Prosecutors in northern Mexico’s Sinaloa state are investigating the discovery of 20 male bodies with gunshot wounds – including five that were decapitated – on a bridge over a federal highway.
Sinaloa Secretary General Feliciano Castro Meléndez called the case a “regrettable situation” and said it was “part of the violence and insecurity that Sinaloa is experiencing.”
Since 2024, Culiacán has been the epicenter of armed clashes between rival factions of the Sinaloa cartel.
Two of the most prominent factions are La Mayiza, which is loyal to the cartel’s alleged co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, and Los Chapitos, which is loyal to the sons of former drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
‘Los Chapitos’
The violence in Sinaloa escalated after Zambada and one of El Chapo’s sons, Joaquín Guzmán López, were arrested last year by US authorities in El Paso, Texas.
Former Mexican Secretary of Security Rosa Icela Rodriguez said Guzmán López had reached an agreement with one of his brothers, Ovidio Guzmán López, who is in US custody, “So that they would go to the United States to surrender.”
Ovidio had been extradited to the US in September 2023 to face drug trafficking charges over his alleged role in the Sinaloa cartel. Days after his extradition, he pleaded not guilty to the charges in a US court.
Later that month, several members of his family entered the US as part of an apparent “negotiation or plea deal opportunity provided by the (US) Department of Justice itself,” Mexico’s Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch said.
Two other sons of El Chapo, Ivan Archivaldo and Jesus Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, are still at large. The US has accused them of leading large-scale drug trafficking operations for the cartel and has issued $10 million bounties for information leading to each of their arrests.