The numerous factions within the two cartels provide a basis for identifying general group characteristics, despite their distinct histories and paths within the criminal world that shape each faction’s unique style of governing. Following the imprisonment of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera in the United States, the Sinaloa Cartel has been divided into four main factions, each led by: a) Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a clever veteran; b) Rafael Caro Quintero, one of the original founders of the Guadalajara Cartel; c) Aureliano “El Guano” Guzmán Loera, El Chapo’s brother; and d) El Chapo’s four sons, collectively known as Los Chapitos. Similarly, the various factions within the CJNG, with Nemesio Oseguera “El Mencho” Cervantes at the helm, also display consistent behavior and governance.
In Baja California Sur, I interviewed a businessman who described the Cartel Sinaloa as “civilized criminals” who do not resort to violence for the sake of violence. Instead, they bring order and control through their polite approach as “extortionists.” In contrast to the Sinaloa Cartel, which operates in a lower-profile manner, people and businesses, as well as local politicians, can develop predictable coping mechanisms. The hallmark of the Sinaloa Cartel has been a careful calibration of violence, imposing its domination through a level of moderation and predictability. This buttoned-down self-presentation is what sets the Sinaloa Cartel apart as a successful and long-standing criminal group.
I informed a restaurant owner that the Sinaloa Cartel successfully gained control of the city, specifically Tijuana.
During the war, life was very difficult. Among the criminal groups, as well as the local proxies, the Tijuana and Sinaloa Cartels, there were many. You had to pay extortion to many groups. Someone was threatening to burn down your businesses and showing up at your door. Someone was threatening to kill your family and burn down your businesses and showing up at your door. The prices were going up and up. Even if you found a group that you paid out to, there was no way to resist. They would also threaten your family and you if their rivals found out. I was just considering selling all my restaurants. Things are good now that Sinaloa has won, but it’s not easy. The monthly fee has gone down, you only need to pay once a week, not just once. They are polite. The government tax inspectors and health inspectors used to ask us for hefty bribes and harass us to keep their necks.
In November 2021, an entrepreneur in Baja California Sur informed me, for instance, regarding the Sinaloa Cartel in different regions of Mexico nearly ten years afterwards. I encountered numerous comparable patterns.
A fair price every couple of months, only exorbitant amounts and a single week payment that you don’t have to worry about. Dealing with them is extremely civilized. The payments from the polite and composed Sinaloa Cartel collectors are now very predictable. Although it was much better before 2015-2018 when there was fighting over the control of Sur Baja by CJNG, now it’s very stable. Most of the big hotels in San Lucas [Cabo] are paid by Sinaloa.
His portrayal mirrored that of a businessperson in Acapulco with whom I conversed there in October.
It is still very challenging for many small businesses in Acapulco to pay the numerous street vendors who belong to criminal groups. You can’t see the weapons now, as it is calm, and you don’t have to pay men who brandish their weapons in your face every three months anymore. It’s much better and easier than before. However, the Caro Sinaloa faction, led by Quintero, now controls the top extortion in Acapulco.
It has been revealed that Chapo’s enemies, both internal and external, have shied away from the brutal torture that he and the Sinaloa Cartel, including El Chapo, have been known for. The use of violence by the Sinaloa Cartel is not selective or calibrated, it can be unprovoked or provoked, and it has started wars of aggression in Juárez and Cuidad Juárez over the past two decades. However, this does not mean that the Cartel is engaged in aggressive expansion, nor does it mean that it is tolerable to local people and businesses at least to some extent. The Cartel has the capacity to calibrate repression and violence to certain levels, and it is less aggressive and threatening in-your-face. This fact highlights the fact that the Sinaloa Cartel is less aggressive and threatening compared to other cartels.
The recent report from Brookings Today highlights how the Sinaloa Cartel has taken control of various aspects of fisheries in Mexico, including sales and processing, without facing any resistance. Furthermore, the cartel is actively seeking to systematically dominate the entire vertical chain of economies in many regions of Mexico, demonstrating their relentless pursuit of power.
The Sinaloa Cartel, not only rapidly followed by the CJNG, took the lead in the opioid and fentanyl markets on the East Coast of the United States. The Cartel deliberately expanded its sales of fentanyl westward and eventually built up vertical control over the production and distribution of the lethal drug. In order to establish this control, the Cartel sells fake prescription pills and powder fentanyl to smaller criminal groups in the United States, then imports precursor and pre-precursor chemicals from China for processing into fentanyl. Additionally, the Cartel adopted a similar approach to the production of fentanyl as China, importing the drug from China for processing.
The Sinaloa Cartel’s modus operandi is based on brazen violence and domination, unlike any other. However, the CJNG often seeks full control across the entire vertical chain without paying taxes, merely exploiting local actors. In my subsequent op-ed, I will provide detailed information about this within the next two weeks.
Will it govern by acquiring political influence among diverse groups? Or will it primarily rely on ruthlessness and surpassing others in the use of violence, much like the CJNG and another Mexican cartel called the Zetas used to do? Each armed faction, regardless of its political or economic motivations, must determine its governing strategy for controlling territories and individuals.
Local communities and organizations, government authorities and military personnel, politicians, religious leaders and influential figures such as businesses, have consistently endeavored to gain political advantage with the Sinaloa Cartel.
The factors that contribute to Sinaloa’s appeal among those who must endure its governance include the limited use of violence and a pragmatic approach towards setting extortion rates.
The cartel is known for its involvement in drug trafficking and other illegal activities.Output: In addition, the Cartel Sinaloa, as informed to me by a prominent local businessman, has provided various services to the local community in Acapulco, such as apprehending alleged kidnappers and handing them over to the authorities. Furthermore, the cartel has also solved some cases related to kidnapping of businessmen and their relatives. Additionally, the cartel is notorious for its participation in drug trafficking and other illicit endeavors.
Due to insufficient resources or corrupt practices, CONAPESCA often falls short in ensuring adherence to fishing licenses and quotas, a responsibility that the Sinaloa Cartel has purportedly volunteered to undertake. Moreover, the Sinaloa Cartel has extensively involved itself in various illicit fishing activities throughout Mexico, yet it has also approached state and CONAPESCA officials to extend this proposition. Likewise.
Additionally, the Cartel Sinaloa also provides other forms of regulations and rules that effectively promote or adopt the enforcement, while moderating extortion and violence.
In addition to regular individuals, the Sinaloa Cartel provides these regulatory services. Street delinquency, such as thefts, is also moderated and decreased by it. Even government officials perceive it as such an enforcement authority. Local contacts in Baja California Sur informed me that after the Sinaloa Cartel established itself and monopolized local fishing industries in a fishing village in Baja California Sur, municipal police officers began directing local residents who complained about theft and home burglaries to the Sinaloa Cartel halcones to address such issues. During my previous trips, like in Chiapas in 2013, I also heard from local residents and journalists about the Sinaloa Cartel suppressing minor criminal activities, thus gaining political influence among the local population.
Sales of alcohol and cigarettes, as well as fisheries, do not make us poor. They told me in November that it will save us. The Sinaloa Cartel has persisted in building soccer stadiums and schools in some places that are related to Covid-19, promising local people. For decades, the cartel’s leaders have been giving money for church authorities, local churches, and fiestas. However, these social handouts, such as sanitizers, food, cash, and petty packages, were strategically designed to build local support. Various criminal groups of the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico mesmerized the international and Mexican media by distributing these social handouts during the spring of 2020 when Covid-19 was sweeping the world.Output: The Sinaloa Cartel has continued to pursue projects, such as constructing soccer stadiums and schools, in certain locations associated with Covid-19. These endeavors are intended to gain the support of the local population. For years, the cartel’s leaders have been providing financial assistance to church authorities, local churches, and festive events. Nevertheless, the distribution of social handouts, including sanitizers, food, cash, and miscellaneous packages, served a deliberate purpose to cultivate local backing. The international and Mexican media were captivated by the various criminal factions of the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico as they distributed these social handouts during the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
The rural state of Guerrero, characterized by its reliance on rent and resource extraction, has a long history and political culture that reflects the difference between urban and rural Guerrero, as well as the strategic approach of Sinaloa. In contrast to Sinaloa’s approach, which focuses little on social and capital benefits, Guerrero’s governor, who is described by local researchers as a traditional drug benefactor, has little interest in legal economies. When it comes to the response to Covid-19, I did not identify the Sinaloa Cartel as one of the smaller criminal groups in Acapulco that distributed social handouts in October 2021. However, many local interlocutors, such as street vendors, human rights activists, journalists, and church leaders, have raised queries about this matter. The Sinaloa Cartel, which dominates the coastal region of Guerrero and Acapulco, does not seem to distribute money to churches or schools. This is in contrast to other criminal groups in Acapulco who only take steps to challenge the cartel’s monopoly on extortion and kidnapping when their own businesses or the comfort of businessmen is severely affected by violence. As local journalists explained to me in October, the rule of the Sinaloa Cartel in Acapulco is deeply embedded and widely networked, unlike the state of Sinaloa where the cartel’s core base is located. However, there is also regional variation in governance and rule within the Sinaloa Cartel.
CNJG, the main adversary of Sinaloa, exhibits a level of aggression and unpredictability in various criminal organizations across Mexico that surpasses the disruptions of everyday life. However, those who are forced to endure this lack reliable protection from the Mexican government because the Sinaloa Cartel’s rule is far more persistent and violent within criminal groups. Regardless of location, the Sinaloa Cartel remains active in Mexico and continues to impose oppressive and unaccountable domination, relying on calibrated violence at the end of each day.