An explosive deception has ripped apart one of Mexico’s most powerful criminal groups, the Sinaloa cartel, and ignited a war between the rival factions.

Bodies dumped on the side of the road. Gun battles in upscale neighborhoods. Tractor-trailers set aflame on the highway. People plucked from their cars by armed men in broad daylight.

This is what it looks like when war breaks out within one of the most powerful criminal mafias in the world, the Sinaloa Cartel, pitting two rival factions against each other in a bloody struggle to control a multibillion-dollar narco empire.

. . .

Paralysis has gripped the local economy, as many employees have stopped showing up to work and businesses have reduced their hours or suspended operations altogether. The capital, Culiacán, has already suffered hundreds of millions of dollars in losses, business leaders say.

With more than 140 people killed in just one month, officials fear the violence could soon spread across the country, raising the stakes for Mexico’s new president, Claudia Sheinbaum.

MBFC
Archive