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Mexican authorities have found 20 bodies in the state of Sinaloa, a region gripped by a war between factions of the Sinaloa drug cartel that is reaching new heights of violence.
The state prosecutor’s office said on Monday that four of the victims had been decapitated and their bodies had been found hanging from a bridge on a main road near Culiacán, the state capital.
Another 16, one of whom had also been decapitated, were found inside a van parked beneath the bridge. The severed heads were found in a bag at the site.
The grisly finding comes at the end of the most violent month so far in a war between factions of the Sinaloa cartel, one of Mexico’s most powerful drug-trafficking organisations, amid growing evidence that its main rival, the Jalisco New Generation cartel, has joined the conflict.
The war broke out on 9 September 2024, six weeks after the arrest of two of Mexico’s most powerful crime bosses in El Paso, Texas.
Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who founded the Sinaloa cartel with Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, was detained along with one of Guzmán’s sons after a small plane touched down in the US. El Mayo accused El Chapo’s son of betraying him and delivering him to US authorities. Now a faction led by El Mayo’s son is waging war against another led by the two sons of El Chapo, who remain free in Mexico.
The Mexican government has piled thousands of soldiers into Sinaloa, but has proven unable to curb the violence. The last two months have been the most violent yet. Overall, the war has left nearly 3,000 dead or missing.
A message found alongside the bodies under the bridge indicated that the perpetrators belonged to La Mayiza, the faction led by El Mayo’s son.
In the face of mounting losses, El Chapo’s sons, known as Los Chapitos, have reportedly struck a deal with their one-time rival, the Jalisco cartel. The US Drug Enforcement Administration warned about the potential alliance in a report last month.
Such an alliance could shift the balance of power in a war that, until two months ago, seemed to be gradually reducing in intensity. It could also lead to a restructuring of the two groups’ criminal empires, which extend not just across Mexico but the world.
US authorities have previously identified the Chapitos as key drivers in the trafficking of fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid responsible for hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths in the US in recent years.
Under pressure from the Trump administration, Mexican authorities have striven to show greater action against fentanyl trafficking, especially in Sinaloa, with more lab busts, arrests and drug seizures.
According to US Customs and Border Protection data, fentanyl seizures at the border with Mexico have fallen by almost 30% this year compared to the same period last year.
The Trump administration has also designated the cartels as foreign terrorist organisations, while threatening the possibility of unilateral military action on Mexican soil, and recently accused three mid-sized Mexican banks of laundering drug money, cutting them out of the US financial system.
