The War Between "El Mayo" And Los Chapitos For Baja California And Sonora

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

Estación Coahuila. Bad omen.

The internal differences of the Sinaloa Cartel, between El Mayo Zambada and the sons of Chapo Guzmán, exploded in a neighboring town of Baja California and Sonora. The two groups began to subdue the local leaders and demand the right to operate fee. With the assassination of Morgan, an operator who worked for El Mayo’s side, it exploded a factional war that affects residents of the two states, where the Sinaloan organization has had a strong presence for more than a decade.

"They killed Morgan, they killed Morgan!", it was read on cell phones, it was repeated in pharmacies and in premises on the main avenue of the town, among friends and family. By noon on June 1, everyone knew it, both Baja Californians and Sonorans because of a bureaucratic procedure: the dividing line, which in fact is an alley

The town, of 11,800 inhabitants, is the same, but on the side of Sonora it’s called Luis B. Sánchez and once you pass the alley it’s called Estación Coahuila.

There, in the last community of the Mexicali Valley area, they not only mourned the death of the 28-year-old man, everyone has known each other since childhood, but the message that his body carried said:

"Anyone who supports Ruso, Isrra, Piña, Pably, Mario Cabezón and El Tochin, El Wasteko and Omega will meet the same fate.  JG. We are 'Los Menores' we don’t kill innocent civilians... We are united for the townspeople. You’re fighting a lost cause. Sincerely, La Chapiza 701"

And although everyone knew that the Salazars would arrive, they expected them not to enter the town, where Jesús Alexander Sánchez Félix, El Ruso, operator of Ismael Zambada, El Mayo, has one of his safe houses. The locals insist that the murder of Morgan was by order of Los Salazar or Los Chapitos.

El Ruso is part of the Sinaloa Cartel that, according to the group InSight Crime, is experiencing an internal dispute between the old leader, El Mayo Zambada, and Joaquín Guzmán Loera's sons, El Chapo.

The judicial process that led to the sentence of life imprisonment for El Chapo Guzmán, and where Vicente Zambada - El Vicentillo, son of Mayo - testified against him, would have triggered the differences, which intensified with the arrest of Ovidio Guzmán López in the federal operation already known as "El Culiacanazo", when Zambada refused to participate with Los Chapitos in the release of the young Guzmán.

Although El Chapo has several recognized children, only Ovidio Guzmán López, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar and Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar are part of Los Chapitos or Los Menores. They were allied to Los Salazar, old collaborators of the cartel based in Chihuahua.

Crispín Salazar and his brother Adán Salazar Zamorano are the visible heads of the group. They dominate three quarters of Chihuahua's territory on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel, including the border with the United States, with the exception of a corridor in the central part of the state, which is lead by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Sonora's southwest side is also controlled by Los Salazar and the Sinaloa Cartel, but the differences between El Mayo Zambada and Los Chapitos have provoked fierce struggles.

The war begins

The murder of Morgan announced to the inhabitants of Sonora and Baja California that the war between the two groups had ceased to be a shadow in their daily lives to settle in it. According to the narco-message stuck in the body, Los Salazars are the allies of "La Chapiza", enemies of El Ruso and Mayo.

In a tour that Proceso journalists made last May through Luis B. Sánchez and Estación Coahuila, the fear of the eventual irruption of Los Salazar was already evident.

Since January 9, when a banner signed by Los Salazar appeared in the neighboring city of Mexicali announcing the right to operate fee for the exchange houses, the inhabitants of the valley were aware that they were surrounded, to the east in Mexicali and to the west in San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora.

"Important notice. To all the money launderers for narco traffickers get use to paying a mandatory fee of 1 peso. Otherwise, your worlds will go to shit. Sincerely, The Salazars," said the narco-message.

The inhabitants of Luis B. Sánchez and Estación Coahuila pointed out the location of several clandestine airport stations and said that drug retailing has existed for a long time

Proceso