Chihuahua on alert as death toll rises in neighboring Sinaloa

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

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

Guzman is said to have kidnapped Zambada on July 25 and flown 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, also known as “El Mayito Flaco” (The Skinny Mayo), is now waging war against the remaining Guzman brothers, known collectively as the “Chapitos.”

Chihuahua Attorney General Cesar Jauregui said state officials and various military units were monitoring the roads between the two northern states. However, he denied that a recent massacre near Ciudad Jimenez was linked to the events in Sinaloa.

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

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

This is one of the weapons seized by authorities in Mexico after two drug gangs clashed in the southern state of Chihuahua, leaving eight dead this week. (State of Chihuahua)

Jauregui said the dead were all fighters from one group or another. At least two assault-style rifles were found at the scene.

Meanwhile, bodies with severed heads and hands continue to show up in the streets of Culiacan, according to local news media.

On Wednesday, Radio Formula reported that the Zambada faction, known as “Los Mayos,” leaves the bodies of rivals on pizza boxes. This is a reference to the nickname “La Chapiza” they give their rivals. The Guzman faction leaves baseball caps on their defeated enemies because “El Mayo” Zambada was fond of wearing such hats.

The radio station chain calls the ongoing war a “civil war.”

Sinaloa narco war could last for years

Scott Stewart, vice president of intelligence at international security group TorchStone Global, said it was too early to say when the drug violence would end.