US Wants Top 10 of the Sinaloa Cartel

Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Vanguardia / FAS.org

              Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada tops the list, for whom they offer $5 million dollars

The United States government is targeting 10 members of the Sinaloa cartel who have arrest warrants for various crimes, some of whom entered US territory to kidnap and kill citizens of the US, whose bodies of the victims were located in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.

The information shared with the Attorney General's Office (FGR) places these people in the state of Chihuahua as members of the criminal group Gente Nueva, armed arm of the cartel, which for 12 years has maintained a bloody war with the group of La Linea, from the Juarez cartel, to whom the control of the entity disputes.

According to documents of the Federal Court of the Western District of Texas, 14 of the 24 characters indicated by the Texas prosecutor have been arrested by federal forces or killed in clashes, while others were killed by their rivals.

For the Americans it is a priority to capture the rest of the members that are known to have settled in Chihuahuan territory and are behind the killings in Ciudad Juárez for several years.

Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) pose the greatest crime threat to the United States
and have “the greatest drug trafficking influence,” according to the annual U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA’s) National Drug Threat Assessment. These organizations work across the Western Hemisphere and globally. They are involved in extensive money laundering, bribery, gun trafficking, and corruption, and they cause Mexico’s homicide rates to spike.

They produce and traffic illicit drugs into the United States, including heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana, and powerful synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, and they traffic South American cocaine. Over the past decade, Congress has held numerous hearings addressing violence in Mexico, U.S. counternarcotics assistance, and border security issues. Mexican DTO activities significantly affect the security of both the United States and Mexico. As Mexico’s DTOs expanded their control of the opioids market, U.S. overdoses rose sharply to a record level in 2017, with more than half of the 72,000 overdose deaths (47,000) involving opioids.

Although preliminary 2018 data indicate a slight decline in overdose deaths, many analysts believe trafficking continues to evolve toward opioids. The major Mexican DTOs, also referred to as transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), have continued to diversify into such crimes as human smuggling and oil theft while increasing their lucrative business in opioid supply. According to the Mexican government’s latest estimates, illegally siphoned oil from Mexico’s state-owned oil company costs the government about $3 billion annually. Mexico’s DTOs have been in constant flux.

By some accounts, a direct effect of this fragmentation has been escalated levels of violence.
Mexico’s intentional homicide rate reached new records in 2017 and 2018. In 2019, Mexico’s
national public security system reported more than 17,000 homicides between January and June,
setting a new record. By some accounts, a direct effect of this fragmentation has been escalated levels of violence. Mexico’s intentional homicide rate reached new records in 2017 and 2018. In 2019, Mexico’s national public security system reported more than 17,000 homicides between January and June, setting a new record.

In the last months of 2019, several fragments of formerly cohesive cartels conducted flagrant acts of violence. For some Members of Congress, this situation has increased concern about a policy of returning Central American migrants to cities across the border in Mexico to await their U.S. asylum hearings in areas with some of Mexico’s highest homicide rates.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, elected in a landslide in July 2018, campaigned on fighting corruption and finding new ways to combat crime, including the drug trade. According to some analysts, challenges for López Obrador since his inauguration include a persistently ad hoc approach to security; the absence of strategic and tactical intelligence concerning an increasingly fragmented, multipolar, and opaque criminal market; and endemic corruption of Mexico’s judicial and law enforcement systems.

In December 2019, Genero Garcia Luna, a former top security minister under the Felipe Calderón Administration (2006-2012), was arrested in the United States on charges he had taken enormous bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel,  the last months of 2019, several fragments of formerly cohesive cartels conducted flagrant acts of violence. For some Members of Congress, this situation has increased concern about a policy of returning Central American migrants to cities across the border in
Mexico to await their U.S. asylum hearings in areas with some of Mexico’s highest homicide rates.

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Some characters identified are Germán Olivares, "El Paisa", operator of the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada.

According to the United States government, "El Paisa", is linked to the killings in Ciudad Juarez since 2007, due to the dispute over land control. The Mexican authorities designate him as responsible for the transfer of cocaine to the United States and providing firearms to the armed arms of the Sinaloa cartel fighting the La Línea.

They are also looking for Amado Núnez, "El M-11" or "El Flaco", who is known to hide in Juárez and orders the gangs of Los killer artists and Mexicles to carry out attacks against the Juárez cartel. It is also responsible for drug transfer, collection of floor and extortion.

Sergio Garduño Escobedo, "El Coma", is another character. Last year, the Attorney General of Chihuahua issued an alert, because they had reports that it was seen in that entity, where the group of Gente Nueva has been established.

One more is Iván Sánchez Hernández, accused by the Texas Attorney's Office of being part of a cell of traffickers, kidnappers and homicides.

In addition, the whereabouts of Mario Iglesias Villegas, "El Dos", are being investigated, who is said to have participated in the kidnapping of a person in Horizon City, Texas, and in the kidnapping and murder of an American and two members of his family.

It is presumed that under the orders of Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada García and Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, hitmen of the organization, including "El Dos", conspired to kidnap and assassinate a resident of Horizon City, in Texas, for the loss of a shipment of marijuana seized by the Border Patrol at the Sierra Blanca checkpoint in August 2009.

They also conspired to kidnap and kill an American and two members of his family in 2010, whose bodies were found in an abandoned van in Ciudad Juarez.

On their list, Americans also include "El Mayo" Zambada, for whom a few years ago they offered a reward of $ 5 million.

Ismael Zambada is identified by the United States and Mexican authorities as the most important kingpin of the Sinaloa cartel, above "El Chapo" , who has been characterized by driving with a low profile to avoid giving clues to his whereabouts.

For more than two decades he has directed the most powerful cartel in Mexico, which has links with various criminal organizations in different regions of the world and that today has been threatened by the growing power of the Jalisco New Generation cartel, ie CJNG, today the most bloodthirsty group.

The Americans seek to judge "El Mayo" for the crimes of criminal association, for conspiracy to possess narcotics, for money laundering, conspiracy to possess weapons and murder, among other crimes.