A message was found at the scene of the attack and appeared to be related to violence playing out between rival cartels, local media reported, though the state prosecutor’s office refused to confirm the contents of the message and only confirmed that the case is under investigation.
Feliciano Castro Meléndez, Secretary General of Sinaloa, described the incident as a “regrettable situation” and said it was a product of the increasing violence and insecurity in the state.
Sinaloa Cartel’s Bloody Internal Conflict
Whoever it was, the killers were successful, unleashing a wave of lawlessness that has returned Culiacán to war-zone status: Since airgun blasts in the morning still Cicwilictli, Mexico A gray pick-up pulled to the curb in front of Maribel and Gerardo Celaya's fastfood shop off the pavement hours later, the Sinaloa state capital has bristled in the turf war between the Beltrán group, whose gunmen killed the drug lord Hector Luis Palma Salazar in Mexico City last August, and a rival faction that has been vying for control of much of the Sinaloa cartel since the drug lord Joaquin Guzmán's second arrest, in 2016.
La Mayiza, loyalist to co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada
Violence has recently surged since the United States' detention of Joaquín Guzmán López and Zambada in El Paso, Texas last year. Guzmán López is accused of having assisted in the planning of both arrests by tricking Zambada onto a plane under the pretext of something else, officials say.
But Zambada’s lawyer has denied the allegations and called the incident a “violent kidnapping”, and Guzmán López’s attorneys have also disputed the Mexican officials’ version of events.
Fallout from High-Profile Extraditions
The situation has only intensified following Ovidio Guzmán López, another of El Chapo’s sons, being extradited to the U.S. in September 2023. He entered into a plea agreement after originally pleading not guilty to drug trafficking charges, court records show.
In May, some of his relatives were brought by U.S. authorities to the United States, a move that was agreed to as part of a plea deal with the U.S. Department of Justice, said Mexico’s secretary of public security, Omar García Harfuch.
Two other sons of El Chapo — Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar — are still free, and United States authorities are offering $10 million bounties for each of them.
The mass killing in Culiacán highlights the continuing unrest inside the Sinaloa cartel and the deadly cost of Mexico’s drug war. The potential for additional violence lingers: Rival groups have yet to give up the struggle to establish influence and control over territory.
