Sinaloa Cartel war is taking its toll on Los Chapitos

"There is no publicly available data to quantify this, nor is there an official statement drawing definitive conclusions about whether the internal war within the Sinaloa Cartel is tilting the playing field in favor of either of the two factions, Los Chapitos or La Mayiza, which have been fighting for over a year following the arrest of Ismael El Mayo Zambada in the United States."

"According to Cecilia Farfan, head of the North American Observatory of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, this perception doesn't arise from nowhere, but neither can it be supported by hard data. We don't know the profiles; we don't know how the government determines that someone belongs to one group or another, at least not publicly. So we can't have hard data and say: 80% belong to this group, she explains."

"However, she adds, there are elements that allow for a reasonable conjecture, such as the formal indictment filed by the U.S. government against Los Chapitos for trafficking and producing fentanyl, and the multimillion-dollar rewards offered for information leading to their whereabouts and possible capture. Added to this is the change in the security cooperation relationship between Mexico and Washington and the type of intelligence that this cooperation typically generates. Generally, what the United States contributes is intelligence"

There is no publicly available data or official statement confirming whether the internal war within the Sinaloa Cartel favors Los Chapitos or La Mayiza. The two factions have fought for over a year following Ismael El Mayo Zambada's arrest in the United States. Recent months have dealt clear blows to cartel structures, and U.S. government data plus limited Mexican leads indicate diminished power for the group led by Joaquin El Chapo Guzmán's sons. High-profile arrests, murders, and seizures in Sinaloa, Jalisco, and Mexico City have increased perceptions of setbacks for Los Chapitos. Cecilia Farfan notes the perception lacks hard public data but points to indictments, rewards, and increased U.S.-Mexico intelligence cooperation as elements supporting a reasonable conjecture.

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