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.