The Sinaloa Cartel is waging a fratricidal war that has left nearly 3,000 dead and 3,600 people missing since 2024—the result of a betrayal in which one of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s sons handed over the organization’s co-founder, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, to U.S. authorities. According to *The Wall Street Journal*, this conflict threatens to redefine Mexico’s criminal landscape, potentially leaving the Guzmán family out of power.
The most recent sign of the clan’s collapse came last month with the formal indictment in the United States of Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya and nine other state and municipal officials, who are accused of accepting bribes from “Los Chapitos” in exchange for protecting their criminal operations. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) warned the Senate that this indictment—marking the first time Washington has sought the arrest and extradition of a sitting governor—is just the beginning.
In the summer of 2024, Joaquín Guzmán López—one of El Chapo’s sons—lured his godfather, Zambada, to an event venue under the pretext of mediating a political dispute between Governor Rocha and local politician Héctor Cuén. “El Mayo”—78 years old and known as “The Gentleman of the Hat”—arrived with a mere four bodyguards.
What he found was an ambush. Guzmán López’s men killed Cuén and forced Zambada into the bed of a pickup truck. “El Güero” drove him to an airport near El Paso, where U.S. agents took both men into custody.
