DEA launches new campaign against Sinaloa Cartel

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has launched a new campaign against the Sinaloa Cartel. To this end, the agency is offering up to $45 million in rewards for information leading to the capture of its main leaders, including Ismael “Mayo” Zambada, Rafael Caro Quintero, and five of the sons of drug trafficker Joaquín “Chapo” Guzmán.

Journalist Ioan Grillo published on his Twitter account a photograph with the announcement of the rewards offered by the DEA. The post says that the U.S. authorities would pay up to 20 million dollars for the capture of Caro Quintero, as well as 15 million dollars for “Mayo” Zambada.

BREAKING: The DEA launches new poster campaign to go after the whole Sinaloa Cartel - Caro Quintero, El Mayo and Chapitos. $45 million is offered.

The campaign comes amid frustration over level of fentanyl trafficking and lack of action in Mexico. Poster at San Ysidro border. pic.twitter.com/XzYvmrxHPD

— Ioan Grillo (@ioangrillo) May 9, 2022

The Sinaloa Cartel is often considered the largest and most powerful criminal organization in the Western Hemisphere. According to InSight Crime, it consists of an alliance between some of Mexico's most important capos.

This cartel allegedly has connections at the highest levels of the Mexican federal police and military and even bribes members of both institutions to maintain an advantage over its rivals.

However, the capture and subsequent extradition of “Chapo” Guzmán to the United States has allegedly sparked an internal struggle for control of the organization.

In 2017, an attack against Mayo and two of El Chapo's sons, allegedly orchestrated by Dámaso López Núñez, alias “Licenciado,” the drug trafficker's former right-hand man currently imprisoned in the United States, started a struggle for control of the organization.

Recently, Mexican media reported that there have been clashes between Caro Quintero's group and the lieutenants of “Mayo” Zambada and “Chapo” Guzmán's sons in the municipality of Caborca, in the Mexican state of Sonora.

The DEA campaign is part of the U.S. authorities' efforts to combat fentanyl trafficking, as well as the lack of results in its prevention in Mexico.

In April, it was revealed that Mexico's government disbanded in 2021 an anti-narcotics unit that worked with the DEA to tackle organized crime in the Aztec country. According to Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the decision was made because the unit had been infiltrated by organized crime.