets where the victim's mother lived," he added
The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has released site locations for two new houses of the Lord — the <a href="https://www.thechurchnews.com/almanac/temples/tuguegarao-city-philippines/" target="_blank">Tuguegarao City Philippines</a> and <a href="https://www.thechurchnews.com/almanac/temples/culiacan-mexico/" target="_blank">Culiacán Mexico</a> temples
An exterior rendering of the Tuguegarao City temple has also been released
These sites and rendering <a href="https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/locations-announced-for-temples-in-culiacan-mexico-tuguegarao-city-philippines" target="_blank" rel="" title="https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/locations-announced-for-temples-in-culiacan-mexico-tuguegarao-city-philippines">were first published</a> Tuesday, Feb. 18, on <a href="http://churchofjesuschrist.org/" target="_blank">ChurchofJesusChrist.org</a>
A single-story edifice of approximately 18,850 square feet
the Tuguegarao City temple will stand on a 6.3-acre site south of Enrile Avenue
Patron housing and a distribution center will also be built on the site
The rendering of this house of the Lord shows arched entryways around the main doors and a multilevel tower with domed cupola above the center of the building
The Philippines has around 870,000 Latter-day Saints in almost 1,300 congregations
Planned to be a 10,000-square-feet structure of a single story
the Culiacán temple will be built off of Avenida Milenium in the Colonia Country Tres Ríos
The house of the Lord will stand on an approximately 5-acre site and adjacent to a patron housing building
The country has more than 1.5 million Latter-day Saints in nearly 1,900 congregations
This inspection of their permits and serial numbers, Rocha said, was not routine but an "exceptional" measure, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/mexico-drug-cartel-sinaloa-violence-3b6765e9cc66feada673654bcd6055e4?utm_source=substack&amp;utm_medium=email" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">according to the Associated Press</a>
The Mexican army has a history of seizing local police weapons when they suspect officers are working with drug gangs or carrying unregistered firearms to avoid accountability
A similar weapon seizure occurred in Cuernavaca in 2018 to ensure "trustworthy security forces
Culiacan has been the center of <a href="https://www.latintimes.com/who-does-el-chapos-powerful-brother-support-sinaloa-cartel-war-does-it-make-difference-560551" rel="nofollow">violent clashes</a> between two factions of the Sinaloa cartel: the "Chapitos," led by the sons of imprisoned drug lord El Chapo
and the "Mayiza," aligned with Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada
The conflict escalated after Zambada and Joaquin Guzman Lopez were apprehended in the U.S
leading to a violent power struggle that has escalated since September 9
organized by the civic group "Culiacan Valiente"
or "Brave Culiacan," was the first public outcry since the fighting began
residents marched with signs demanding safer streets and a return to in-person schooling
which has largely shifted online due to daily shootings
Governor Rocha Moya acknowledged the cartel war and promised to confront both factions equally
More than just confronting <a href="https://www.latintimes.com/mexican-turf-wars-have-new-front-sinaloa-jalisco-cartels-intensify-fighting-560663" rel="nofollow">criminal groups </a>in Sinaloa, the "Fuerza de Tarea" task force will focus on protecting civilians and offering quick responses when a situation arises. One of the main concerns for those deployed during the operation also includes locating those who have gone missing in recent weeks.
Gov. Rocha Moya also mentioned that five checkpoints will be installed in strategic locations along Sinaloa's most important highways in order to respond to any blocking attempts by criminal groups.
"What we want is that tow trucks are not just waiting, but instead located near the spots where a possible block by criminal groups can take place. We want to act fast," said Gov. Rocha.
Local army commander Gen. Francisco Leana Ojeda, said recently that people "want this to be over as soon as possible". "But it doesn't depend on us, it's up to the warring groups to stop confronting each other."
&copy; 2025 Latin Times. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Additional reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; Writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Paul Simao
Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by Anthony Esposito
The thugs took their time to arrange the five corpses, propping the bloody bodies up against a wall and placing big sombreros on their heads (with the store labels still attached) and little sombreros on their chests and bellies. They left them opposite a water park popular with families on a road out of Culiacán, the capital of Mexico’s Sinaloa state, home to Mexico’s oldest and richest narco empire. 
I arrive with local crime reporters early Sunday morning as a blazing sun rises and see the macabre sight over the police tape. The lifeless faces look eerily calm but the jokey decoration makes it more terrifying - and spreads even more fear among the residents of Culiacán.
A few days earlier in another case of body messaging, thugs left a severed head on a Culiacán street in a box of half-eaten pizza. “Pizzas” is a nickname for the other major faction of the Sinaloa Cartel, the Chapitos, or “Chapiza,” (Cha-pizza…) who are currently at war with the Mayos. Again, it’s unclear if this means the Chapitos were victims or victimizers. 
I arrive at the sombrero bodies during three days of following the crime beat to better understand the Mayos-Chapitos conflict. The civil war in the Sinaloa Cartel erupted on Sept. 9 and is creating a surge in Mexico’s violence just as President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is due to leave office and his ally Claudia Sheinbaum takes over on Oct. 1. The conflict has paralyzed Culiacán, a city of a million people, heaping on economic damage and trauma. 
We rush to crime-scene after crime-scene and it’s overwhelming. I find you switch off emotionally and it’s easy to forget the lumps of meat on the ground are real humans. But then we go to a home where gunmen sprayed 320 bullets and a grenade to kidnap three people - and shot dead a 19-year-old girl, leaving her corpse in the shower. Her sister has come to collect the body and she is teared up, in pain. And the death and suffering at last feel real. 
</a>This seems worse than the last Sinaloa war. There is a darker atmosphere and I’m more pumped with adrenaline. Contagious fear surges through the city, which the local Culichis call “social psychosis.”
Residents peer out of their homes at the tape and soldiers and bodies. A middle-aged woman tells me her nerves are so on edge her bowels are messed up. A retired insurance sales woman says she is so terrified that she is leaving in a few days to stay with her daughter in Canada. 
People are devastated by the loss of income. A carpenter, 51, comes out his home to a corpse left naked on a dirt street. He says his jobs were canceled once the war began. “I’ve been relying on my sons for money. But this can’t go on. We need to work.”
The level of paralysis in Culiacán is unprecedented in Mexico’s decades of cartel conflict. Violence has before made people leave their homes, shut down cities for a day or two and killed night life. But after Sept. 9, most businesses and schools in Culiacán were shuttered for an entire week while most people cowered in their houses. 
It’s reminiscent of the early Covid lock down, and was likely partly inspired by it. Social media also fuels fear. People watch videos of gunmen in camo storming into residential communities or abducting youths in broad daylight. There have been some 40 reported kidnappings in the city since Sept. 9 as well as dozens of murders. 
There are also misleading videos of old incidents or false alarms of convoys of killers that stir terror. Yet while there is some “fake news,” there is a very real conflict taking place at the heart of Mexico’s organized crime structures and it could get even worse. 
While details of the Mayos-Chapitos conflict (and all of the narco war) are difficult to pin down, a broad picture has emerged. The first shots were fired before dawn on Sept. 9, when a convoy of Mayos gunmen stormed into the Campiña neighborhood, a stronghold of the Chapitos, and targeted the home of an operator known as…
The rest of this piece with more serious intel is behind a pay wall, I’m afraid. I was the first foreign journalist to hit Culiacán for this important story and while I do it guerrilla-style, it still costs money; if you sign up for just $5, cheaper than that last cappuccino, you are supporting a worthy cause and are the best informed in the room.
</a>Para leer en espa\u00F1ol <a href=\\\"https://www.crashoutmedia.com/p/sobre-el-terreno-cubriendo-la-nueva\\\">click aqui. </a>
The thugs took their time to arrange the five corpses, propping the bloody bodies up against a wall and placing big sombreros on their heads (with the store labels still attached) and little sombreros on their chests and bellies. They left them opposite a water park popular with families on a road out of Culiac\u00E1n, the capital of Mexico\u2019s Sinaloa state, home to Mexico\u2019s oldest and richest narco empire. 
I arrive with local crime reporters early Sunday morning as a blazing sun rises and see the macabre sight over the police tape. The lifeless faces look eerily calm but the jokey decoration makes it more terrifying - and spreads even more fear among the residents of Culiac\u00E1n.
A few days earlier in another case of body messaging, thugs left a severed head on a Culiac\u00E1n street in a box of half-eaten pizza. \u201CPizzas\u201D is a nickname for the other major faction of the Sinaloa Cartel, the Chapitos, or \u201CChapiza,\u201D (Cha-pizza\u2026) who are currently at war with the Mayos. Again, it\u2019s unclear if this means the Chapitos were victims or victimizers. 
I arrive at the sombrero bodies during three days of following the crime beat to better understand the Mayos-Chapitos conflict. The civil war in the Sinaloa Cartel erupted on Sept. 9 and is creating a surge in Mexico\u2019s violence just as President Andr\u00E9s Manuel L\u00F3pez Obrador is due to leave office and his ally Claudia Sheinbaum takes over on Oct. 1. The conflict has paralyzed Culiac\u00E1n, a city of a million people, heaping on economic damage and trauma. 
We rush to crime-scene after crime-scene and it\u2019s overwhelming. I find you switch off emotionally and it\u2019s easy to forget the lumps of meat on the ground are real humans. But then we go to a home where gunmen sprayed 320 bullets and a grenade to kidnap three people - and shot dead a 19-year-old girl, leaving her corpse in the shower. Her sister has come to collect the body and she is teared up, in pain. And the death and suffering at last feel real. 
</a>This seems worse than the last Sinaloa war
There is a darker atmosphere and I\u2019m more pumped with adrenaline
which the local Culichis call \u201Csocial psychosis.\u201D
Residents peer out of their homes at the tape and soldiers and bodies
A middle-aged woman tells me her nerves are so on edge her bowels are messed up
A retired insurance sales woman says she is so terrified that she is leaving in a few days to stay with her daughter in Canada
People are devastated by the loss of income
comes out his home to a corpse left naked on a dirt street
He says his jobs were canceled once the war began
\u201CI\u2019ve been relying on my sons for money
The level of paralysis in Culiac\u00E1n is unprecedented in Mexico\u2019s decades of cartel conflict
Violence has before made people leave their homes
shut down cities for a day or two and killed night life
most businesses and schools in Culiac\u00E1n were shuttered for an entire week while most people cowered in their houses
It\u2019s reminiscent of the early Covid lock down
People watch videos of gunmen in camo storming into residential communities or abducting youths in broad daylight
There have been some 40 reported kidnappings in the city since Sept
There are also misleading videos of old incidents or false alarms of convoys of killers that stir terror
Yet while there is some \u201Cfake news,\u201D there is a very real conflict taking place at the heart of Mexico\u2019s organized crime structures and it could get even worse
While details of the Mayos-Chapitos conflict (and all of the narco war) are difficult to pin down
The first shots were fired before dawn on Sept
when a convoy of Mayos gunmen stormed into the Campi\u00F1a neighborhood
and targeted the home of an operator known as\u2026
The rest of this piece with more serious intel is behind a pay wall
I was the first foreign journalist to hit Culiac\u00E1n for this important story and while I do it guerrilla-style
it still costs money; if you sign up for just $5
you are supporting a worthy cause and are the best informed in the room
Federal forces on Thursday arrested &#8220;El Piyi,&#8221; an alleged security chief for the &#8220;Los Chapitos&#8221; faction of the Sinaloa Cartel
His capture deals a significant blow to the criminal group as it engages in a fierce battle with the &#8220;Los Mayos&#8221; faction of the same cartel
known as &#8220;El Piyi,&#8221; was detained in Culiacán
during an operation carried out by the army and National Guard
He was subsequently transferred to Mexico City
At least five other alleged Sinaloa Cartel gunmen who were traveling with Gámez in a convoy of vehicles in the north of Culiacán were also detained
El Piyi is allegedly a close collaborator of Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar
one of the sons of convicted drug trafficker Joaquín &#8220;El Chapo&#8221; Guzmán
Guzmán Salazar is a leader of the &#8220;Los Chapitos&#8221; faction of the Sinaloa Cartel along with his brother Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar
Joaquín Guzmán López and Ovidio Guzmán López
he reportedly worked closely with Jorge Humberto Figueroa
another alleged security chief for &#8220;Los Chapitos.&#8221;
Dozens of people have been killed in what has been described as a &#8220;war&#8221; between the rival cartel factions
More murders occurred in Culiacán on Thursday
Gámez reportedly kept a low profile in an attempt to avoid identification and arrest
However, El Piyi became known through songs recorded by <a style="user-select: text;" href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/culture/peso-pluma-and-narcocorridos-good-bad-or-simply-a-reality-society-doesnt-want-to-face/">Peso Pluma</a> and other artists who make music that fits into the corridos tumbados subgenre of regional Mexican music
&#8220;the identity and personality&#8221; of Gámez was revealed &#8220;little by little,&#8221; federal sources told Milenio
The songs mention his &#8220;different exploits&#8221; and &#8220;confrontations against the government and opposing groups,&#8221; the sources said
According to Milenio, Gámez also &#8220;won notoriety&#8221; because he took part in the two so-called culiacanzos — the violent cartel responses to the capture of Ovidio Guzmán <a style="user-select: text;" href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/sinaloa-cartel-sows-terror-in-culiacan/">in 2019</a> and again <a style="user-select: text;" href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/ovidio-guzman-arrest-sinaloa-death-toll/">in 2023</a>
The alleged cartel security chief reportedly kept three lion clubs as pets and recently traveled to the United Arab Emirates
where he drove buggies in the desert and posed for a photo with a falcon on his head
I got a call from a photojournalist friend in Culiacán
who wryly asked me about the ongoing narco war in the city: “How was your first shoot-out in Mazatlán?” 
there had been a car chase that ended in the murder of a man in the city where I live; afterward
more than 2,000 bullet casings were found in the area
It had been two months since an internal conflict between drug traffickers in the state of Sinaloa turned into a war that today has the state’s residents caught in the crossfire
according to the state Ministry of Public Security
Culiacán was full of punteros — motorcyclists circling the city to monitor the military’s presence — and sicarios
assassins working for the narco-traffickers or
“armed civilians.” Without police or transit officials
the presence of military and National Guard troops was impressive
with caravans of heavily armed soldiers in the streets
City residents sheltered in their homes in a self-imposed curfew: online classes
a collapsed economy and as if that wasn’t enough
Rubén Rocha Moya, governor of Sinaloa, minimized the conflict and for weeks insisted that Culiacán was calm. By late October, 3,300 soldiers and National Guardsmen had been sent to the state but it wasn&#8217;t enough to contain the violence unleashed after the July <a style="user-select: text;" href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/ismael-el-mayo-zambada-pleads-not-guilty-in-nyc-courthouse/">capture of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada</a>
the legendary leader of the Sinaloa Cartel
his colleague and friend Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was sentenced to life in prison in the U.S
the followers and children of both leaders
“los Mayos” and “los Chapitos,” fight to control the area and what they call “the company.”
My stay was discreet: I devoted myself to my work
I stayed close to the studio where I worked and slept
I shared my live location and constantly skimmed local news
joining the collective fear of the population: ever-attentive to my surroundings
During my stay I was able to see some friends; brief visits in which the topic of discussion was the “narco-pandemic,” as some called the mandatory lockdown period
a small plane flew over the city dropping flyers from the Mayos
The leaflets contained the names and faces of people accused of working with the Chapitos
including Sinaloa governor Rocha Moya and Senator Enrique Inzunza
then-President López Obrador and president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum visited Sinaloa to inaugurate the new Santa María reservoir irrigation system
a white van was abandoned at the southern edge of the city
Inside there were eight bodies and the exterior was spray-painted with a message: “Welcome to Culiacán.”
one of the most violent presidential terms in the history of Mexico
pack my suitcase and a friend gives me a lift to the bus station to return to Mazatlán
I’m constantly checking the news: it appears that the highways are clear
Ahead of me are 233 kilometers and 2.5 hours of travel
The bus is full and the sunset is spectacular
The Costa Rica tollbooth just outside the city
is semi-abandoned: only military and National Guard troops are present
The bus passes through without stopping to pay the toll
I’m even more surprised: it’s completely empty
My friends and family update me on the situation in Mazatlán: a few isolated kidnappings and murders
the police and National Guard constantly patrolling
Today, I write this chronicle from the comfort of my home. It’s a cool night. Outside, an ambulance siren wails in the distance. As residents of Sinaloa, we live with the fear that violence could occur at any moment. It’s not a new fear: since the start of <a style="user-select: text;" href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/politics/calderon-responds-garcia-luna-sentence/">Felipe Calderón’s so-called war on drug traffickers</a>
I feel powerless thinking how much longer the situation will last
No one wants to be a superhero in this absurd war
This story was translated by Mexico News Daily senior news editor Rose Egelhoff
<a style="user-select: text;" href="https://eduardoesparzamzt.wixsite.com/misitio">Eduardo Esparza</a> is a professor, filmmaker and professional photographer from Mazatlán, Sinaloa. His first feature film, <a style="user-select: text;" href="https://www.instagram.com/conunpieenlagloria_oficial">“Con un pie en la gloria,”</a> will premiere in summer 2025
The unexplained disappearance of one of the two giraffes at the Culiacán Zoo, in the capital city of <a href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/politics/sheinbaum-security-sinaloa/">Sinaloa</a>
has captivated local residents and sparked a wave of viral memes
confirmed Thursday that when he assumed his role on Nov
Casanova said determining the animal’s fate falls to his predecessor
who oversaw the zoo during the giraffe’s last recorded presence
La jirafa que anda perdida del Zoo de Culiacán, anda turisteando por la ciudad 😂😂 <a href="https://t.co/pSGQflKWe3">pic.twitter.com/pSGQflKWe3</a>
— Culiacán, Sinaloa (@EsCuliacan) <a href="https://twitter.com/EsCuliacan/status/1872460210448843177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 27, 2024</a>
the [second] giraffe was no longer there,” explained Casanova
who was a Morena city council member in Culiacán
“The [outgoing director] is the one who has to give that answer
As in all zoos … there is a possibility that there was an exchange between zoos
there should be a necropsy [an animal autopsy].”
13 to complete a report that includes information about the zoo’s animal inventory and records of animal deliveries and outgoing shipments
he indicated he will present his report a week early
so the fate of the giraffe can be clarified
“I need to finish the handover to determine exactly what happened
but perhaps to all the animals that are or were in the zoo,” he added
Input from the former director is expected
and Culiacán Mayor Juan de Dios Gámez Mendívil was reportedly looking to meet with zoo staff on Friday to discuss the situation
there were no reports of theft or disappearance of the giraffe
according to Leoncio Pedro García Alatorre
he did say that about three and a half months ago
a citizen called an emergency line to report that people were trying to steal a tiger from the zoo (a complaint that was later determined to be false)
<a href="https://quierotv.mx/2024/12/27/viral-los-mejores-memes-de-la-jirafa-desaparecida-del-zoologico-de-culiacan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The news of the missing giraffe quickly gained traction online,</a> with local residents creating memes that imagined the over four-meter (13-foot) animal in iconic nearby locations
such as the Tomateros baseball stadium and the Forum Culiacán shopping mall
Some social media users invoked the city’s challenges, with one post reading, “Even the giraffe left Culiacán<a href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/?s=culiacan"> because of the violence,”</a> according to Quiero TV
This is the second Mexico giraffe story to garner headlines in 2024. At the beginning of the year, a giraffe living in deplorable conditions in a city park in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, <a href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/the-sad-case-of-giraffe-benito-reaches-the-mananera/">became a cause célèbre</a> before being <a href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/a-citizens-victory-giraffe-benito-welcomed-to-new-home-in-puebla/">moved to a spacious safari park</a> in the state of Puebla
Japanese cooking techniques and recipes have circumnavigated the Pacific Rim for years
Seattle takes its ubiquitous teriyaki takeout counters for granted
Foodies travel to Lima for the ají-spiced wonders of Nikkei fusion cuisine
And idiosyncratic takes on Japanese cooking can be found all over the Pacific coast of Mexico
Cooks along that rugged strip of coastline—a center of both brassy banda music and drug cartels—take a wild and exuberant approach to raw-fish dishes
Sinaloa’s unorthodox fried maki and fiery aguachile have spread north to California
but the cuisine took its time reaching the East Coast
The new Mariscos Culiacán in Takoma Park feels transported from somewhere many miles southwest of DC
Outside its beige-and-brick strip-mall storefront
the parking lot was full of heavy pickup trucks with Spanish-language bumper stickers
Los Tigres del Norte were on the sound system and LA graffiti-style art decorated the walls
The latest wave of hip DC <a href="https://www.washingtonian.com/tag/mexican-restaurant/">Mexican eateries</a>—El Presidente and Amparo Fondita
for example—have highlighted a few Sinaloan seafood preparations
owner Hugo Jimenez devotes his entire menu to re­creating the Sinaloan capital of Culiacán
“In Culiacán, they took <a href="https://www.washingtonian.com/2024/05/14/the-best-sushi-omakase-restaurants-around-dc/">sushi</a> and made it Mexican,” he says
“All our corridos [traditional Mexican ballads] talk about Culiacán and sushi.”
he installs fiber-optic cables for tech and phone companies
You can often find him sitting at his restaurant’s bar in his Carhartt gear
he decided to invest in a friend’s business idea: a Sinaloan sushi-and-seafood spot in Takoma Park
The aguachiles at Mariscos Culiacán are made the traditional way—with raw shrimp cured in lime juice and tiled on a plate beside slices of cucumber and avocado
They come sauced in red or green salsa made with tiny chiltepín chilies—or blackened with soy sauce
It’s worth upgrading to tosti-aguachiles to get a layer of corn chips
Sinaloa’s fondness for surf and turf is represented here
too—the state is where ranching culture meets the Pacific
The kitchen griddles cheese into a crunchy shell
and tucks it into a housemade corn tortilla
Sinaloan sushi is to traditional omakase what Pink Flamingos is to Citizen Kane
Grilled steak makes its way into a number of the sushi rolls here
A section of the menu is devoted to deep-fried sushi
and each of those rolls contains cream cheese
and cream cheese that’s the signature roll in the small Sinaloan city for which it’s named
The menu is wide-ranging: You can also get something like a simple shrimp soup or fried fish with rice (and many do)
But it’s the no-holds-barred fried sushi and raging raw-shrimp aguachiles that are the best reasons to visit
This article appears in the <a href="https://www.washingtonian.com/2024/11/21/december-issue-learn-something-new-2024/">December 2024</a> issue of Washingtonian
Two public officials in the state of Sinaloa — including the mayor-elect of Mazatlán
Estrella Palacios Domínguez — were attacked and robbed by armed men while traveling Monday on the Mazatlán-Culiacán highway
Palacios and San Ignacio Mayor Octavio Bastidas Manjarrez were both unharmed
but the separate robbery incidents marked the latest in a string of violent crimes along the state’s roadways
signaling escalating insecurity in Sinaloa
approximately 72 kilometers south of Culiacán
while en route to a meeting with state officials
Armed men in a red pickup truck forced her and her companions out of their vehicle
Bastidas was similarly robbed of his truck while passing through the municipality of Elota
Both robberies occurred in broad daylight on <a href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/bus-and-tractor-trailer-collide-on-sinaloa-highway-killing-at-least-20/">Carretera Federal 15-D</a> — a major highway from the U.S.-Mexico border to Mexico City that many people take to get to Mazatlán
The incidents reflect a broader surge in violence across the state
which has been battling insecurity for weeks
On the same day as the attacks on Palacios and Bastidas
adding to the state’s grim total of 159 deaths in just 28 days
The surge of lawlessness has been linked to a power struggle following the U.S. arrests of <a href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/ismael-el-mayo-zambada-pleads-not-guilty-in-nyc-courthouse/">Ismael &#8220;El Mayo” Zambada,</a> a cofounder of the Sinaloa Cartel, and Joaquín Guzmán López, <a href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/mexico-timeline-arrest-el-mayo/">the man who allegedly orchestrated Zambada’s capture.</a>
Guzmán’s father is  Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera — the other cofounder of the Sinaloa Cartel who is currently serving a life sentence in U.S
Sinaloa Cartel factions loyal to Zambada (known as “Los Mayos”) are reportedly at odds with those loyal to El Chapo and his sons (known collectively as “Los Chapitos”)
The violence — <a href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/culiacan-sinaloa-cartel-bodies/">which started in and around the capital of Culiacán,</a> a Sinaloa Cartel stronghold — has not been limited to political figures
a truck driver narrowly escaped a robbery attempt by evading gunmen
though his vehicle overturned in the process
two charred bodies were found in the municipality of Eldorado
and confrontations between the National Guard and armed civilians have become increasingly common
The violence has taken a toll on Sinaloa’s economy
particularly in tourist destinations like Mazatlán
The Mazatlán tourism sector has reported significant financial losses
with hotel occupancy plummeting to 40% last weekend
compared to 85% around Mexico’s Independence Day in mid-September
Stores and restaurants have been forced to reduce hours
and the temporary closure of at least five businesses has been recorded
Roadside sales aimed at travelers have suffered
as have other tourism-related industries — such as taxicabs and beach activities
Nautical tourism services have reported an 80% drop in customers for banana boats
but the last few have been very empty,” said Alfredo Figueroa
“We hope that the situation will improve soon so that people can feel confident about going out on the road.”
is 220 kilometers from Mazatlán in the southwest corner of the Pacific Coast state
President Claudia Sheinbaum announced that her security cabinet was set to visit Sinaloa on Tuesday to assess the situation and collaborate with local authorities
Federal officials have emphasized the need for coordinated efforts to restore order
though they acknowledge that solving the problem will take time
Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon; editing by Diane Craft
The violent conflict between two <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.latintimes.com/topics/sinaloa-cartel">Sinaloa cartel</a> factions that has terrorized northern Mexico since September has taken the lives of hundreds of people, including civilians, law enforcement and even <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.latintimes.com/famous-mexican-youtuber-el-gordo-peruci-murdered-along-wife-sinaloa-568713">internet celebrities</a>
At least four influencers have been killed in the ongoing <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.latintimes.com/due-ongoing-turf-wars-2024-was-bloodiest-year-decade-sinaloa-over-1000-homicides-570789">turf wars</a> between "Los Chapitos" and "La Mayiza," who keep fighting over control of smuggling routes and territories. On Jan. 9, brochures were dropped from small planes all over the the municipality of Culiac&aacute;n, <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.latintimes.com/topics/sinaloa">Sinaloa</a>
claiming that three of the influencers killed in recent months had links to the "Chapitos."
As The Latin Times <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.latintimes.com/famous-tiktoker-el-chilango-killed-armed-men-culiacan-cartel-turf-wars-continue-sinaloa-562984">reported</a> in recent weeks
criminal groups have relied on social media to spread their message and gain support for their cause
In late October a famous Culiac&aacute;n TikToker known as "El Chilango" was killed by two men while recording one of his videos
another internet celebrity known as "El Gordo Peruci" met the same fate after a group of armed men opened fire against him and his wife
another YouTuber was murdered in Culiac&aacute;n due to his alleged ties to "Los Chapitos." Jes&uacute;s Miguel Vivanco Garc&iacute;a
also known as "El Jasper," was found dead in a remote location in Culiac&aacute;n
Authorities that found his body confirmed "El Jasper" had been the victim of an attack that left 70 gunshot wounds all over his body
Vivanco Garc&iacute;a made several collaborations with Marcos Eduardo Castro C&aacute;rdenas
also known as "Markitos Toys," another famous Culiac&aacute;n YouTuber with alleged ties to "Los Chapitos."
The latest internet celebrity to join the list of victims was Agust&iacute;n Pa&uacute;l
alias "El Pinky." Authorities found his dead body on Jan
10 in the city of Culiac&aacute;n and his body had signs of torture as well as multiple gunshot wounds
a video started circulating social media in which "El Pinky" allegedly confessed to hitmen of "Los Chapitos" of being a whistleblower for a rival faction
"Why do they have you here?," a man can be heard asking Pa&uacute;l
to which he replied "because I shared information about where the 'Chapitos' were located."
More than four month since the violent conflict erupted, the new year has already seen its fair share of victims. According to <a rel="noopener nofollow" href="https://www.excelsior.com.mx/nacional/asesinatos-sinaloa-2025-suman-45-primera-semana-enero/1693227" target="_blank">El Pa&iacute;s</a>
45 deaths were reported in Sinaloa during the first week of 2025
with the majority of them (32) taking place in the capital city of Culiac&aacute;n
Sinaloa's Attorney General's Office reported that at least 22 people have been kidnapped during the same time frame in Culiac&aacute;n
Paris 2024 Olympic medalist Marco Alonso Verde Álvarez
and the Director General of the Sinaloa Institute of Physical Culture and Sports
which was attended by more than 4,000 people
organized nationally by the Government of Mexico and the WBC as part of a physical activity program
It took place at the Aquatic Park and was a hit with participants
Verde Álvarez expressed his surprise at the turnout
“It&#8217;s been a pleasure to share it with all the people
We hope it happens again next year,” said the boxer
who will make his professional debut in May in Saudi Arabia
“Having these boxers is what makes me happiest
I hope it happens again next year and to bring more boxers
and world-ranked Karen Rubio were also present
was very pleased with the turnout for the Mass Boxing Class
we&#8217;re going to continue doing these activations,” the Governor said at the end of the class
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Alleged Sinaloa Cartel gunmen opened fire on an army convoy and set fire to vehicles to create blazing &#8220;narco-blockades&#8221; in Culiacán on Thursday
The chaos unfolded in a rural area north of the Sinaloa state capital where accused drug trafficker Ovidio Guzmán López — one of the sons of convicted drug lord Joaquín &#8220;El Chapo&#8221; Guzmán Loera — was <a href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/ovidio-guzman-el-chapo-captured-sinaloa/">arrested in January 2023</a>
🚨 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AHORA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AHORA</a> | Se registran bloqueos en la salida norte de <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Culiac%C3%A1n?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Culiacán</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Sinaloa?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Sinaloa</a>
luego de un enfrentamiento entre grupos armados y elementos del Ejército mexicano en la localidad de Jesús María
📹 <a href="https://twitter.com/noticieristas?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@noticieristas</a> / Redes sociales <a href="https://t.co/S76Suefcaj">pic.twitter.com/S76Suefcaj</a>
— Luis Alberto Medina (@elalbertomedina) <a href="https://twitter.com/elalbertomedina/status/1829298188559220900?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 29, 2024</a>
There was speculation on Thursday afternoon that the violence was unleashed in response to the capture of Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar
However, Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya <a href="https://sinaloa.gob.mx/controlada-la-situacion-en-culiacan-rocha-llama-a-mantener-la-calma/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said that no arrests were made</a> in the area
and also reported that no deaths or injuries occurred
The flare-up of violence came exactly five weeks after alleged Sinaloa Cartel leaders Ismael &#8220;El Mayo&#8221; Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán López — another son of El Chapo — were arrested in the United States after flying into an airport near El Paso
The Sinaloa Public Security Ministry (SSP) <a href="https://x.com/sspsinaloa1/status/1829306421306880023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said late Thursday afternoon</a> that it was aware that military personnel were attacked in Ejido Peñasco
In <a href="https://x.com/sspsinaloa1/status/1829306539527561437" target="_blank" rel="noopener">another post to X</a>
the SSP said that blockades had been set up on Federal Highway 15 near the community of El Limón de los Ramos
trucks and other vehicles were seized and set alight by alleged cartel members
who also laid spike strips on various roads
Their objective was to prevent additional security forces from reaching an area that the newspaper El Universal called the &#8220;land of Los Chapitos,&#8221; as the sons of El Chapo are collectively known
Videos posted to social media showed various vehicles on fire, and gunfire could be heard in some other clips. The footage fueled speculation that the state capital was facing another culiacanazo, as each of the deadly cartel responses to separate captures of Ovidio Guzmán in <a href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/sinaloa-cartel-sows-terror-in-culiacan/">2019</a> and <a href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/ovidio-guzman-arrest-sinaloa-death-toll/">2023</a> is known
The Sinaloa Security Ministry and Governor Rocha called on citizens to &#8220;remain calm.&#8221;
&#8220;The situation that has emerged is being attended to and is concentrated outside the city,&#8221; Rocha said on X
He said that security forces of all three levels of government responded to the attack on the army and that &#8220;civilians&#8221; consequently set vehicles alight
Rocha said that just two vehicles were set on fire
whereas some media outlets reported &#8220;dozens&#8221; of burning buses and trucks
Firefighters were eventually able to extinguish the fiery narco-blockades
The burnt-out vehicles were removed and Highway 15 reopened north of Culiacán
The events of Thursday afternoon disrupted public transport services and caused traffic chaos
The Autonomous University of Sinaloa suspended classes
but some students were reportedly unable to return to their homes due to the narco-blockades and public transport disruptions
The attack on the army came less than two weeks after the federal government dispatched additional troops to Sinaloa in the wake of a wave of homicides linked to organized crime
<a href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/cartel-infighting-continues-to-spread-in-sinaloa/">Ten homicides on Aug. 16 and 17 were linked to organized crime</a>
and appeared to be the result of Sinaloa Cartel infighting following the arrests of Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán López
Zambada alleges that he was kidnapped by Guzmán López
forced onto a private plane and taken to the United States against his will
Two of &#8220;Los Chapitos&#8221; are now in United States custody as <a href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/ovidio-guzman-son-of-joaquin-el-chapo-guzman-extradited-to-the-us/">Ovidio Guzmán was extradited to the U.S. last September</a>
but released by federal forces after cartel gunmen carried out a wave of attacks that terrorized Culiacán residents
At least 10 soldiers and 19 alleged criminals were killed after the second capture of Ovidio Guzmán on Jan
His brothers <a href="https://www.state.gov/ivan-archivaldo-guzman-salazar/">Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar</a> and <a href="https://www.state.gov/jesus-alfredo-guzman-salazar/">Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar,</a> both of whom are wanted in the United States on drug charges
government is offering rewards of up to US $10 million for information that leads to their capture
Writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Christopher Cushing
President Donald Trump signed an executive order saying he would designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations
federal authorities in Mexico announced they had dismantled two huge narco-labs in the northwestern state of Sinaloa
The joint action by Mexico’s Naval Ministry (Semar) and the Federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) resulted in the confiscation of 103 kilograms of methamphetamine
more than 27,350 liters of liquid precursor chemicals and nearly 20,000 kilograms of chemical substances used in the fabrication of synthetic drugs
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MarinaTeInforma?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MarinaTeInforma</a>
En trabajo conjunto con la Fiscalía General de la República <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FGR?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FGR</a>, localizamos y neutralizamos dos laboratorios clandestinos presuntamente empleados para la elaboración de estupefacientes, en inmediaciones del poblado de los Cedros, municipio de Culiacán,… <a href="https://t.co/95Thmjs64I">pic.twitter.com/95Thmjs64I</a>
— SEMAR México (@SEMAR_mx) <a href="https://twitter.com/SEMAR_mx/status/1881418793282568239?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 20, 2025</a>
The newspaper La Jornada estimated that the bust cost drug cartels more than US $4 million
The two laboratories were discovered near the rural village of Los Cedros in the municipality of <a href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/head-of-security-for-los-chapitos-arrested-in-culiacan/">Culiacán, Sinaloa</a>
Also discovered in the raid were three reactors
containers and generators that are typically used to produce synthetic drugs
All the materials found at the two sites were destroyed
<a href="https://x.com/SEMAR_mx/status/1881418793282568239" target="_blank" rel="noopener">In a post to social media, Semar</a> remarked that with this most recent seizure
Mexico has dismantled 10 clandestine laboratories and confiscated 8.4 tonnes of methamphetamines
as well as 68 tonnes of chemical substances during the first three weeks of the year
Mexico reported that soldiers operating nearby had discovered another suspected drug production operation
impounding 2,350 liters and 100 kilos of materials that could be used to manufacture methamphetamine
Federal authorities estimate the value of these confiscated materials at about 56 million pesos (US $2.7 million)
Hours after being sworn in as the 47th U.S. president on Monday, Trump signed <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/designating-cartels-and-other-organizations-as-foreign-terrorist-organizations-and-specially-designated-global-terrorists/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the executive order that described Mexican drug cartels</a> as “[a threat to] the safety of the American people
and the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere.”
The order continues: “The Cartels have engaged in a campaign of violence and terror throughout the Western Hemisphere that has not only destabilized countries with significant importance for our national interests but also flooded the United States with deadly drugs
The U.S. government is expected to recommend specific cartels for <a href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/trump-mexican-cartels-terrorist-organizations/">designation as terrorist organizations</a> in the next 14 days
The latest raids conducted by Mexican authorities occurred in the region dominated by the notorious Sinaloa Cartel
Mexico’s Security Minister Omar García Harfuch said that operations carried out in Sinaloa since Oct
In addition to the destruction of narco-labs
Mexican federal authorities have recently located and destroyed 37 hectares of poppy (used to produce heroin) and 21 hectares of marijuana
SEATTLE - The wave of violence that has taken over northern <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.latintimes.com/topics/mexico">Mexico</a> amid the turf wars between factions of the now-defunct Sinaloa Cartel continues to produce dark headlines. This time around, a famous Mexican TikToker was murdered while recording one of his videos in <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.latintimes.com/topics/sinaloa-cartel">Culiac&aacute;n</a>
Mexican authorities confirmed the death of a middle-aged man in Culiac&aacute;n who was later identified as TikToker <a rel="noopener nofollow" href="https://www.infobae.com/mexico/2024/10/20/acribillan-a-famoso-tiktoker-en-culiacan-sinaloa/" target="_blank">Juan Carlos L&oacute;pez</a>
also known as "El Chilango," who used his social media account to share videos of himself selling candy in the streets
CORDIAL INVITACIÓN A CUMPLEAÑOS DE DIN JOAQUÍN JGL
The murder reportedly took place at around 7:45 p.m
while the famous TikToker was filming one of his videos
Lopez's unresponsive body was found laying on the street near a bank and a gas station when members of Sinaloa's state police responded to the call
Juan Carlos allegedly made multiple mentions of the Sinaloa cartel and also talked about the faction known as "<a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.latintimes.com/topics/los-chapitos">Los Chapitos</a>," who are led by <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.latintimes.com/whos-current-leader-los-chapitos-sinaloa-cartel-answer-may-one-el-chapos-sons-559109">Iv&aacute;n Archivaldo Guzm&aacute;n</a>
son of convicted drug lord Joaqu&iacute;n "El Chapo" Guzm&aacute;n
the man known as "El Chilango" was seen accompanied by Markitos Toys
a Youtuber with alleged ties with "Los Chapitos," according to Mexican journalist Anabel Hern&aacute;ndez
Hern&aacute;ndez said that Markitos Toys worked very closely with "Los Chapitos," considering him one of the leaders of hitmen employed by the cartel faction that focuses on providing the group with money and firearms in their war against "La Mayiza."
Markitos Toys was trending on social media after he shared a video of himself crying after N&eacute;stor Isidro P&eacute;rez Salas
a.k.a "El Nini" was arrested by Mexican authorities
P&eacute;rez Salas served as a security chief for "Los Chapitos" before being detained
In some of the videos, L&oacute;pez used <a rel="noopener nofollow" href="https://www.infobae.com/mexico/2024/09/18/por-que-los-chapitos-tomaron-a-la-pizza-como-simbolo-de-su-faccion-en-culiacan/" target="_blank">pizza slice emojis</a>
which have a heavy link with "Los Chapitos." The criminal group started using imagery related to the famous Italian dish as a way to differentiate their attacks to those of "La Mayiza," who have opted for the use of sombreros
Jes&uacute;s Bustamante, an investigative journalist and president of the Journalist Association 7 de Junio told <a rel="noopener nofollow" href="https://www.milenio.com/estados/chapitos-y-mayos-mandan-mensajes-con-pizzas-y-sombreros" target="_blank">Milenio</a> that the use of imagery by criminal organizations is important
as it tells the general population who is responsible for whatever is happening
"When the sombreros or pizza boxers are found near the bodies of victims
that the war is between "Los Chapitos" and "La Mayiza," similar to what happened in the conflict between the Beltr&aacute;n Leyva and D&aacute;maso families," he said
This murky propaganda has also reached the music world
An example of this is the song titled "Ch y la Pizza," performed by Fuerza Regida and Natanael Cano
The song makes allusion of the influences "Los Chapitos" have in the United States
where they distribute most of their illicit drugs
Dozens of banda musicians gathered outside the Culiacán Cathedral in the capital city of Sinaloa
to play Mexican regional music and raise funds in the wake of unemployment and business closures caused by the recent wave of cartel violence
The main event consisted of 20 music ensembles, including mariachis, playing “El Sinaloense,” a popular song in Sinaloa <a style="user-select: text;" href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/culture/musical-showdown-whats-the-difference-between-mariachi-banda-and-norteno/">from the banda genre of regional Mexican music.</a> With traditional instruments like tubas
the banda musicians played popular songs including “El Sauce y la Palma” and “El Toro Limbo,” among others
The event was dubbed “Jalemos con la Banda,” a play on words meaning &#8220;Let&#8217;s get together with the crew.&#8221; Besides banda music, it also featured 1.5 metric tons of <a style="user-select: text;" href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/mexico-living/mazatlans-claim-to-seafood-fame-aguachile/">aguachile</a>
a ceviche-like dish from the coasts of Sinaloa made of raw shrimp
The funds raised from selling aguachile went towards musicians
who have seen their businesses affected by violence across the state
Organizers also provided grocery donations to waiters and musicians
the gathering benefited over 800 families whose income depends on the music and restaurant industries
Event organizer and chef Miguel Taniyama donated the shrimp for the aguachile
The massive seafood dish also required 400 kilograms of cucumber
350 kilograms of onions and 400 kilograms of lime
&#8220;Hoy volvamos a vivir&#8221;: Miguel Taniyama y sus palabras para los culichis desde el ‘Jalemos con la banda’ <a style="user-select: text;" href="https://t.co/d8plS4BJ4A">pic.twitter.com/d8plS4BJ4A</a>
— Debate (@ELDEBATE) <a style="user-select: text;" href="https://twitter.com/ELDEBATE/status/1859678811081883911?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 21, 2024</a>
Taniyama said that the event&#8217;s goal was to take to the streets and bring joy back to the population after 70 days of insecurity and violence in the capital of Sinaloa
“This is the message: We are building peace
We are standing and we are all participating
representative of the mariachi sector in the state
said that the violence and time restrictions have cut off nearly all their work opportunities
“I want to put out a call for  the authorities to turn and look at us
an internal struggle within the Sinaloa Cartel has plunged the state and its capital city into a security crisis
confrontations between armed groups and the army
violent car thefts and kidnappings and disappearances have all spiked across the state
Culiacán has been especially hard-hit by the conflict
The restaurant and event industries have been significantly impacted by insecurity
leading to the virtual disappearance of social events
just a few days after taking office as president
Claudia Sheinbaum said that her security strategy for Culiacán “would work,” and that there wouldn’t be a “war against the narco,” as it happened during the 2006-2012 administration of former President Felipe Calderón
“We will always work with the people of Sinaloa,”  <a style="user-select: text;" href="https://www.informador.mx/mexico/En-medio-de-la-violencia-en-Sinaloa-Sheinbaum-dice-que-estrategia-de-seguridad-funcionara-20241017-0090.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">she said</a>
President Sheinbaum has mostly refrained from directly addressing the ongoing conflict
Residents of Culiac&aacute;n, the capital city of the state of <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.latintimes.com/topics/sinaloa">Sinaloa</a>, have long been accustomed to the presence of cartels in the area. But for the past month, constant clashes between the two factions vying for control<a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.latintimes.com/topics/sinaloa-cartel"> of the turf</a> have taken violence to unprecedented levels
Since "<a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.latintimes.com/topics/los-chapitos">Los Chapitos</a>" and "La Mayiza" formally began their war on Sept
hundreds of people have been killed and gone missing in the area
with clashes even spilling over to other states
cellphone chats can become death sentences as clashes escalate
According to a <a rel="noopener nofollow" href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cellphone-chats-death-sentences-sinaloa-cartel-mexico/" target="_blank">CBS News</a> report
cartel gunmen are now stopping young people on the street and demanding to see their cellphones
If they find a contact who is a member of a rival faction
a chat with a wrong word or even a photo with the wrong person
they can proceed to kill or kidnap the owner of the device
Cartel members then go after everyone on that person's contact list
forming a potential chain for kidnappings and murders
an academic who studies the anthropology of the drug trade at the Autonomous University of Sinaloa
the arrests of Joaqu&iacute;n "El Chapo" Guzm&aacute;n and Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada
have opened way for a new generation of younger
"They see that the tactic of shootouts hasn't worked for them
and if he has messages from the rival group...they go after him to squeeze more information
That was the case for the son of a local news photographer
The 20-year-old was allegedly stopped with other two young men by cartel members who then searched their phones and proceeded to kidnap them
The photographers son was released a few days later but the other two young men have not been seen since
not even during the daylight," said Ismael Boj&oacute;rquez
Because the narcos have set up roadblocks and they stop you and search through your cellphone."
estimates that over the past month,there has been an average of six killings and seven disappearances or kidnappings in and around Culiac&aacute;n every day
The ongoing violence has also affected Culiac&aacute;n's economy
the leader of the local restaurant chamber
said about 180 businesses in the city have closed
"Young people are not interested in going out right now," Guzm&aacute;n said
In response, the Mexican government has sent additional <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.latintimes.com/three-mexican-troopers-killed-sinaloa-during-operation-address-cartel-turf-war-560922">troops to Sinaloa</a> as part of an ongoing effort to address the <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.latintimes.com/police-pulled-streets-cartel-dominated-culiacan-after-army-confiscates-weapons-560996">violence</a> stemming from the cartel wars raging in the state of Sinaloa
Last week, the <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.latintimes.com/mexicos-sheinbaum-launch-special-task-force-address-sinaloa-turf-wars-first-days-her-presidency-560906">Claudia Sheinbaum administration</a> sent 100 special force members to <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.latintimes.com/drugs-people-smuggling-heart-mexicos-raging-violence-561558">Culiac&aacute;n </a>to "provide support to personnel and the deployment that three levels of government have in the municipality of Sinaloa."
One of the main concerns for those deployed during the operation also includes locating those who have gone missing in recent weeks
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SearchCivil war in the home of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel<a href="https://www.genocidewatch.com/profile/2150c699-b449-48c1-9e67-2310d6112d48/profile" data-hook="profile-link" class="IkAhjA">Al Jazeera</a>Sep 30
20247 min readRecent abduction and arrest of a top drug lord has set off a vicious war inside Mexico’s most violent cartel
where at least 90 people have been killed in a recent drug cartel war
in September [Vanessa Gomez Viniegra/Al Jazeera]
amid the rubbish just off a main road in the capital city of the state of Sinaloa in northwestern Mexico
It’s late September and he was dumped by a criminal group the night before
another victim of a power struggle that is ripping through Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel
Shootouts in broad daylight, convoys of armed men travelling through the city outskirts, and more than 90 people confirmed dead so far have characterised <a target="_blank" href="https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2024/9/20/sinaloa-cartel-war-grips-city-in-northern-mexico" rel="noopener" class="XSxHY gMMfB" data-hook="web-link">the latest cartel war</a> in one of the most violent countries in the world
It emerged later that the man was a father who had been walking with his daughter the evening before
when they were stopped and he was taken by a criminal group
was left alone on the street until a neighbour found her
This is the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/22/dozens-killed-in-mexico-as-rivals-fight-for-control-of-sinaloa-cartel" rel="noopener" class="XSxHY gMMfB" data-hook="web-link">new reality for Culiacan</a>: fear and violence on a daily basis
sombreros placed on their heads — a message from whichever faction left them — its meaning
with terrible bruising on his stomach and ribs
They’ve been left on the main highway out of Culiacan
diverted by police and soldiers at the scene
This city has long lived with “narcos” — it’s the epicentre of the powerful Sinaloa cartel
which is “largely responsible” for the massive influx of fentanyl into the United States
But it hasn’t seen violence like this for 15 years
The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/22/dozens-killed-in-mexico-as-rivals-fight-for-control-of-sinaloa-cartel" rel="noopener" class="XSxHY gMMfB" data-hook="web-link">latest flareup</a> was caused by a rupture between two powerful factions of the criminal organisation
according to a letter released by the lawyer of the cartel’s leader
El Mayo was perhaps the most powerful man in the cartel
especially after the US incarceration of his fellow founder and kingpin Joaquin Guzman Loera
The letter claims that on that day in July
El Mayo was heading to a meeting with Joaquin Guzman Lopez
El Chapo’s son and a member of the Sinaloa cartel’s younger generation
but El Mayo says that he also trusted Guzman Lopez because he had known him “since he was a young boy”
They had come together at a local events centre
to try and help resolve a local political dispute
things quickly took a different turn: “As soon as I set foot inside of that room
and placed a dark-colored hood over my head
then forced me into the bed of a pickup truck.”
El Mayo said he was then driven to an airstrip in rural Sinaloa
cartel lookouts still buzzed around the area
The abandoned airstrip in rural Sinaloa where El Mayo was bundled onto a small plane and flown to the US [Vanessa Gomez Viniegra/Al Jazeera]
and physically restrained him with zip ties
where US agents were waiting to take both of them into custody
Many drew the obvious inference: Guzman Lopez had given up El Mayo to make a deal with US authorities for himself
Several journalists in Culiacan doubt El Mayo’s version of events; specifically that a man who had evaded capture for decades – and who had always been so careful – could have been so easily hoodwinked
The lawyer for Guzman Lopez denied that his client had made any deal with the US
trouble began to brew in the cartel’s epicentre
It took a month and a half for El Mayo’s son
Ismael Zamabada Sicairos – known as “El Mayo Flaco” – to act after his father’s capture
trying to get support against the remaining sons of El Chapo in Sinaloa
he must have thought he was ready: The first sign that a war was coming was a radio chat
of a commander from the El Mayo faction telling his troops to “send Los Chapitos straight to hell”
Videos they have posted show cartel gunmen with tactical vests and heavy weaponry
More than 3,000 federal police and soldiers have been deployed in Culiacan to stem the violence
September 2024 [Vanessa Gomez Viniegra/Al Jazeera]
with more than 3,000 federal police and soldiers now in Culiacan
They also look as if they are heading into a warzone: Armoured trucks
police and soldiers covered head to toe in tactical gear
the criminal groups are the ones that are ever-present
men in sunglasses and masks — whiz around on scooters or bikes
Watching for federal forces or rival groups
they aren’t discreet and make little effort to hide themselves
a professor at the Autonomous University of Sinaloa specialising in violence and its effects
federal forces are not taking the initiative to fight the groups
They should go and act before things kick off
But there’s no strategy for that,” he said
“I see a state that’s impotent against organised crime.”
The state police chief did not agree to an interview with Al Jazeera about the situation
When recently questioned at his daily morning news conference if the US is in some way to blame for the violence in Sinaloa
when leaders of criminal organisations have been captured or killed
it has often unleashed bloodshed as those below them fight for the suddenly vacant throne
first widely used by former President Felipe Calderon
But Lopez Obrador’s government hasn’t been able to stop organised crime from controlling large swaths of the country – or stemming the violence that accompanies that – during his six years in power
the situation in Culiacan looks like a final failure
the city has been brought close to a standstill
With people afraid to venture out at night
many businesses and restaurants are closing early
The local chamber of commerce estimated that in the first two weeks of the crisis
Restaurant owner Jacobo Quintero is among those that have been affected
Sitting in his near-empty seafood restaurant
which he built up from a stall to a Culiacan institution
“We’ve got about 15 percent of our usual customers,” he told Al Jazeera
“People don’t want to come out because there are risks
He now closes the restaurant at 4pm to allow his staff time to get the bus home
Transport companies aren’t working after dark
it is the same story: Quiet streets and a struggling local economy
Many businesses are closed in Culiacan amid the surge in violence [Vanessa Gomez Viniegra/Al Jazeera]
despite the state government instructing them to open
Al Jazeera met six-year-old Santiago and his mother Gitzelt in a queue outside of a government welfare office
waiting with hundreds of others for a parcel to keep them going in these times of scarcity
They asked that their last names not be published
It was his first trip outdoors since September 9 due to the gunbattles that have raged outside the family’s home
Her son explained the protocol he follows when his mother isn’t home: “I’m with my grandparents and when I hear the shootouts
Gitzelt and other residents of Culiacan live with these daily fears
the violence has wrought another – albeit invisible – cost on the city: the people who have disappeared
Isabel Cruz runs a long-term search group called Warrior Bloodhounds
she has been compiling a list of the latest missing; She said that since the recent violence began
the number of disappeared has rocketed — to even more than those killed
a group that looks for missing persons in Culiacan [Vanessa Gomez Viniegra/Al Jazeera]
Desperate families whose relative has just been taken
Or families who have already gone to the authorities
All of those reported missing are placed on the group’s Facebook page
with a photo and the number for Warrior Bloodhounds
Cruz told Al Jazeera that she has received threats herself to stop publishing information about the missing
“When I started uploading the files — and there were so many — I started receiving threats
three threats: That I should stop putting the photos online
But it’s just one more threat against me,” she said