The Sinaloa Cartel, often considered the largest and most powerful drug trafficking organization in the Western Hemisphere, is a network of some of Mexico’s most important drug lords. Members work together to protect themselves. During its existence, the Sinaloa Cartel has forged connections at the highest levels of the federal police and military, and has bribed members of both institutions to maintain an advantage over rival organizations.
The organization is primarily involved in the international trafficking of fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, and heroin, mostly to the United States. Some factions are also involved in drug dealing and taxing of other criminal networks, including human traffickers.
History
The state of Sinaloa has long been a center for the cultivation and smuggling of marijuana and poppy in Mexico. Many of the country’s drug trafficking organizations originated in the region as small groups of peasant families living in rural areas of the state. In the 1960s and 1970s, those families moved from smuggling to the drug trade, particularly marijuana. One of the first to traffic large quantities of marijuana was Pedro Avilés, who later invited his son’s, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, alias “El Chapo,” into the business. Avilés would be killed in 1978 during a shootout with police.
In the late 1970s, the families diversified their activities. They began transporting cocaine for Colombian and Central American traffickers and shifted their activities to Guadalajara, Jalisco state. Among their leaders were Rafael Caro Quintero, Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo.
Aided by Honduran Juan Ramón Matta Ballesteros, the men began working with Colombia’s Medellín Cartel. Matta Ballesteros lived part-time in Colombia, where he operated as the main intermediary between Colombian and Mexican traffickers, who established the drug trafficking patterns that are still present today: the movement of cocaine shipments by air and sea to Central America and Mexico and then overland to the United States.
The audacity of Mexican traffickers became evident in 1985 when they assassinated Enrique Camarena, an undercover agent for the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Camarena’s death represented the beginning of the end for the Guadalajara Cartel. Pressure from the United States forced Mexican authorities to act, and its leaders fled the country. The remaining factions established bases in various parts of Mexico. The Arellano Félix brothers established a base of operations in Tijuana. Carrillo Fuentes’ family moved to Ciudad Juárez. El Chapo and his associate, Héctor Luis Palma Salazar, remained in the Sinaloa area.
During this time, the Sinaloa Cartel formed an alliance with the Valencia family in Michoacán, who formed the organization known as the Milenio Cartel. This collaboration not only allowed them to continue to wield power over their rivals, but also to gain access to key Pacific ports and receive precursor chemicals from China to enter the lucrative methamphetamine business.
The battles between these organizations began almost immediately. In November 1992, Guzmán sent 40 armed men to break into a Tijuana Cartel party in Puerto Vallarta, killing nine people. The Tijuana Cartel responded by trying to assassinate Guzmán at the Guadalajara airport in 1993, but instead assassinated a Mexican cardinal. Guzmán fled to Guatemala, where he was arrested two weeks later. Palma Salazar was arrested in 1995.
Arturo Guzmán Loera and brothers Héctor, Alfredo, and Arturo Beltran Leyva, continued to run the Sinaloa Cartel’s operations, though Guzmán maintained some control from prison, passing messages through his lawyers. In 2001, Guzmán escaped from prison ahead of an order for his extradition to the United States and quickly regained full control of the organization.
In 2008, the alliance between Guzmán and the Beltran Leyvas broke down after the brothers suspected that Guzmán had turned Alfredo in to the authorities. This triggered a bloody war in which the Beltran Leyva brothers assassinated Guzmán’s son, Edgar, and battles raged across Sinaloa and parts of Chihuahua and Durango, resulting in the forced displacement of hundreds of people.
This period would see Guzmán become the most visible head of the Sinaloa Cartel, alongside Ismael Zambada García, alias “El Mayo,” and Juan José Esparragoza Moreno, alias “El Azul.”
In early 2010, Mexican authorities killed Ignácio “Nacho” Coronel in a gunfight, severing the Sinaloa Cartel’s link to the Milenio Cartel. This resulted in a rift between the two organizations. Further fractures within the Milenio Cartel eventually gave birth to the Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación – CJNG), today one of the Sinaloa Cartel’s main rivals.
Guzmán was arrested again, this time in Mexico, in February 2014, leaving the leadership of the organization in the hands of El Azul and El Mayo. El Azul reportedly died of a heart attack in June 2014, though rumors that he is still alive persist. Meanwhile, Guzmán cemented his status as Mexico’s greatest criminal legend when he again escaped from prison — this time using a tunnel in the bathroom of his cell — in July 2015.
Guzmán’s third capture in 2017 and subsequent extradition to the United States sparked an internal struggle for control of the Sinaloa Cartel. Between 2017 and 2021, there were several clashes between armed groups linked to El Mayo and El Chapo’s sons, some of which were allegedly orchestrated by the El Chapo’s former right-hand man, Dámaso López Núñez, alias “El Licenciado.” El Licenciado and his son, Dámaso López Serrano, alias “Mini Lic,” were later arrested and are in US custody.
Leadership
The Sinaloa Cartel does not have a hierarchical structure. It is a network of various cells that cooperate with each other, while the cartel’s operations abroad, and even within Mexico, are generally outsourced through local partners.
Currently, the Sinaloa Cartel has at least two leadership structures. The first is commanded by El Mayo, the only remaining member of the old guard. The other is made up of El Chapo’s sons, Joaquín Guzmán López, Ovidio Guzmán López, Iván Archivaldo, and Jesús Alfredo, known collectively as “Chapitos.”
Each faction of the Sinaloa Cartel has armed branches or “mini armies,” under its command that allow them to protect and take territories. The Chapitos, for example, are associated with the Ninis, the Salazar, Gente Nueva, and the Chimales. For their part, the networks associated with El Mayo collaborate with the Antrax and the Rusos.
The four Chapitos have become a priority target for Mexican and US authorities. Ovidio Guzmán was arrested by Mexican authorities in January 2023, following a failed attempt in 2019. In September 2023, he was extradited to the United States.
El Mayo is also on the target list, but has so far managed to evade authorities.
Geography
The Sinaloa Cartel is based in the state of the same name and in some of the municipalities of Durango and Chihuahua, which, together with Sinaloa, form a region known as the Golden Triangle. This area is home to some of the main traffickers and their families, who are mainly involved in the production of methamphetamine and fentanyl and the illicit cultivation of marijuana and poppy. In the city of Culiacán, the Sinaloa Cartel has also increased its involvement in drug dealing, particularly of marijuana and methamphetamine-related products.
The organization also has cells operating in other states in the country, such as Sonora, Baja California, Nayarit, Jalisco, and Chiapas. This provides them with access to border crossings, drug corridors, and money laundering opportunities. In some areas, for example along the border, the group also collects taxes from other criminal networks, including human traffickers.
The networks associated with the Sinaloa Cartel also have clients on almost every continent, as well as suppliers of precursor chemicals in China, India, and other Asian countries. In addition, they frequently send emissaries to Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador to ensure a steady production and flow of cocaine.
Allies and Enemies
The main link between the top leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel is family and compadrazgo (kinship). However, the group also forms transactional alliances with local groups to gain access to key territories.
Since its break with the Beltrán Leyva, the Sinaloa Cartel has created such temporary alliances with former enemies of the Gulf Cartel and the Familia Michoacana, and reportedly negotiated a pact with the Tijuana Cartel.
On the other hand, the Sinaloa Cartel appears to have taken a cue from Colombia’s Cali Cartel by establishing strong connections with Mexico’s political and economic elite and has successfully penetrated the government and security forces. It often opts for bribery over violence and alliances over battles. On occasion, however, the organization uses its forces to invade areas it seeks to control.
The cartel’s most powerful contacts were allegedly formed during National Action Party (PAN) administrations, which, according to some sources, helps explain its growth in the last decade. Former presidents Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderon, both of PAN, launched numerous offensives against trafficking organizations, and some important leaders were captured, including Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, head of the Gulf Cartel, and Benjamín Arellano Félix, head of the Tijuana Cartel. The perception that the PAN favors the Sinaloa Cartel is so strong in Mexico that in 2010, judicial officials issued a statement denying any link between the group and the party, and in 2011, the Calderon administration released a video with a similar message.
Years later, some of these suspicions were confirmed following the arrest in the United States of Genaro García Luna, the secretary of public security during the Calderon administration. During his trial in New York, prosecutors have presented testimony from several drug traffickers who claimed to have bribed the former official with millions of dollars.
Currently, the CJNG is the Sinaloa Cartel’s main rival. However, the two organizations have come to work together at certain stages of drug supply chains. For example, by sharing suppliers of precursor chemicals for the production of methamphetamine and fentanyl.
Prospects
The Sinaloa Cartel has been resilient to changes in the international drug landscape and the capture and deaths of its leaders, in part because of its network structure and entrepreneurial approach.
This structure had enabled the cartel to avoid scrutiny regarding the violence it commits, and to effectively replace members it lost.
However, due to their active involvement in fentanyl trafficking to the United States – which has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives — its leaders have become priority targets for the US government. This has resulted in increased captures and the dismantling of financial networks, which could force the group to restructure once more.