[132][133][134][135][136] In 2011, at the westerly end of the Tijuana airport a 1,800-foot (550-meter) drug "super tunnel" was discovered dug under the airport's 10/28 runway[137][138] from a warehouse located 980 feet (300 meters) from Mexico's 12th Military Air Base and 330 feet (100 meters) from a Mexican Federal Police station. [4][89] Guzmn was captured in Guatemala on 9 June 1993, and extradited to Mexico, where he was jailed in a maximum security prison, but on 19 January 2001, Guzmn escaped and resumed his command of the Sinaloa Cartel. 1. The Sinaloa cartel "has fought brutally for increased control of routes through the border states of Chihuahua and Baja California, with the goal of remaining the dominant drug trafficking . Led by notorious drug lord Joaqun "El Chapo" Guzmn until his capture in 2016, the cartel has developed into one of the most powerful drug trafficking cartels in the world. After the assassination of Cardinal Juan Jess Posadas Ocampo and six others at the Guadalajara airport on 24 May 1993,[123] the gunmen boarded a commercial jet. Joaqun Archivaldo Guzmn Loera ( Spanish: [xoakin atialdo uzman loea]; born 4 April 1957), [5] commonly known as " El Chapo " ( pronounced [el tapo] ), is a Mexican former drug lord and a former leader within the Sinaloa Cartel, an international crime syndicate. Sinaloa cartel One of the oldest and largest of the Mexican cartels. The Sinaloa Cartel's central bond is blood. history. [175] The allegation that US officials were controlling the drug trade through Mexico was corroborated by the former spokesman of the State of Chihuahua, Guillermo Terrazas Villanueva.[176]. The latest family member to escape apprehension El Chapo's son, Ovidio Guzmn Lpez managed his own feat of government humiliation this week, when cartel henchmen forced a patrol of at . Mayo's traditional major distribution hubs were allegedly in Chicago, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Denver. [45], As of 2014, it is believed that the Tijuana Cartel, or at least a sizable majority of it, has been either absorbed or forced to ally with the Sinaloa Federation, in part due to a former high-ranking Tijuana member called Eduardo Teodoro Garcia Simental, alias "El Teo" or "Tres Letras" allying with the Federation.[183][184][185]. [173][174], Statements from a Mexican diplomat, which were revealed from leaked emails from the Stratfor leak in 2012, appeared to imply the belief amongst Mexican officials that US officials were assisting the Sinaloa cartel's drug smuggling efforts into the US and were protecting the cartel while attacking its rivals in an attempt to lower violence between Mexican drug cartels; this was backed up by information provided by a Mexican foreign agent, codenamed MX1. [9][86] The war between the Sinaloa and Tijuana cartels was supposedly at its worst from 1992 to the year 2000 with family members of some of the cartel's leaders living in fear or everyday like it was their last, as stated by Zambada's wife at the time. CJNG, which routinely faces off with its No. In recent times, the cartel has also moved further away from smuggling MDMA and even heroin, while increasing smuggling of cocaine, fentanyl and methamphetamine. However, after the cartel was involved in the 1985 torture and murder of a U.S. drug enforcement agent, U.S. and Mexican forces cracked down on the syndicate, and by the end of the decade it had broken into various groups, one of which was based in Sinaloa. The cartel's most powerful contacts have traditionally been in the National Action Party (Partido Accin Nacional - PAN), which, according to some sources, helps account for its growth in the last decade. This week, InSight Crimes Co-director Jeremy McDermott was interviewed by the Associated Press on developments in Haiti as the country continues its prolonged collapse. An inside look at Mexico's Sinaloa cartel. The most well-known leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, The origins of the Sinaloa Cartel as well as its founding members have also been portrayed in the, The Sinaloa Cartel are the main antagonists of 2018 film, This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 20:19. It remains to be seen if the Sinaloa Cartel can again claim the spot as the country's most dominant cartel, but right now the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG stand together as Mexico's two most dominant organized crime groups. Mexico's Sinaloa and Jalisco Cartels: Competing or Collaborating? [202] Guzmn had a close call in early October 2015, several days after the meeting with Penn and Kate del Castillo. However, Zambada also used this conflict to his advantage since the Mexican government began to crackdown primarily on the Tijuana Cartel, Mayo used this weakening of his rivals as an opportunity for Sinaloa to step up in the trafficking world. Aviles was killed in a shootout with police in 1978. I am from durango, in the city meth is legal to use, even the merchants sell meth pipes on the street (no joke) but in some of the cities of the state, meth is illegal, and if you get busted consuming you get beat up, paying a fee, and getting your self in a rehab center, that is a 30 minute difference where meth is illegal and legal. Palma Salazar was arrested in 1995. [65] Most of the precursors required to synthesize fentanyl and its analogues come from China where it is then processed into actual fentanyl by criminal organizations in Mexico. The arrest, conviction and life sentence of drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman in 2019 has done little to dent the Sinaloa drug cartel he ran. [118], Due to the leadership of the organization essentially being split between the Mayo Zambada and Los Chapitos factions of the cartel, much of the state of Sinaloa is also split territorially. [65] Additionally, around 2014 a measurable rise in Colombian cocaine production and global consumption began to increase annually up to the present, currently marking a new high-point for the global use of cocaine. Today, the Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacin CJNG), is the Sinaloa Cartel's primary enemy. [179] In the same documentary it is shown that the US Justice Department invoked national security reasons to prevent Humberto Loya Castro, the lawyer of the Sinaloa Syndicate, from being summoned as a witness to the trial against Vicente Zambada Niebla. Cartel operatives say it's 'actually the opposite. More than half of that is believed to be supplied by Sinaloa. As shown by image 3 Drug Trafficking Tunnel, in 2006 the unpermitted development allowed the building of a 2,400-foot (730-meter) drug "super tunnel" originating from the former Ejido Tampico and adjacent to the Tijuana airport's runway. The tunnel was described by the DEA in San Diego as the "Taj Mahal" of drug tunnels along the U.S.-Mexico border and was linked to Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzmn. [180][181][182] Evidence that runs counter to a mistake theory is that Posadas did not look anything like Guzmn, he was wearing a long black cassock and a large pectoral cross, and he was gunned down from only two feet away. El Chapo's capture and later extradition to the United States appears to have sparked an internal battle for control of the organization, as evidenced by a February 2017 attack against El Mayo and two of El Chapo's sons that was reportedly orchestrated by El Chapo's one-time right-hand man, Dmaso Lpez Nez, alias "Licenciado.". Shannon, Elaine (1988). On 8 November 1992, Palma struck out against the Tijuana Cartel at a disco club in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, where eight Tijuana Cartel members were killed in the shootout, the Arellano-Flix brothers successfully escaping from the location with the assistance of David Barron Corona, a member of the Logan Heights Gang. [6] The cartel's attempts to control the Chicago drug market have brought them into direct conflict with other Chicago gangs, including the Black P. Stones, Vice Lords, and Black Disciples, resulting in an increase in violence in the city. "El Mueco" is considered to be one of the most important lieutenants of Joaqun Guzmn Loera, evident from his control of the planting, production, and trafficking of drugs in Sonora and in the mountains of Chihuahua, which were sent predominantly to the US. [68] In San Diego County, the amount of fentanyl intercepted by US Customs and Border Protection rose from 1,599 pounds in 2019 to more than 6,700 pounds in 2021. In the 1960s and 1970s, they moved from the contraband trade into drugs, particularly marijuana. Photo illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast; GettyA member of the Jalisco New Generation Cartelhis stomach straining against a black sleeveless vestis crouching over the body of a mutilated foot soldier from a rival crime group. Here is the fuk up thing. They have been known to frequently use American citizens as mules, many of whom have drugs stuffed in passenger vehicles or tractor-trailers. [116][117], According to the Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit in Mexico City, as of 2020 the cartel has palpable territory within the Mexican regions of Sinaloa, Baja California, Baja California Sur, Durango, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Edomex, Mexico City, Jalisco, Zacatecas, Colima, Aguascalientes, Quertaro, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatn and Quintana Roo. Guzmn also faces federal indictment in several locations including San Diego, New York, and Texas, among other places. The CJNG dropped flyers over a Mexican town to declare war on the Sinaloa Cartel and promised to "clean up" the region. It was discovered as Mexican and San Diego officials were discussing the creation of a cross-border airport between Tijuana and Otay Mesa which would have undermined the drug tunneling operations in the area (see History of the Cross Border Xpress). [citation needed] The Sinaloa Cartel was therefore believed to be linked to the Jurez Cartel in a strategic alliance following the partnership of their rivals, the Gulf Cartel and Tijuana Cartel. [87] The Sinaloa Cartel is "a confederation of criminal organizations based on regional culture, and deep, shared blood ties that have been generated during decades of endogenous practice. In the ensuing years, drug tunnels moving tons of narcotics were detected in and around the Tijuana airport. El Chapo maintained some control from prison, passing messages through his lawyers. The CJNG emerged out of the Sinaloa Cartel in 2010 after the death of former Sinaloa Cartel capo Ignacio Coronel, alias Nacho. Since, the CJNG has expanded rapidly across the country, involving itself in a host of criminal activities, including international drug trafficking, most recently involving synthetic drugs and powerful opioids like fentanyl, which the Sinaloa Cartel is also involved in the trafficking of. [93], In May 2009, the U.S. National Public Radio (NPR) aired multiple reports alleging that the Mexican federal police and military were working in collusion with the Sinaloa Cartel. Its origins can be traced to the Guadalajara cartel, which was one of Mexico's largest crime organizations in the early 1980s. In December 2016, one month prior Joaqun 'El Chapo' Guzmn Loera's extradition to the U.S.,[140] two "super tunnels", one in operation while the other was under construction, were discovered by Mexican agents adjacent to the Tijuana airport/Ejido Tampico and the Otay Mesa border crossing. By Jan-Albert Hootsen September 2, 2015. When the Mexican government failed to indemnify the ejidatarios for their lost farmland, they reoccupied a 79 hectares (200 acres) portion of the Tijuana airport and threatened armed conflict. Loya-Castro had become an official informant of the DEA in 2005 but was already providing vital information on rival cartels since the 1990s; such intel was instrumental to the takedown of the Tijuana Cartel, the Sinaloa cartel's main rival, as well as the death of Arturo Beltrn Leyva, who led a splinter group from the Sinaloa cartel. However, recently smaller gangs have begun to target the Choneros and the organization has also fallen subject to the phenomenon of infighting within the gang and its derivative groups. YouTube. The remaining factions established bases in various parts of Mexico. [1] In the late 1980s, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) believed the Sinaloa Cartel was the largest drug trafficking organization operating in Mexico. One of the first to traffic marijuana in bulk was Pedro Aviles, who later brought his friend's son, Joaqun Guzmn Loera, alias "El Chapo," into the business. In 2020, divisions between Los Chapitos and El Mayo appeared to worsen, with a number of deadly clashes reported between their supporters as well as the mysterious assassination of a former top Sinaloa Cartel hitman. The most extensive database on organized crime in the Americas. Pedro Avils would eventually die in a shootout with federal police in September 1978 in Sinaloa. [69], Although the Sinaloa Cartel has traditionally grown and cultivated marijuana locally in the original "Golden Triangle" region of Mexico, the cartel as well as other Mexican cartels have, in recent times, set up large marijuana growing operations in the remote forests and deserts of California where they reportedly have stolen millions of gallons of water for these illegal grows. In 2012, the cartel emerged victorious from a bloody battle with the Juarez Cartel over control of Ciudad Juarez. The Sinaloa Cartel's central bond is blood. The death of Camarena was the beginning of the end of the Guadalajara Cartel.