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image source, EPA
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announcing the arrest of Ovidio Guzmán López.
With the capture of Ovidio Guzmán López in an operation in Culiacán, Mexico, attention once once more focused on the Sinaloa cartel.
Luis Cresencio Sandoval González, Secretary of National Defense of Mexico, reported that the arrest of Guzmán López was the result of six months of reconnaissance and surveillance work in the area of influence of the criminal group “Los Menores”, of which he is presumably the leader.
Sandoval indicated that this group – which is also known as “Los Chapitos” – is “related” to the Pacific cartel (or Sinaloa cartel) and explained that thanks to intelligence work it was possible to detect that Los Menores carried out its illicit operations and activities in the northwest of Culiacán, capital of the state of Sinaloa and stronghold of the cartel of the same name.
The Secretary of Defense pointed out that with the arrest of Ovidio Guzmán “a hard blow has been dealt to ‘Los Menores’.”
But how much power did Ovidio Guzmán López really have and what changes now with his capture?
image source, US Department of State
Joaquin, Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo are three of El Chapo’s sons linked to criminal activities.
El Chapo and “Los Chapitos”
The drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who is imprisoned in the United States, has had at least 10 children with three women.
When he was arrested in 2016, four of his sons took control of much of the cartel from Sinaloa.
According to different reports, the four heirs to the drug empire – the so-called “Chapitos” – are Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, Joaquín Guzmán López, Ovidio Guzmán López and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar.
The Attorney General of the Republic of Mexico points out that the drug empire that “Los Chapitos” inherited from their father has at least 5,000 armed men and controls the transfer of drugs in the north and west of Sinaloa, and all of the states of Nayarit, Chihuahua and Baja California Sur.
The United States Department of State includes the four brothers on its list of criminals wanted by the justice of that country and offers up to US$5 million for each of them. And it lists both Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo as “high-level” members of the Sinaloa cartel.
Before “El Chapo” was arrested, both would have helped him coordinate the transport of drugs from Central and South America to Mexico to later transfer the narcotics to the United States.
Some experts point out that, of the four children, Iván Archivaldo is the one who now has the greatest influence in the Sinaloa cartel and it was he who would have achieved the release of Ovidio during the first attempt by the Mexican authorities to arrest him in 2019.
image source, Archyde.com
Guzmán’s capture sparked blockades and clashes throughout Sinaloa.
The State Department reports on its website that Ovidio and his brother Joaquín perform high-level command and control roles in their own drug trafficking organization (referred to by Mexico’s Secretary of Defense as “Los Menores”) under the umbrella of the Sinaloa cartel.
The US authorities indicate that the Guzmán López brothers would be in charge of some 11 methamphetamine laboratories in the state of Sinaloa which produce an estimated more than two tons of that drug per month, for distribution to the United States and Canada.
And they are linked to smuggling large amounts of ephedrine into Mexico from Argentina for the production of methamphetamine.
“There are reports indicating that Ovidio Guzmán López has ordered the murder of informants, a drug trafficker and a popular Mexican singer who had refused to sing at his wedding,” says the US State Department.
Power struggle in the Sinaloa cartel
The Mexican newspaper Milenio explains that the name “Los Menores” arose because that was how “El Chapo” called his sons Ovidio and Joaquín.
“Los Chapitos,” meanwhile, is the name the media have used to refer to Chapo’s sons.
“But colloquially the four brothers are known as “La Chapiza”, the newspaper points out, to identify the groups that obey the orders of the brothers and those who obey Ismael “Mayo” Zambada, with whom they share the power of the Sinaloa cartel. .
image source, Dept. of US State
Mexican authorities detained Guzmán in 2019 but eventually released him due to the violence that followed the arrest.
Indeed, since “El Chapo” was jailed, the four “Chapitos” have been at the center of an internal power struggle in the Sinaloa cartel, confronted with the only remaining member of the “old guard” of the criminal organization: The Mayo Zambada.
“While neither side exercises the kind of dominance that would make it clear who is really in charge of the group’s criminal activities, there has been no shortage of bloodshed as the two internal factions battle it out,” says Insight Crime, the website organized crime investigation.
“Since El Chapo was arrested in 2016, the Chapitos have been at odds with both ‘El Mayo’ and his uncle, Aureliano Guzmán Loera, alias ‘El Guano,’ over control of the group’s operations,” it adds. “And as a result, fierce battles between the two sides have continued for years.”
But Insight Crime indicates that although both sides are unable to reach an agreement on how the Sinaloa cartel should operate. “So far the internal divisions have not ousted the group from its position as one of the most powerful criminal organizations in Mexico”.
Experts agree that the arrest of Ovidio Guzmán was an opportunity for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to vindicate his position following the failed operation, more than three years ago, to capture Guzmán López.
But the capture is unlikely to have a significant impact on the cartel’s operations.
“These days we must remember an inescapable fact: the arrest of a drug lord, no matter how conspicuous it may be, does not fundamentally alter the patterns of drug trafficking,” analyst Alejandro Hope writes in the newspaper El Universal.
“If the capture and extradition of El Chapo did not destroy the drug businessit is difficult to assume that the detention of one of their children will have more powerful effects,” he adds.
Nor is it thought that the capture of Guzmán López will reduce the drug-related violence plaguing Mexico.
What is likely is that one of the most benefited from the capture of El Chapo’s son is Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.
Zambada, for whom the US authorities are offering a reward of up to US$15 million, has never set foot in jail.
As the State Department indicates, with the arrest of El Chapo in 2016, Zambada became “the unquestioned leader of the Sinaloa cartel”.
Now, without one of the “Chapitos” at the top of the cartel, he will continue to strengthen that position.
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