The Sinaloa Cartel is the biggest threat and “El Mayo” is the top capo, says special agent

Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat  TY  Borderland Beat Follower  Source

When it comes to pointing out the top capo in Mexico, for the DEA  there is no doubt, and neither is the level of power of the person who commands it, Ismael, “El Mayo” Zambada García.

Polo Ruiz, Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the DEA for the District of Arizona, considered the Sinaloa Cartel as the biggest threat in organized crime, followed by the Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) with its leader "El Mencho".

From his office in Nogales, Ruiz speaks in an interview for the magazine Revista, about the reconfiguration of the cartels in Mexico after the sentence in the United States of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera.

Ruíz, as Special Agent in Charge, one of the elements of the DEA with more experience and knowledge about Mexican drug trafficking, has under his responsibility much of the southern border of the United States, his jurisdiction reaches from Arizona and New Mexico to part of California.

The territory that he has to guard while working to halt the transfer of drugs from the border of Mexico to the United States, has for years been under the control of the Sinaloa Cartel and by the fraction that controlled "El Chapo" and now dominate by his sons,  said the drug officer.

Despite the control and ambition of power of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes “El Mencho”, his organization (CJNG) has failed to surpass the Sinaloa Cartel in operational power, according to officials and agents of the DEA, Ruiz included, “El Mayo has always been the head of the Sinaloa Cartel.” he says.

Polo Ruiz, recalls how in July last year, after the  trial in which Judge Brian Cogan sentenced “El Chapo” Guzmán to life imprisonment plus 30 years in prison for transferring tons of cocaine to the United States, the power structures in the Sinaloa Cartel adjusted.

“El Chapo” was left out of the power dome of the Sinaloa Cartel and there was an adjustment in the criminal organization and a dispute with CJNG  that attempts  to seize the plazas controlled by Joaquín Guzmán Loera.

On this rearrangement Ruíz reports that "El Mayo" has not ceased to be there as one of the leaders but the children (of Guzmán Loera) are a group known as “Los Juniors”, they had power, but when their father was imprisoned and then extradited, they began gaining more power.

Jesús Alfredo, Iván Archivaldo and Ovidio clashed with Dámaso López Núñez, “El Licenciado” —who was his father's right hand— and his father, Dámaso López Serrano, “El Mini Lic”, who thought that, with the elimination of "El Chapo" they could rise in command.