HomeNewsBriefFamed Mexico Drug Lord Challenging Sinaloa Cartel: Official
BRIEF

Famed Mexico Drug Lord Challenging Sinaloa Cartel: Official

BELTRAN LEYVA ORG / 6 JUL 2016 BY MICHAEL LOHMULLER EN

Intelligence reports suggest legendary drug trafficker Rafael Caro Quintero is seeking to expel the Sinaloa Cartel from Mexico's Chihuahua state, raising fears the city of Ciudad Juárez may experience yet another drug-fueled murder spike.

Chihuahua's attorney general, Jorge Enrique González Nicolás, said on July 5 that military intelligence indicates Caro Quintero "hopes to dispute and occupy the Sinaloa Cartel's territory" in the state, reported Reforma. This includes the northern border city of Ciudad Juárez, once considered the murder capital of the world in part due to violence between warring drug cartels. 

Chihuahua saw 11 execution-style murders last weekend, according to Reforma.

González Nicolás said Chihuahua officials are coordinating with federal and municipal officials to avoid a further resurgence of violence. However, recent evidence of large drug shipments -- including marijuana, methamphetamine, and heroin -- and an uptick in violence has led Chihuahua's Attorney General's Office to believe Caro Quintero may already be in Ciudad Juárez, reported El Diario.

Caro Quintero, known as the "narco of narcos," was a founder of the Guadalajara Cartel in the 1980s. Implicated in the torture and murder of US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena in 1985, he spent 28 years in Mexican prison before being released in August 2013 on a technicality. Authorities promptly ordered he be recaptured, and the United States has a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest.

According to local media reports, since leaving prison Caro Quintero is believed to have allied with the Beltrán Levya Organization (BLO). Recent violence in the area of Badriguato, Sinaloa -- where the mother of Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán resides -- has been blamed on confrontations between the BLO and Sinaloa Cartel.

InSight Crime Analysis

Caro Quintero's release from prison was an embarrassing episode in the Mexican government's ongoing fight against the country's drug trafficking organizations. It also put a strain on anti-drug cooperation between the United States and Mexico given his role in the death of DEA agent Camarena.

SEE ALSO: Mexico News and Profiles 

Now, several years after his release -- during which time the US Treasury Department says he continued to engage in drug trafficking -- Caro Quintero appears eager to reestablish himself atop the Mexican drug trade.

Given reports he has forged an alliance with the BLO along with elements of the Zetas and Jalisco Cartel – New Generation (CJNG), Caro Quintero may feel the timing is propitious to challenge the once hegemonic Sinaloa Cartel, which may be experiencing internal unrest following the arrest and possible extradition of El Chapo.

This possibility raises the spectre of a return to the huge levels of violence Ciudad Juárez began to experience in 2008. By 2010, Ciudad Juárez saw over 3,000 murders, which stemmed from the battle between the Sinaloa Cartel and Juárez Cartel for control of the city's drug routes into the lucrative US consumer market. Violence in the city fell just as quickly, however, after the Sinaloa Cartel established criminal dominance and authorities implemented a new citizen security initiative

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

ARGENTINA / 12 SEP 2022

Synthetic drugs like methamphetamine, fentanyl, and ecstasy are reshaping Latin America's drug trade.

GUATEMALA / 8 DEC 2021

A transnational labor trafficking network brought dozens of individuals from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico to the United States under the…

MARIJUANA / 13 DEC 2022

The legalization of marijuana at the state level in the US has forced organized crime groups in Mexico to adapt…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Rights Watch Draws on InSight Crime's Haiti Coverage

18 AUG 2023

Non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch relied on InSight Crime's coverage this week, citing six articles and one of our criminal profiles in its latest report on the humanitarian…