Sinaloa Drug Cartel is now in the Philippines (Filipinas) and Worldwide
(Pacific Cartel,
Guzmán-Loera Cartel) Founded 1989
Founding location
Culiacan, Sinaloa
Years active 1989–present
Territory Mexico:
Sinaloa,
Sonora, Nayarit, Chihuahua, Durango, Jalisco, Colima,
Chiapas,TamaulipasGuerrero,
Zacatecas, Baja California, Baja California Sur,
Oaxaca, Guanajuato, Querétaro, Tlaxcala,
Puebla, Morelos, Mexico
City
United States,
Central America
South America
Ethnicity
Mexican
Criminal activities Drug trafficking
Allies Gulf Cartel, Knights
Templar,
Rivals Los Zetas, Juárez Cartel, Tijuana Cartel
The Sinaloa Cartel (Spanish: Cártel de Sinaloa or CDS) is a drug-trafficking
and organized crime organization based in the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa, with
operations in the Mexican states of Baja California, Durango, Sonora and
Chihuahua. The cartel is also known as the Guzmán-Loera Organization and the
Pacific Cartel, the latter due to the coast of Mexico from which it originated.
The cartel has also been called the Federation and the Blood Alliance. The
‘Federation’ was partially splintered when the Beltrán-Leyva brothers broke
apart from the Sinaloa Cartel.
The United States Intelligence Community considers the Sinaloa Cartel “the
most powerful drug trafficking organization in the world” and in 2011, the Los
Angeles Times called it as “Mexico’s most powerful organized crime group.”
The Sinaloa Cartel is associated with the label “Golden Triangle”, which
refers to the states of Sinaloa, Durango, and Chihuahua. The region is a major
producer of Mexican opium and marijuana. According to the U.S. Attorney General,
the Sinaloa Cartel is responsible for importing into the United States and
distributing nearly 200 tons of cocaine and large amounts of heroin between 1990
and 2008.
Background
Pedro Avilés Pérez was a pioneer drug lord in the
Mexican state of Sinaloa in the late 1960s. He is considered to be the first
generation of major Mexican drug smugglers of marijuana who marked the birth of
large-scale Mexican drug trafficking. He also pioneered the use of aircraft to
smuggle drugs to the United States.
Second generation Sinaloan traffickers such as Rafael Caro Quintero, Ernesto
Fonseca Carrillo, Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo and Avilés Pérez’ nephew Joaquín
‘El Chapo’or “Shorty” Guzmán would claim they learned all they knew about
narcotrafficking while serving in the Avilés organization. Miguel Ángel Félix
Gallardo, who eventually founded the Guadalajara Cartel, was arrested in 1989.
While incarcerated, he remained one of Mexico’s major traffickers, maintaining
his organization via mobile phone until he was transferred to a new maximum
security prison in the 1990s. At that point, his old organization broke up into
three factions: the Tijuana Cartel led by his nephews, the Arellano Félix
brothers Cartel, and the Sinaloa Cartel, run by former lieutenants Héctor Luis
Palma Salazar, Adrián Gómez González and Joaquín Guzmán Loera (El Chapo).
Leadership
Sinaloa Cartel hierarchy in early 2008The Sinaloa Cartel used
to be known as La Alianza de Sangre (“Blood Alliance”). When Héctor Luis Palma
Salazar (a.k.a. El Güero) was arrested on 23 June 1995, by elements of the
Mexican Army, his partner Joaquín Guzmán Loera took leadership of the cartel.
Guzmán was captured in Guatemala on 9 June 1993, and extradited to Mexico, where
he was jailed in a maximum security prison, but on 19 January 2001, Guzmán
escaped and resumed his command of the Sinaloa Cartel. Guzmán has two close
associates, Ismael Zambada García and Ignacio Coronel Villareal.[20][21] Guzman
and Zambada became Mexico’s top drug kingpins in 2003, after the arrest of their
rival Osiel Cardenas of the Gulf Cartel. Another close associate, Javier Torres
Felix, was arrested and extradited to the U.S. in December 2006;[22] so far,
Guzmán and Zambada have evaded operations to capture them.
On 29 July 2010 Ignacio Coronel was killed in a shootout with the Mexican
military in Zapopan, Jalisco.
OperationsThe Sinaloa Cartel has a presence in 17 Mexican states, with
important centers in Mexico City, Tepic, Toluca, Zacatecas, Guadalajara, and
most of the state of Sinaloa. The cartel is primarily involved in the smuggling
and distribution of Colombian cocaine, Mexican marijuana, methamphetamine and
Mexican and Southeast Asian heroin into the United States. It is believed that a
group known as the Herrera Organization would transport multi-ton quantities of
cocaine from South America to Guatemala on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel. From
there it is smuggled north to Mexico and later into the U.S. Other shipments of
cocaine are believed to originate in Colombia from Cali and Medellín
drug-trafficking groups from which the Sinaloa Cartel handle transportation
across the U.S.border to distribution cells in Arizona, California, Texas,
Chicago and New York.
Prior to his arrest, Vicente Zambada Niebla (“El Vicentillo”), son of Ismael
Zambada García (“El Mayo”), played a key role in the Sinaloa Cartel. Vicente
Zambada was responsible for coordinating multi-ton cocaine shipments from
Central and South American countries, through Mexico, and into the United States
for the Sinaloa Cartel. To accomplish this task he used every means available:
Boeing 747 cargo aircraft, narco submarines, container ships, go-fast boats,
fishing vessels, buses, rail cars, tractor trailers and automobiles. He was
arrested by the Mexican Army on 18 March 2009 and extradited on 18 February 2010
to Chicago to face federal charges.
In the late 1980s, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration believed
the Sinaloa Cartel was the largest drug trafficking organization operating in
Mexico. By the mid-1990s, according to one court opinion, it was believed to be
the size of the Medellín Cartel during its prime. The Sinaloa Cartel was
believed to be linked to the Juárez Cartel in a strategic alliance following the
partnership of their rivals, the Gulf Cartel and TijuanaCartel. Following the
discovery of a tunnel system used to smuggle drugs across the Mexican/US border,
the group has been associated with such means of trafficking.
By 2005, the Beltrán-Leyva brothers, who were formerly aligned with the
Sinaloa Cartel, had come to dominate drug trafficking across the border with
Arizona. By 2006, the Sinaloa Cartel had eliminated all competition across the
528 km of Arizona border. The Milenio (Michoacan), Jalisco (Guadalajara), Sonora
(Sonora), and Colima (Colima) cartels are now branches of the Sinaloa
Cartel.
In January 2008 the cartel allegedly split into a number of warring factions,
which is a major cause of the epidemic of drug violence Mexico has seen in the
last year.[33] Murders by the cartel often involve beheadings or bodies
dissolved in vats of acid and are sometimes filmed and posted on the Internet as
a warning to rival gangs.
Atlanta has been used as a major U.S. distribution
center and accounting hub, and the presence of the Sinaloa Cartel there has
brought ruthless violence to that area.
Arrest and seizuresOn 11 May 2008, Alfonso Gutiérrez Loera, cousin of Joaquín
“El Chapo” Guzmán Loera and 5 other drug traffickers were arrested after a
shootout with Federal Police officers in Culiacan, Sinaloa. Along with the
captured suspects, 16 assault rifles, 3 grenades, 102 magazines and 3,543
ammunition rounds were seized.
On 25 February 2009, the U.S. government
announced the arrest of 750 members of the Sinaloa Cartel across the U.S. in
Operation Xcellerator. They also announced the seizure of more than $59 million
in cash and numerous vehicles, planes, and boats.
In March 2009, the Mexican Government announced the deployment of 1,000
Federal Police officers and 5,000 Mexican Army soldiers to restore order in
Ciudad Juárez, which has suffered the highest number of casualties in the
country.
On 20 August 2009, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
dismembered a large Mexican drug operation in Chicago, and uncovered a major
distribution network operated by the Flores crew led by twin brothers Margarito
and Pedro Flores that operated out of that city. The drug operation allegedly
brought 1.5 to 2 tons of cocaine every month to Chicago from Mexico and shipped
millions of dollars south of the border. The shipments were mostly bought from
the Sinaloa Cartel and at times from the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, and it is assumed
that both cartels threatened the Flores crew with violence if they bought from
other rival drug organizations.
The Sinaloa cartel’s loss of partners in Mexico does not appear to have
affected its ability to smuggle drugs from South America to the USA. On the
contrary, based on seizure reports, the Sinaloa cartel appears to be the most
active smuggler of cocaine. The reports also demonstrated the cartels possess
the ability to establish operations in previously unknown areas, such as Central
America and South America, even as far south as Perú, Paraguay and Argentina. It
also appears to be most active in diversifying its export markets; rather than
relying solely on U.S. drug consumption, it has made an effort to supply
distributors of drugs in Latin Americanand European countries.
Current
alliancesSince February 2010, the major cartels have aligned in two factions:
one integrated by the Juárez Cartel, Tijuana Cartel and Los Zetas; the other
faction integrated by the Gulf Cartel and Sinaloa Cartel.In addition to
maintaining its anti-Zetas alliance with the Gulf cartel, Sinaloa in 2011
affiliated itself with the Knights Templar in Michoacan, and to counter Los
Zetas in Jalisco state, Sinaloa affiliated itself with the Jalisco New
Generation Cartel.
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