OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
11:13 AM – Monday, September 16, 2024
Authorities said on Sunday that a wave of violence in a Mexican cartel stronghold rocked by gang infighting has claimed the lives of eleven more individuals, now making it at least 30 individuals who have died as a result of the chaos.
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The Sinaloa state prosecutor’s office released a daily report, citing the five men whose bodies were discovered on a highway south of Culiacan as among the most recent fatalities.
In a week of violence in Sinaloa, at least thirty people have been confirmed killed. However, the precise number of deaths attributed to cartel infighting has not been disclosed by the government, as they have only reported thirty so far.
The conflicts come after Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, was abruptly arrested on U.S. soil on July 25th. Zambada claimed he was kidnapped in Mexico and brought into U.S. prison against his will.
In a drug trafficking case where he is accused of directing torture and participating in murder plots, Zambada entered a not guilty plea last week in New York.
Zambada, 76, was taken into custody with Joaquin Guzman Lopez, El Chapo’s son, who is currently serving a life sentence in the U.S.
El Chapo and his sons’ loyal gang members are thought to be pitted against those who support Zambada, who entered a not-guilty plea to a number of charges in a New York court on Friday.
The violence forced the closure of schools on Thursday and Friday, and the governor declared that Sunday’s Independence Day celebrations would not continue.
On Thursday, the United States also issued a security alert due to “reports of car thefts, gunfire, security forces operations, roadblocks, burning vehicles, and closed roadways” in Culiacan’s vicinity.
Mexican prosecutors said last month that they were filing charges against Guzmán for allegedly kidnapping Zambada. However, they also referenced a different allegation based on a section of the country’s criminal code that classified what he did as treason.
The fact that the younger Guzmán belonged to the Sinaloa cartel’s Chapitos, or “little Chapos,” faction, which is made up of Chapo’s sons and smuggles millions of doses of lethal fentanyl into the country, resulting in roughly 70,000 overdose deaths annually, is not mentioned anywhere in the statement.
As per a 2023 indictment released by the U.S. Justice Department, the Chapitos and their cartel accomplices subjected their opponents to torture, including electricity, corkscrews, and hot chilies, with some of their victims being “fed dead or alive.”
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