The Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico is one of the world's most dangerous and influential organized crime groups. How do they impact safety in the regions where they operate?
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Updated: August 5, 2024 INSIDE THIS ARTICLE, YOU'LL FIND: |
The Sinaloa Cartel, sometimes known as the Sinaloa Federation or Cartel de Sinaloa (CDS), is considered among the largest, most powerful, and most infamous organized crime groups not just in Mexico but globally. It has historically been a network of Mexico’s most influential drug lords – including Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the Beltran Levya brothers (Hector, Alfredo, and Arturo), Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, Juan José “El Azul” Esparragoza, and others.
While not as unified as it once was, the cartel remains massively influential in the trafficking of methamphetamines, cocaine, and opioids like fentanyl and heroin.
The Sinaloa Cartel is one of many organized crime groups that has seriously impacted safety in Mexico. Travelers, locals, and those passing through the areas controlled by the CDS must take extreme precautionary measures or avoid travel there altogether.
Background of the Sinaloa Cartel
The story of the Sinaloa Cartel, so named after the state in which its leaders arose, can be traced back to the 1960s, and carries through to the 2020s.
Early years of the cartel
The Sinaloa Cartel, like almost all other cartels in Mexico, was born from the dissolution of the original Guadalajara cartel. This precursor cartel began when groups of peasant farmer families, already cultivating marijuana and poppy plants, began smuggling these drugs into other parts of Mexico and the U.S.
These men and their associates connected with Colombian cocaine producers and Central American traffickers and began trafficking cocaine into the U.S. across the Mexican border as the Caribbean routes became dead ends thanks to DEA crackdowns.
Men like “El Chapo” Guzman and “El Mayo” Zambada were relatively low-level coordinators and enforcers in the late 1970s and 1980s, working their way up through the Guadalajara Cartel (as depicted in the Netflix show “Narcos”).
Following the cartel’s murder of undercover DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in 1985, the group fractured under pressure from the U.S., as Mexican authorities were forced to act rather than turn a blind eye to cartel operations. Leaders fled and remaining groups established their own operations in Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, and other cities that would set the stage for future rivalries, factions, and violence.
Modern era: Splits and rivalries
The Sinaloa cartel formed in earnest when El Chapo, El Azul, El Mayo, and the Beltran-Levya brothers, who controlled trafficking in Ciudad Juarez, created an alliance to coordinate primarily cocaine trafficking from Colombia through western Mexico and into the U.S.
This alliance failed in 2008, resulting in a bloody war that would see thousands of people killed in Ciudad Juarez alone. The trigger? The Beltran-Levya brothers suspected that El Chapo had turned in one of the brothers, Alfredo. They retaliated by assassinating El Chapo’s son, Edgar. Sinaloa, Durango, and Chihuahua became battlegrounds.
A few years later, the relationship between the Sinaloa cartel and the closely associated Milenio cartel also ended leading to the eventual fracturing of the latter and resulting in the formation of the Jalisco Cartel New Generation (CJNG). The CJNG would become a bitter enemy of the Sinaloa Cartel.
The Sinaloa Cartel, while not operating under a strict hierarchical structure, was headlined for many years by El Chapo and second-in-command El Mayo. Following El Chapo’s arrest in 2014, subsequent escape from prison in 2015, and re-arrest and extradition to the U.S. in 2017, the group began to fracture. Factions led by El Mayo and those led by El Chapo’s sons (known as Los Chapitos) began clashing, vying for control over lucrative smuggling territory. Another twist in the story occurred in July 2024, when the U.S. announced the arrest of El Mayo and Joaquin Guzman, one of the remaining sons of El Chapo, in a stunning operation. Joaquin Guzman allegedly struck a deal with the U.S. Department of Justice, delivering El Mayo and himself in exchange for leniency for himself and his brother Ovidio Guzman, currently in U.S. custody.
Additional clashes as a result of these arrests are likely as remaining leaders vie for power and supporters of El Mayo go after Los Chapitos in retaliation.
Main Operations of the Sinaloa Cartel
The Sinaloa Cartel operates primarily in the drug trafficking space, making its money first as transportation and security for the Colombian cocaine producers and then pivoting to its own distribution network down to the street level dealer. It also produces methamphetamines and fentanyl in labs.
Secondary revenue streams come from extortion and taxation of smaller criminal groups, including human traffickers.
The cartel operates across western Mexico, with key areas of control in Sinaloa, Sonora, Durango, and Chihuahua. It also operates in Jalisco, Nayarit, Baja California, and Chiapas.
In addition, the Sinaloa Cartel has networks touching criminal organizations across the globe, with important relationships in China for precursor chemicals, and in South America where they source cocaine.
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Primary Tactics and Methods
Like other powerful criminal organizations in Mexico, the Sinaloa Cartel uses violence, coercion, bribery, corruption, and intimidation to control and expand territory and grow operations.
The cartel is known for establishing strong connections with Mexico’s elite, particularly within the National Action Party (PAN) administrations of Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderon. During these administrations, Mexican security operations focused on the Sinaloa cartel’s rivals, leading to accusations of corruption, bribery, and favoring of the Sinaloa Cartel.
The arrest of the former secretary of public security during the Calderon administration, Genaro Garcia Luna, in the U.S. confirmed these connections as multiple Sinaloa operatives testified that they paid him millions of dollars a year in bribes to look the other way and allow them to operate.
The CDS utilizes both simple and sophisticated technologies in their communications and day-to-day operations. On the one hand, leadership maintains a low profile when it comes to electronics, dealing primarily in face-to-face discussions for fear of wiretaps or giving away their location. On the other hand, daily operations are conducted through sophisticated communications channels, often via encrypted messaging, satellite networks, and other solutions.
Sinaloa Cartel Risks to Travelers and Civilians
The U.S. State Department maintains a state-by-state list of travel advisories for Mexico. Among the "Level 3 – Reconsider Travel" and “Level 4 – Do Not Travel” states within Mexico, several of them are considered either under Sinaloa Cartel control or contested by the various subgroups.
These Sinaloa cartel-controlled or contested states include Sinaloa (which should be avoided unless absolutely necessary due to insecurity), Chihuahua, Durango, Sonora, Jalisco, and Baja California.
Travelers to these states within Mexico should do so only when necessary and take proper precautions such as utilizing secure transportation, executive protection, and travel tracking services. Do not travel alone after dark in many of these locations as organized criminal groups will set up their own checkpoints to stop rivals or security forces from entering their territory.
Civilians in these areas have suffered greatly at the hands of the cartels in Mexico. They face risks from collateral damage, kidnapping, extortion, and declining economic prosperity due to crime and corruption.
Current Status and Future Outlook of the CDS
The Sinaloa Cartel has most recently been in the news for allegedly continuing to produce and traffic fentanyl despite a public promise from Los Chapitos that the group would no longer deal with fentanyl. The U.S. DEA said in its 2024 Drug Threat Assessment that Los Chapitos had conducted a publicity stunt in October 2023 when they hung narcobanners proclaiming a ban on the manufacture of fentanyl, when it was meant to consolidate production among a smaller number of “trusted manufacturers,” and that the price and availability of fentanyl had not changed.
Looking ahead, while the Sinaloa Cartel may no longer be the powerhouse it once was, it still controls large swathes of territory, facilitating the production, transportation, and distribution of potentially billions of dollars of illegal drugs into the U.S.
The cartel’s primary risk stems from its own fracturing and in-fighting as the competing factions led by Los Chapitos and El Mayo continue to clash, get arrested, or killed. If one group can clearly consolidate power in the short term, the Sinaloa Cartel of old may resurface.
The lasting impact of the Cartel de Sinloa continues to be felt, especially in those states where they maintain control not just over territory but over elected officials, police, and businesses through bribery, corruption, coercion, and intimidation. Global Guardian strongly recommends anyone traveling to Sinaloa or any of the areas they control or contest utilize secure transportation and security support.
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