Chihuahua on alert as body count rises in neighboring Sinaloa

EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Police and the Mexican army remain on alert in the border state of Chihuahua, as the body count in a bloody cartel war continues to rise in neighboring Sinaloa.

Thirty-one suspected cartel members are dead and 37 missing in or near the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacan since a war broke out Sept. 9 between the son of captured drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and the brothers of Joaquin Guzman Lopez.

Guzman allegedly abducted Zambada on July 25 and flew him to the United States, where U.S. authorities arrested both men at an airport in Santa Teresa, New Mexico. U.S. security experts say Ismael Zambada-Sicairos, aka “El Mayito Flaco” (The Skinny Mayo) is now waging war on the remaining Guzman brothers, collectively known as the “Chapitos.”

Chihuahua Attorney General Cesar Jauregui said state officers and several army units are monitoring roadways between the two northern states but denied that a recent massacre near Ciudad Jimenez was linked to events in Sinaloa.

On Monday, a confrontation between La Linea transnational criminal organization and a Chihuahua cell of the Sinaloa cartel left eight men dead and three vehicles on fire in the Parral-Jimenez highway, Jauregui said. A passenger on a bus who got caught in the crossfire was injured but survived, the attorney general’s office said.

“These are not repercussions of what is going on (in Sinaloa). As you know, this is not the first time we have a confrontation” between the two local groups in southern Chihuahua. “(But) we’re all on alert. We had a meeting with the Public Safety secretary and the army, we have a common strategy.”

Jauregui said the deceased were all combatants from one group or the other. At least two assault-style rifles were recovered from the scene.

Meantime, bodies with severed heads and cut-off hands continue to pop up in the streets of Culiacan, according to local news media.

On Wednesday, Radio Formula reported the Zambada faction, known as “Los Mayos,” is leaving rivals’ bodies on top of pizza boxes. That’s a reference to the moniker of “La Chapiza” they place on their rivals. The Guzman faction is leaving baseball caps on top of their slain enemies because “El Mayo” Zambada was fond of wearing such hats.

The radio station chain is referring to the ongoing warfare as a “civil war.”

Sinaloa narco war could last for several years

Scott Stewart, vice president of Intelligence for TorchStone Global international security group, said it’s too early to tell when the narco-violence will end.

He said the Sinaloa cartel has been in a near-constant state of civil war since the 2008 arrest of Alfredo Beltran Leyva, and splits with Milenio/Jalisco Cartel, Rafael Caro Quintero and the Caborca cartel.

“It is quite possible that the war between El Mayo’s faction and Los Chapitos could continue for years, with periodic spikes and lulls,” Stewart told Border Report. “It would be best for the population if the war were short and sweet, but I fear it could be a long and ugly one.”

That’s the way other drug conflicts in Mexico have gone through the start of the millennium. Drug gangs have been waging war for years in Juarez, Tijuana, Reynosa, Guanajuato and Michoacan.