Thirty-five people were killed in the Mexican state of Sinaloa through October 25 to 27 as internal conflict within the Sinaloa Cartel continues to plague the Mexican state following the arrest of notorious cartel figure Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada on July 25, 2024.
Death Count Rises as Violence Continues
Many of those killed throughout the weekend were found on roads across Sinaloa, a common tactic employed by cartels across the country in an effort to instill fear within both their enemies and locals to strike fear into rivals and ensure compliance from civilians in the area. The majority of the murders took place in or around Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa and the battleground for the two factions within the Sinaloa Cartel.
In one brutal murder, a severed head was discovered inside a cooler with a message intended for the Chapitos, a faction within the cartel which is led by the sons of notorious drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, likely left by their rivals and participants in the civil war, La Mayiza, who are led by one of the sons of the now arrested El Mayo.
Since the start of this war, Sinaloa has become a hotbed for increased hostilities within the Sinaloa Cartel, prompting an increase in operations by Mexican security forces.
These murders follow the recent arrest of an alleged ringleader within La Mayiza on October 21 by Mexican security forces. The ringleader, identified as Edwin Antonio Rubio López and the aliases “Max” and “El Oso,” was taken into state custody following an intense firefight with Mexican security forces in Culiacán.
The arrest followed an intense military operation with the aim of arresting Rubio in which 30 armed civilians who are likely members of the Sinaloa cartel engaged with security forces with both automatic rifles, long rifles, a Barrett rifle, and pistols. During the operation to arrest Rubio, at least 19 armed civilians were killed, according to Mexico’s Ministry of National Defense (Sedena), while casualties of security forces have not yet been reported.
Rubio had been designated as a key target for elimination by the Mexican military largely due to his role within the Sinaloa Cartel and for allegedly orchestrating a number of violent attacks across Baja California. Not only is Rubio believed to have been behind a rise in violent crime within Baja California, but the alleged ringleader also stands accused of international drug trafficking, with an arrest warrant for trafficking narcotics from Culiacán to San Felipe then to Los Angeles having previously been issued.
Rubio’s ties to El Mayo are the result of information leaked by a hacking group known as Guacamaya Leaks. The group claims the now arrested alleged ringleader of the Sinaloa Cartel operated under the direction of Alfonso Arzate García, known by his alias “El Aquiles," while Rubio himself is an alleged member of La Mayiza.
La Mayiza is not just responsible for armed violence across Sinaloa, but the group has also dispersed fliers to the civilian population of Culiacán in which the faction promised to end the “abuses” carried out by the Chapitos. In the pamphlets dispersed by the faction, it denounced the “government that supports them [Chapitos]” before providing a number for civilians to report any such instances of alleged corruption.
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