US arrests spark cartel ‘war’ in northern Mexico: ‘Like a narco pandemic’

A wave of killings and kidnappings in a northern Mexican city has left residents scared to leave their houses during an internal cartel war set off by the US arrests of two high-level drug traffickers.

Hundreds of heavily armed special forces have been deployed in and around Culiacán, Sinaloa, over the past three weeks in which more than 90 people have been killed and another 90 kidnapped, according to local media.

Last week soldiers swept through an upmarket shopping centre on a Saturday afternoon, sending diners in a ramen restaurant to the floor, videos on social media show. Customers in a café dived behind the counter before a fierce, hours-long gun and grenade battle erupted one block away.

The latest wave of violence has been unleashed in the aftermath of the US arrest of two of Mexico’s most notorious drug traffickers, both leaders in the largest factions of the Sinaloa Cartel. One of the men, Ismael “El Mayo” Zamabada, alleges he was kidnapped, illegally taken out of Mexico and handed to the US by the other, Joaquín Guzmán, a son of notorious jailed kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

Initially, the confusing and conflicting stories about the arrests told by the US and Mexican governments and the criminal groups themselves resulted in several weeks of “tense calm” in the city, locals suggested.

Then in early September battles kicked off between the two factions, and there is little sign they are abating.

Hardened Culichis, as residents of the city are known, have lived through violence before, but say they have never experienced anything as terrifying and prolonged as this.

They check daily reports of metal spikes set up on roads to puncture tyres, masked civilians grabbing young men off the street and bodies being dumped around the metropolitan area. Shops are shutting early, workers are scared to turn up and public concerts and celebrations are cancelled.

“It’s like a narco pandemic,” one 35-year-old resident said. “The city is being held hostage.”

The army commander overseeing the response in Culiacán told reporters that it was not in the military’s control to stop the violence. “It doesn’t depend on us,” he said. “It depends on the antagonistic groups stopping fighting between themselves and leaving society in peace.”

Mexico’s outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has been reluctant to confront the drug-trafficking groups, with his catchphrase “hugs not bullets”.

The flare-up underscores the security challenge facing López Obrador’s successor, president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, who takes office next week. It also underlines the high cost Mexicans pay for the US strategy of extracting kingpins to try them for their crimes.

“They knew this would lead to a very big conflict, and a big conflict between the two groups of the Sinaloa Cartel was always going to be disastrous, very tragic and deadly,” said Juan Carlos Ayala, professor at the University of Sinaloa. “The United States government has a lot of the blame because they did things unilaterally.”

The US ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, has said what was happening in Sinaloa was not the fault of the US, and the unrest would have to be solved via deep collaboration.

Consolidated in the 1990s moving drugs such as marijuana and cocaine, the Sinaloa Cartel today is made up of factions. Today’s violence is the result of a rupture between the two strongest: the Chapitos, aligned with the sons of “El Chapo”, and the Mayitos, aligned with Zambada.

“It’s like fighting with your brother,” said Adrián López, publisher of Culiacán-based newspaper Noroeste. “They are related in many ways and that’s what makes this different . . . they are fighting in territory where we are too, regular citizens.”

The image of the cartel locally has changed with the succession from founders such as El Chapo, who grew up poor working in the fields and was a hero-like figure to some. His sons, the Chapitos, have pushed the group into synthetic drugs including fentanyl and citizens say they feel the violence more directly.

Ayala said: “Most of the comments now [from society] are of being fed up, tremendous anger.”

Policymakers and even security experts struggle to articulate clear strategies to dismantle Mexico’s powerful criminal groups. Co-operation with the US is at a low point after Zambada’s arrest.

Sheinbaum, the former mayor of Mexico City, has touted her police-led strategy in the capital and wants to focus on better coordinating investigations and responses between different levels of government.

Her choice of security secretary, Omar Garcia Harfuch, a former senior police officer whom a drug cartel tried to kill in 2020, has raised some hopes the situation may improve.

But overcoming the corruption and complex local dynamics is a gigantic task. Winning the trust of citizens back is harder, as authorities in Sinaloa have found trying to get parents to take their children to school.

“Those 15 minutes on the journey will be complete terror,” the 35-year-old resident said of the school run. “There’s been violence before, but we’ve never lived anything like this.”