The Drug Cartel Wealthier Than El Chapo Guzman’s Sinaloa Cartel


Joaquin El Chapo Guzman’s Sinaloa Cartel is among the most revered in Mexico. And since his extradition to the United States earlier this year, his cartel has reportedly struggled to maintain areas originally under its influence. In August last year, a new cartel known as the Jalisco New Generation Cartel kidnapped his son, in what seemed like an attempt to use him as a bargaining chip.

The gunmen, numbering seven, stormed into La Leche restaurant in Puerto Vallarta, where El Chapo Guzman’s sons were holding a party and marched six men out of the establishment, one of them being his son, at gunpoint. The following is an excerpt from the New York Post detailing the incident.

“In a flash, 29-year-old Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar became a valuable potential bargaining chip — or a high-profile casualty — in the cartel turf battles that are wreaking havoc in large swaths of Mexico. Analysts say Jalisco New Generation could try to use him as leverage to win territory or other gains from what has been the country’s dominant gang.”

“‘They can use him, if they’re astute … to get concessions from the Sinaloa cartel and expand their moneymaking enterprise,’ said Mike Vigil, former chief of international operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.”

The incident apparently almost caused an all-out war between El Chapo Guzman’s Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. However, negotiations between the cartels involving the military, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada – El Chapo’s partner, and the Sinaloa Cartel’s top brass helped calm down the situation. This is according to a report by the Inquisitr.

It is alleged that the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which is led by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, wanted to wrench away hotly contested drug trafficking corridors from the Sinaloa Cartel and so used El Chapo’s son as leverage. The CJNG is reported to have grown exponentially in the past year and is now apparently a 50 billion dollar outfit with immense influence in both the United States and Mexico.

It is apparently wealthier than the Sinaloa Cartel. This is as reported by Yahoo. The cartel is believed to be so influential that it has become bold enough to intimidate law enforcement in Mexico. For example, it carried out revenge attacks against the police in 2015, killing 15 of them in a military style ambush. The following are the events which led to the retaliatory attack as reported by Fox News.

“The assault on a Jalisco state police convoy late Monday on a rural road between the Pacific coast resort of Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara, the state capital, followed arrests earlier in the day and over the weekend of suspected members of the Jalisco New Generation cartel. It also came a week after a failed attempt to kill state Security Commissioner Alejandro Solorio.”

“The assassination attempt “was the first response by organized crime to the clash in which state security forces killed the criminal Heriberto Acevedo Cardenas, nicknamed “El Gringo”,… Four suspects in that attack were turned over to federal authorities on Saturday and 11 more on Monday. Monday night’s ambush was a response to those arrests.”

That said, the Sinaloa Cartel is reported to be growing, although not at the same pace as the CJNG, with its production of heroin and cocaine being reported to be at its highest. According to a report by Vice, El Chapo Guzman’s extradition did not affect his organization’s workings, with the cartel’s poppy fields in the Golden Triangle region still being cultivated under the watchful eyes of its sicarios. And for the farmers who grow them, raids in the area by law enforcement are only symbolic, much like El Chapo Guzman’s extradition.

[Featured Image by Marco Ugarte/AP Images]

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