The War That No Longer Respects Families Or The Dead

Since the kidnapping and transfer of Mayo Zambada to the United States on July 25, 2024, the state of Sinaloa has become the scene of a bloody war that has already claimed thousands of lives and left many missing.

In this phase of the confrontation, the violence has transcended the operational sphere to directly target the families of the leaders of what was once the Sinaloa Cartel. The recent discovery of the body of Sergio Rodolfo Cázares Zambada marks a new and dark chapter in this conflict. 

The body of Mayo Zambada’s nephew was found in the trunk of an abandoned pickup truck in front of the Agronomy Faculty of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa (UAS). Some media outlets report that the deceased was between 31 and 32 years old. Others claim he was 41. 

He was the son of Águeda Zambada García, Mayo Zambada’s older sister, who died in 2021 from health complications. In October 2010, Águeda, her daughter, and her granddaughter were kidnapped as they left the Tijuana International Airport by an armed criminal cell of the Arellano Félix Cartel. Twenty days later, they were rescued safe and sound by the Mexican army.

In August 2012, Sergio Rodolfo Cázares Zambada was arrested along with his cousin Omar Ismael Zambada, son of El Rey Zambada, in Tijuana by army special forces. A shipment of between 15 and 20 kilos of cocaine base was seized from the detainees, according to various media reports at the time. 

The dispute between Los Chapitos and Los Mayos is no longer fought only in plazas and rural roads. The so-called codes of honor of drug trafficking have disappeared, with indiscriminate attacks that show no respect even for the dead.

The cenotaph of Edgar Guzmán López, son of El Chapo Guzmán, which was besieged in 2008, was the target of armed attacks and vandalism. Similarly, the Zambada family chapels have been looted and destroyed.

This offensive is compounded by the systematic attacks on residences and businesses linked to both factions, properties that have been shot at or set on fire.

For their part, although the Los Chapitos faction hasn’t registered direct casualties within its immediate family, its structure has suffered significant blows with the arrest of in-laws and the death or extradition of its most loyal operatives.

For security analysts, the assassination of Cázares Zambada and the desecration of sacred sites confirm that the conflict has entered a point of no return. The violence no longer seeks only market supremacy but the total eradication of the founding families.

This event could trigger a symmetrical response from La Mayiza, forcing family circles to relocate. The war between the Guzmán and Zambada families is now a war of extermination.

Source: Grillonautas 2