Fentanyl & El Mayo - Damaso's Rebuttal to los Chapitos

"HEARST" and "Ivan" for Borderland Beat

A review of the verifiable evidence which corroborates the claims in the response letter from Damaso López Serrano, alias “El Mini Lic”.  

His letter acts as rebuttal to a letter that los Chapitos released earlier this month. The Chapitos were, in turn, were responding to specific parts of the US indictment, or stating their personal grievances. 

It can be difficult to keep track of the various claims and responses. This article aims to match up each claim and subsequent response, to create a more comprehensive view of these letters. To read any of these documents in full, please see the link to the US indictment, the Chapitos letter, and the Damaso letter.

This article is Part 1, covering the allegations about their involvement in fentanyl and their alleged framing of El Mayo.

On Fentanyl & Flooding the Streets

US indictment: 

For years, the Chapitos and their confederates have knowingly reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in profits from the destruction and despair caused by fentanyl, knowing full well that the drug can be lethal to end-users of the Cartel's product. In doing so, the Cartel has driven users of other drugs to fentanyl addiction by mixing fentanyl into other narcotics and selling fentanyl disguised as, for example, legitimate prescription pills. 

As IVAN ARCHIVALDO GUZMAN SALAZAR, the defendant, has stated to associates, the Cartel seeks to flood the United States with fentanyl in order to supply "streets of junkies." In or about May 2022, during a meeting with other Cartel members, Ovidio Guzman Lopez acknowledged that users of fentanyl can die if the mixture is just a little "off." Indeed, multiple "cooks" used by the Cartel to manufacture its fentanyl at Chapitos-controlled labs in Mexico have died from testing the product.

Chapitos letter:  

We have never worked with fentanyl, however there are plenty of Sinaloans who do so and that is why there are [fentanyl] seizures. [...] We have never established, knowingly, a relationship with fentanyl traffickers. 

We want to make this clear: Ivan never said 'We will flood the streets of the US with fentanyl.'

Damaso’s response: 

They say they have never worked with fentanyl, but don't you remember in 2016 what you did to the Monárrez brothers at the bus station in Culiacán? All because they were making large quantities of fentanyl and they didn’t want to work under you. At the end of the day you stole their formula and their [fentanyl] cooking method.

Do you also not remember that in 2017 and 2018, El Panú and José Ángel called a meeting in a restaurant in Culiacán, in which they told many young people to introduce fentanyl pills into their supply and present them as M30, but not tell them that they were made of fentanyl. 

What did they tell them? That this [fentanyl] was the business of the future. That it was much better than cocaine, crystal meth and heroin. They invited each person in attendance to start looking for clients and they gave each one 5000 [fentanyl] pills.

And what about the labs they had in the mangroves of Conchal, also on the Navolato side, and in the Sanalona area. Did they forget that they sent El 300 to collect the fee for each lab that was in Sinaloa? They told them that they had to pay them with product since Sinaloa was your territory and therefore, whoever wanted to operate would have to pay a fee. Have you already forgotten how you wanted to monopolize the fentanyl market? 

Maybe now, since Ivan seems to have Alzheimer's [he has become forgetful], he can’t remember the words he frequently said, which were "We have to get fentanyl in there. We are going to flood the streets of America with drug addicts."

Further Context: 

El Panú refers to one of Ivan’s top lieutenants, Oscar Medina González, who was also named in the US indictment. For more details on Panu’s criminal history, please see this previous story. 

“José Ángel” likely refers to José Ángel Canovio. He along with his brother Jorge Canovio, are referred to as los Güeritos, or los Brontos, and they lead their own subgroup within los Chapitos.

M30 refers to blue oxycodone tablets. The DEA reported on counterfeit oxycodone M30 tablets containing fentanyl being smuggled into the US and causing overdoses in releases like this, which was published in 2021. 

“El 300” likely refers to Karim Elias Gil Acosta. He and his brother Kevin Alonso Gil Acosta, alias “El 200”, have been Sinaloa Cartel figures for many years. 

The two were detained by the Navy in February 2014. Their family tried to claim the men were kidnapped, but the Navy put out a press release making clear the men were detained, not kidnapped after they were found to be carrying firearms and drugs. It later came out that the brothers were actually captured by the Navy during an operation attempting to capture Chapo Guzmán, called Operation Gargoyle. El 200 and 300 were quietly released from custody at some later point. 

On Mayo Being Involved in Fentanyl 

Chapitos letter: 

We have never worked with fentanyl, however there are plenty of Sinaloans who do so and that is why there are [fentanyl] seizures. Those seizures belong to somebody and we encourage law enforcement to investigate them. If the government has agents working in the state, then they already know what's really going on in Sinaloa. It isn't hard to know who really owns these seizures. 

Damaso’s response: 

Now in more recent days, you had fentanyl pills planted in various houses in Culiacan and placed an image on them that alluded to Mr. Ismael Zambada, in order to blame him for being responsible for the production of fentanyl. Even though it was you, yourselves, who planted all that evidence that corresponded to pills, presses, and logos with the image of an individual with a hat, as well as notebooks with information.

You provided the locations [of these fentanyl labs with fake evidence] to the government so that they could go and seize the property. 

Further Context: 

Damaso is referring to a recent fentanyl lab seizure on May 3, 2023. The lab was allegedly found in the San Benito neighborhood of the city of Culiacan, Sinaloa. 

On May 4, just one day after the lab was found, Chapitos released their public letter in which they alluded to raids on fentanyl labs in Sinaloa in which fentanyl that didn’t belong to them but, instead, belonged to someone, was seized. 

On May 6, images purportedly from the interior of the San Benito lab were leaked online and published by prominent cartel news sources like Calvarie Locus. 

Two of these photos, likely taken by a member of law enforcement, showed labels for baggies of the fentanyl which featured a cartoon image of Mayo. Many concluded, based on the labels, that the fentanyl lab belonged to groups working under El Mayo. To read more, please see this previous article translated by Ivan. 

Whether the Chapitos letter’s reference was just a timely response to a recent event, or if Chapitos carefully orchestrated the timing of the seizure and subsequent image leaks, is unclear at this time. 

So, Damaso claims that this evidence was planted by Chapitos in order to cast suspicion on El Mayo. What can we make of this? 

There is a commonly held belief that control over the city of Culiacan is split, with the northern half belonging to los Chapitos and the southern half belonging to El Mayo. The lab seized on May 3 was in the San Benito neighborhood, which, as shown in the map below, lies in the southern part of the city. 

Furthermore, El Mayo is believed to be in some way involved in fentanyl production. For proof of this, look no further than the arrest of the Mayo lieutenant Armando Bátiz Camarena, alias “El Inge” in 2021 (beware: photos of him online may be incorrectly showing a CJNG operator). 

That being said, it is generally uncommon for unblurred images of drug labels to leak from Sinaloa, a state known for a high-degree of law enforcement-cartel collusion. And there is the aforementioned convenient timing of the lab seizure and image leak.

On Chapitos being Persecuted by the US for Fentanyl

Chapitos letter: 

We invite any interested media outlet or governmental agency, Mexican or international, to investigate the fentanyl issue in Mexico and Sinaloa thoroughly. 

Who produces it? Where do they get the precursors from? And, how do they transport it to the US? 

We are certain that any impartial investigation will reach this conclusion: The sons of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, who the public knows as Los Chapitos, have never created, manufactured, or sold fentanyl, nor any of its derivatives.

We are victims of persecution and we are being made into a scapegoat.

Damaso’s response: 

Who produces the fentanyl, then? You buy pure [already-made] fentanyl and you also produce it. You regularly buy the raw material and manufacture it in Sinaloa, to give it the ‘fentanyl finish’. You are producing it in the form of powder and tablets for its commercialization. Generally they buy them from Asia. 

How do they get them to the U.S.? By means of buses, cargo trucks, small planes, boats, parcel delivery companies, and other methods which deliver fentanyl to the US border, and then they bring it in through [US port of entries] with cars with hidden compartments, or through blind mules, or cargo trucks, or people who cross the checkpoints on foot, etc.

You [Chapitos] are the target of a well-justified persecution. So, don't cry about it. Face your problems. As they say ‘It’s time to grow up and learn to be men.’ 

A comparison of the Chapitos letter and the Damaso letter will continue in the next part: 

Fame & Infamy - Damaso's Rebuttal to Chapitos