A deadly alliance between two of Mexico’s most powerful gangs threatens to intensify the nation’s drug war – and could also result in more drugs and guns flowing into the US
Mexico’s deadliest gangs have formed a ‘super cartel’ to wreak more havoc after being hit by a US drugs bust, reports say.
In its recent annual report, the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) warned that the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and ‘Los Chapitos’ faction of the notorious Sinaloa Cartel were set to enter into an alliance – potentially spreading devastating drug wars further across North and South America. Experts believe the CJNG is seeking to capitalise on the deadly clashes between Los Chapitos and another faction within the Sinaloa Cartel, called La Mayiza. Now, further information has detailed the complex family allegiances at play in the shock new alliance.
According to Ioan Grillo, author of the ‘El Narco’ series of books, a calculating Los Chapitos boss ‘El Chapito’ – son of infamous drug lord El Chapo – has opted for an alliance with the CJNG as he was losing ground against the La Mayiza faction, following the recent arrests of his two half-brothers.
While El Chapito (Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar) remains a wanted man with a $10 million (£7.4 million) bounty on his head after escaping from prison earlier this year, half-sibling Ovidio Guzmán López was been extradited to the US in 2023 after being captured.
Joaquín Guzmán López, another half-brother, was arrested last July in El Paso, Texas.
Both of them are understood to be planning plea deals in US to try and get themselves a shorter sentence – potentially weakening El Chapito’s position back in Mexico, and prompting him to cosy up to the CJNG to reassert his power within the Sinaloa Cartel.
The La Mayiza faction has meanwhile been winning increased support among regional crime bosses in recent months as it continues to pledge allegiance to Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada, the top leader of the Sinaloa Cartel who was also arrested last year.
El Chapo, one of the most well-known crime bosses in the world, had led the Sinaloa Cartel until his dramatic arrest and incarceration in 2016, after which co-founder El Mayo took the reins.
With a new Los Chapitos-CJNG alliance forming, the dramatic shift in power would likely spark a new wave of violent clashes in Mexico, which recorded an estimated 350,000 to 400,000 deaths related to organised crime between 2006 and 2022.
But the effects could also be felt north of the border too, with the bolstered capabilities of a joint Los Chapitos-CJNG pact likely leading to more weapons and drugs flowing into the US.
The DEA’s recent report said of the pact: “A strategic alliance between CJNG and Los Chapitos has the potential to expand these groups’ territories, resources, firepower, and access to corrupt officials, which could result in significant disruption to the existing balance of criminal power in Mexico and could serve to increase northbound drug flow and the southbound weapons trafficking at the U.S.-Mexico border.”
Despite being riven by internal battles, the Sinaloa Cartel has continued its “lucrative” expansion into Europe, Asia, and the UK in recent times, and is known to have links to Eastern European gangsters who smuggle cocaine into the UK.
In the recent DEA report, it was also found that the Sinaloa Cartel has been mixing fentanyl with xylazine – a sedative intended for use on animals that is linked to a higher chance of overdose.