Who will inherit the throne of El Chapo?

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from an El Debate article

Subject matter: Sinaloa cartel leadership succession
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

Family members of Guzman Loera are disputing the “king of the plaza”

With the recapture of Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, the Sinaloa cartel has fragmented and the violence in this state has been augmented. The dispute is between the family members of Guzman Loera, who seek total control of an organization with major extension on a world level.

It has been a few years since the cartel maintained a structure well cemented that hid internal conflicts, but before the absence of one of the founders, the two principal groups started a fight for power. The factions were headed by Aureliano Guzman Loera, El Guano, who claimed the leadership and Ivan and Alfredo Guzman Salazar.

For inheritance, the sons of El Chapo were profiled as the leaders, but El Guano, his uncle and brother the capo, is who actually had the most power in the interior of the cartel, as agreed by consultant sources in the cabinet of security.

Auereliano, forever under the shadow of El Chapo, with his recapture sought the power, he distanced himself from his nephews and from Ismael El Mayo Zambada, the other found of the criminal organization. El Guano is identified by authorities as the most violent and has control of La Tuna, La Palma and El Nogalito.

To share in the ambush of military convoy in Culiacan, on 30th of September of 2016, with a list of five dead military, the authorities confirmed the information that they were told: El Guano displaced the sons of El Chapo Guzman.

Disputing the power, in December of 2015, Aureliano Guzman fought his capture  on the part of the armed forces, later having been identified on a family ranch. However, today he is one of the principal objectives of the Federal authorities.

Before the 9th of December of last year, when he was captured, another who sought the leadership was Alfredo Beltran Guzman, El Mochomito, heir to the Beltran Leyva Cartel and nephew of El Chapo. After the capture of Arturo Beltran Leyva, El Barbas or El Botas Blancas, the cartel that carried his name had two great breakups, however, his brother Hector Beltran Leyva continued to front the organization.

After his capture in October of 2014, he who took the leadership was Fausto Isidro Meza Flores, El Chapito Isidro, who gave birth to the cell of Los Mazatlecos, with presence in Sinaloa and Baja California Sur, according to data from the PGR.

El Chapito Isidro, together with El Mochomito, intended to displace the sons of El Chapo Guzman, but it was not possible. On the 15th of August of 2016, Ivan Archivaldo and Alfredo Guzman Salazar were kidnapped in the La Leche restaurant, located in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, while celebrating a birthday. According to the investigation, El Mochomito was one of those responsible.

Days after they were liberated, and for them, according to reports, was the intervention of Ismael El Mayo Zambada, friend of El Chapo Guzman and colleague since the cartel formed.

“World Business”, the title is very grand, well the Sinaloa cartel has extended to America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. the countries in which the cartel figures are Australia, United States, Canada, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Panama and Costa Rica.

In Mexico principally in Sinaloa and Durango, but they also dispute plazas of Coahuila, Chihuahua, Baja California, Sonora, Jalisco, Nayarit and Colima.

El Chapo Guzman was positioned in the list of world millionaires in 2009, located in place 701. Four years after being in the list, his place was 1153, his fortune at the head of the Sinaloa cartel was estimated at a billion dollars.

They Search

The sons of El Chapo Guzman and his godson are found among the 17 primary objectives that will complete the list of 122 from the Federal Government. They view Ivan Archivaldo and Alfredo Guzman Salazar, sons and heirs to the empire constructed by El Chapo, as well as Damaso Lopez Serrano, El Mini Lic, who has been identified as the godson of the capo, confirm ministerial sources to El Universal.

Other names that are included in the objectives for capture are, Ismael El Mayo Zambada, leader of the Sinaloa cartel, and Damaso Lopez Nunez, El Licenciado, father of El Mini Lic and who helped Guzman Loera to escape the Puente Grande prison, Jalisco in January of 2001.

In the list also on finds, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, El Mencho, leader of the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion, the second most powerful cartel after Sinaloa. The strategy to neutralize the 122 persons is to focus on the principal activities inside the criminal organizations, their leaders and financial operators, as well as the violence they create. In the list as well as the Sinaloa cartel and CJNG are Los Zetas, Caballeros Templarios and the Beltran Leyva cartel.

The last objective detained was number 105, one Vincente Rufino Carrillo, the past month of November in Acapulco, Guerrero, from the Sinaloa cartel. Among those neutralized that form part of the list  are El Chapo Guzman and Servando Gomez Martinez, La Tuta, leader of the Caballeros Templarios, both are considered strong blows to the criminal structure.

Identified as the most blood thirsty, Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, El Z-40 was detained in October of 2014 by elements of the marines.

From the Juarez cartel, Vincente Carrillo Fuentes, El Viceroy was detained in October of 2014 in Torreon, Coahuila, the same year they informed of the death of Nazario Moreno, El Chayo or El Mas Loco, of the Caballeros Templarios during a confrontation with Federal Forces.

In October of 2010, in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, elements of Sedena detained Hector Beltran Leyva, who had assumed control of the cartel that carries his name after the death of his brother Arturo, Boss of Bosses, in December of 2009.

Hector, known in the narco trafficking world as El H, was the last of the brothers at large from justice. He assumed the leadership of the Beltran Leyva cartel and was dedicated to the transit of cocaine from central and South America to the United States and Europe.

However, according to the investigations, he made alliances with other criminal organizations to expand his activities in the sale of synthetic drugs, as well as the transit of substances, he managed to create a network of corruption and money laundering.

The authorities identified that the dispute for the Sinaloa cartel has generated a wave of violence in all parts of Mexico.

In the same manner, fragmentation’s inside the Sinaloa cartel on the 15th of August, when Ivan and Alfredo Guzman were kidnapped at the La Leche restaurant located in Puerte Vallarta, Jalisco. Lines of investigation maintained by the PGR, is that the CJNG headed by El Mencho, was the criminal group that kidnapped the sons of the narco trafficker.

However, other lines of investigation infer that the plan was formed inside the Sinaloa cartel and that the successor would have been Damaso Lopez Serrano, El Mini Lic.

They go after them

Ivan Archivaldo Guzman, the oldest son of the capo El Chapo Guzman, was kidnapped on the 15th of August together with his brother Jesus Alfredo in the La Leche restaurant in Puerte Vallarta, Jalisco, according to a video given to Milenio TV by intelligence sources.

The images, captured on security cameras from the restaurant, show the arrival of a group of three or four, adding in total to 15 people, 10 women and five men, including the two sons of the leader of the Sinaloa cartel.

During the morning of the 15th of August and armed commando of the CJNG, according to authorities, broke into the restaurant, and kidnapped the men and left the women.

The new images show the moment that Ivan, identified by intelligence sources from the video sent to Milenio TV, is kicked by one of the armed subjects before being identified by the alleged leader of the commando and taken from the place with the other four men.

After the kidnapping the mirror of possibilities that Ivan Archivaldo was among the taken, as well as his brother Jesus Alfredo, but the authorities of Jalisco negated to agree to this theory.

The Attorney General of Jalisco informed then that the group were celebrating a birthday, on a date that coincided with the anniversary of Ivan Archivaldo, and that there had been 16 diners but one had managed to escape. According to his version, there were nine women and six men, one of them Jesus Alfredo, those last kidnapped were freed a few days after.

On the 21st of August a friend of the subjects kidnapped informed the Jefe of the liberation of the group, but until now the authorities have neither confirmed nor denied this.

“We don’t have information that can determine the liberation of the kidnapped”, said the then head of the PGR and that for the institution they remain privated of liberty.

Russell K Bear, one of the spokesmen for the DEA, said that it has been a while that the Sinaloa cartel has fought against the CJNG for control of heroin supply to the United States, a territory dominated before by Colombian cartels.

The CJNG is pushing and on some occasions has come to grips with the Sinaloa cartel in the USA, although the criminal group of El Chapo continues to be the cartel with most drugs circulated in the US he said.

El Chapo might be in custody and he has been stripped of his leadership, but his sons are very involved in the criminal activity of the cartel, he assured and referred to Ivan Archivaldo, known as El Chapito, and Jesus Alfredo, alias El Alfredillo.

Original article in Spanish at El Debate