Sinaloa Cartel
Segment #430
The Sinaloa Cartel is one of the most powerful and enduring drug trafficking organizations in Mexico and the world. Here are key facts:
Overview
Founded: Late 1980s to early 1990s
Origin: Sinaloa, Mexico
Founders: Originally part of the Guadalajara Cartel; key figure was Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán
Current Leadership (as of 2024):
Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada (longtime leader, elusive)
Los Chapitos (sons of El Chapo, including Ovidio Guzmán López, Iván Archivaldo Guzmán, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán)
There have been internal power struggles among these factions
Criminal Activities
Primary Trade: Drug trafficking — especially cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and fentanyl — into the U.S.
Other Activities: Money laundering, arms trafficking, kidnapping, extortion, and bribery of officials
Influence and Reach
Operates in dozens of countries, including major distribution hubs in the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America
Maintains a network of alliances with other criminal organizations, gangs, and corrupt officials
U.S. and International Focus
The DEA and U.S. Treasury have targeted the cartel through indictments, extraditions, sanctions (Kingpin Act), and intelligence operations
In 2023–2024, the U.S. significantly escalated its targeting of the Sinaloa Cartel due to its role in the fentanyl epidemic
Notable Developments
El Chapo was captured and extradited to the U.S. in 2017; he is serving life in ADX Florence, Colorado
Ovidio Guzmán, one of his sons, was captured in January 2023 and extradited to the U.S. in September 2023
The cartel remains fragmented but functional, with Zambada's faction often seen as more discreet and pragmatic than the Chapitos
Whether it’s opium, cocaine, marijuana or fentanyl, trafficking drugs earns the Sinaloa cartel an estimated three to twelve billion dollars per year. It’s a huge business, with more than 200,000 people in the region of Sinaloa alone, working directly or indirectly for organized crime. We gained exceptional access to several factions of the Sinaloa cartel. In the heart of a clandestine laboratory, the “cooks” showed us how drugs are manufactured and then concealed in vehicles to enter the United States illegally. An important leader of the cartel, protected by his heavily armed men, also agreed to meet with us and explain how the organization works for us. Hired killers, like El Guero, show us their daily life as a sicario. Before each new mission, he prays to the goddess of death. As an offering, he offers him bullets, with the names of the people he is to kill on them. In the poor neighborhoods of Culiacan, money from drug traffickers turns heads, like Jamilet’s. The young woman does everything possible to seduce a drug lord as a means out of poverty. Among adolescents, too, joining the cartel is a dream. Many boys like Luis, 17, are ready to drop out of school to become a hit man. But tragedies are numerous. In the last 15 years, the drug war has claimed the lives of more than 230,000 people in Mexico. 2019 broke all records with 35,000 murders. These tragedies make funeral directors happy: Santos runs from crime scene to crime scene trying to get funeral contracts. With more than 50,000 people ‘disappeared’, Isabel is a “researcher of corpses”. This morning, an informant slipped her the plan of a mass grave under her door, a new perilous mission begins… This documentary was produced by Ligne de Front and directed by Vincent Prado. It was first released in 2020.