Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, former
leader of the Sinaloa cartel, considered by the US government to be the most powerful
drug dealer of all time now languishes in a 7x12 (2.13 x 3.65 meter) concrete cell in
ADX Florence, a Supermax prison in Colorado. In 2019 he was found guilty of ten criminal
counts including money laundering, drug trafficking and kidnapping. Ultimately, El Chapo was sentenced to life
imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Unlike the other times he’s been incarcerated,
this time El Chapo doesn’t have any pals in the prison and his contact with the outside
world is extremely limited. There’s no way he’s remotely running the
Sinaloa Cartel. However, sadly the arrest and conviction of
El Chapo has hardly put a dent in the cartel’s ability to make money. More than one newspaper has pointed out that
the lack of change to cartel business shows how disposable any one person is in the narco-economy. Actually, Sinaloa members do not consider
themselves to be a cartel, but rather they are a “federation” of families, most of
whom come from the Golden Triangle, a mountainous region where the Mexican states of Sinaloa,
Chihuahua and Durango meet. This area is also notorious for growing and
producing many illegal drugs. There have always been multiple groups led
by different bosses within the Cartel; El Chapo’s faction was just one of the strongest
and the most savvy when it comes to public perception. After El Chapo was arrested in January of
2016, there were three different leadership groups aligned with three factions within
the cartel which vied for power. The first faction ‘Los Chapitos’ was led
by three of El Chapo's sons Ivan, Ovidio and Alfredo Guzmán, along with their uncle Aureliano
Guzmán Loera. Then there was a faction led by Damaso Lopez
Nuñez aka ‘El Licenciado’ a former state police official turned right hand man of El
Chapo. El Licenciado’s faction reportedly joined
forces with a sometimes ally, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). A third faction was headed up by Ismael ‘El
Mayo’ Zambada, the former partner of El Chapo. El Maya had support from Beltran Leyva Organization,
a former ally of the Sinaloa cartel. In some cases, El Mayo and the Guzmans worked
together and shared power, so it’s hard to determine the initial level of rivalry
between these two groups. The internal struggle for the control of the
Sinaloa Cartel set off a new wave of violence across Mexico, especially in the Sinaloa state
capital of Culiacan. Homicide, kidnappings and extortion all increased. In January 2017 El Chapo was extradited to
the US. Per government data, the first half of the
year, Sinaloa state saw 879 homicides compared to 524 over the same period in 2016. This is likely an undercount, these are the
murders the government was aware of. In February 2017, Licenciado allegedly set
up an ambush meant to kill El Mayo as well as
Alfredo and Ivan Guzman. They escaped with minor injuries, however
a few of their bodyguards were shot and killed. Soon after the failed assassination attempt
Licenciado, along with his son Damaso Lopez Serrano aka ‘El Mini Lic’, launched a
cyber warfare attack on the Guzmans using bots and hackers. But the scheme backfired when one of the hackers
used a rigged smartphone to secretly capture video of Licenciado and pass it to authorities. As a result, the Mexican government was able
to track down and arrest Licenciado in May 2017. El Mini Lic was in a much weaker position
without his father around. In July 2017 he walked across the border and
surrendered to US authorities. Allegedly, he was being hunted by El Mayo. EL Mini Lic quickly negotiated to provide
information in exchange for becoming a protected witness. Licenciado also ended up in the hands of the
US government, he was extradited in early 2018. This left only two factions vying for control
of the Sinaloa Cartel. A truce and power sharing partnership was
quickly formed between El Mayo and the Guzmans. In February 2019 a Sinaloan journalist claimed
that Los Chapitos under the leadership of the Guzmans controlled street-level drug dealing,
weapons, and the defense operations, while level headed El Mayo, negotiated and took
care of big deals. Small skirmishes continued between the two
factions, as well as with the authorities. Then on October 17, 2019 members of the Mexican
National Guard captured Ovidio Guzman at home in Culiacán. More than 700 cartel gunmen rampaged across
the city attacking and even killing several civilian, government and military targets. The cartel was better equipped than authorities,
having armored vehicles, rocket launchers, and heavy machine guns among other gear. The cartel took several hostages, including
eight servicemen. Within about 4 hours of the battle starting,
the government let Ovidio go. Five people died during the Battle of Culiacán
and the government sent special forces in as reinforcement to patrol the city. Ovidio’s kidnapping and the violence surrounding
his release added to unease in the Sinaloa region. The tension between El Mayo’s faction versus
Los Chapitos ramped up. An intense multi month struggle began for
the leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel. On November 26, 2019, El Mayo supporters beat
11 Culiacán municipal police officers who had ties to the Guzmans. On December 3 after a leak of some WhatsApp
conversations, hitmen with ties to Los Chapitos invaded an area of Culiacán controlled by
one of El Mayo’s lieutenants. On February 2, Los Chapitos fired large-caliber
weapons in a couple of Culiacán neighborhoods which were El Mayo territory. On Feb 26th, a close collaborator of El Mayo’s
leadership team was assassinated. As a terror tactic, the murder was recorded
and uploaded to social media. On March 6 an assassination of a prominent
El Mayo supporter failed. After this attack, Los Chapitos and El Mayo’s
faction negotiated a truce, with the Guzmans ceding some neighborhoods of Culiacán to
the El Mayo faction. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic the US heavily
restricted or closed borders and nonessential businesses as well as implementing shelter
in place orders in many states. Much of the infighting stopped as the Sinaloa
Cartel had to focus on keeping its lucrative drug business flowing. While the Sinaloa Cartel has diversified into
other rackets such as kidnapping, money laundering and stealing petrol from nationalised pipelines,
drugs are still central to its operation. Drug trafficking as well as money laundering
briefly dipped and then rebounded as the Cartel found its way around Covid-19 restraints. Both the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New
Generation Cartel (CJNG) actually used the pandemic to withhold regular drug shipments
to manipulate the methamphetamine trade and increase its cost in the US consumer market. By late spring of 2020, a few Mexican newspapers
claimed that El Mayo had ceded the fight for leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel. He’s in his 70s and allegedly is quite sick
with diabetes. El Chapo’s sons Ivan, Ovidio and Alfredo
are now in charge. But the truth is, that at this point the Sinaloa
cartel is immense. It operates in 54 countries, connecting manufacturers
and distributors, bankers and businesses and extracting money at each step – there is
no longer a single face of the organization. The Guzman brothers and the Sinaloa Cartel
now face a specific challenge, the rise of their sometimes ally, the Jalisco New Generation
Cartel. Composed of factions that have splintered
off from various cartels and local militia groups, the CJNG has rapidly increased in
size since its formation in 2010. CJNG leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, aka
"El Mencho," is known for being shrewd and brutal. He’is one of the most wanted men by both
Mexico and the US. In fact the US has offered a $10 million reward
for his capture. Most recently the CJNG has sparked bloody
turf battles to contest Sinaloa’s control in various Mexican cities, especially valuable
smuggling border towns such as Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez. It will be interesting to see if the Sinaloa
Cartel can maintain its position at the top when the CJNG and other cartels are gunning
for its business.
