Mica for cartelinsider.com
From Fentanyl to New Frontiers: The Strategic Shift
The Sinaloa Cartel has undergone significant structural changes in the last 12 months. Due to the capture of Ovidio Guzmán López and the war being waged against it by the US Department of Justice, fentanyl is no longer on its list of business, and now the criminal organization obtains its income from ‘new’ criminal activities.
Although “Los Chapitos”―the faction led by the sons of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman―acquired great popularity after being identified as the ones responsible for leading “the largest, most violent and prolific fentanyl trafficking operation in the world,” a report from the National Defense Secretariat (Sedena) refers that they had to abandon it by order of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the leader of the other faction of the Sinaloa Cartel with which they would have allied.
Chapitos and Mayo Agree to Truce
According to Milenio, Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, the prominent leaders of Los Chapitos, agreed to a truce with their father’s former partner to face their common enemies together. However, ‘El Mayo’ would have asked for three things in return, including leaving the synthetic opioid business.
In this line, it is presumed that the successors of the former drug trafficker broke into the traffic of undocumented migrants to recover the income they obtained from the production and distribution of fentanyl, a drug they had been producing since 2014, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
“The issue of migrants was included in the report because it is something that is already being seen. The massive kidnappings of Central Americans in Altar, Sáric or Benjamín Hill, over there in Sonora, are of people from their own,” declared a member of the Sedena to the media above the outlet.
According to the investigations, the Sinaloa Cartel has exploited its connections both south and north of Mexico in Baja California, Sonora, and Chihuahua, where it operates to carry out this crime.
“We are aware that the fee for ‘jumping’ to California or Arizona has been increased to 5 thousand dollars,” the military added.
The Chapitos New Business Focus
In the last few months, this faction would have taken advantage of the electronic cigarette market, which they would supposedly be trying to control.
As proof of this, what happened in December 2023 in Guasave, Sinaloa, could be mentioned when two minors were publicly displayed naked in streets and installations of the Autonomous University of the West (UAdeO) for selling vaporizers.
On that occasion, the head of the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE), Sara Bruna Quiñonez Estrada, revealed that behind that action was a group of organized crime. It was presumed that it was the Beltrán Leyva Cartel at the time.
It should be noted that the United States maintains that the now triad also produces cocaine, marijuana, heroin, and methamphetamine – drugs whose production has not been prohibited in their operating areas.
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Mica
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