Chicago drug cartel cases play disturbing role in wave of killings in Mexico after both of El Chapo’s sons were arrested

CHICAGO (WLS) — Drug cartel cases in Chicago play a disturbing role in the wave of murders in Mexico.

Federal cases against the sons and associates of notorious drug lord El Chapo help fuel the violence.

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El Chapo’s two sons are known as ‘Los Chapitos’ and are being held by federal authorities in Chicago.

When Ovidio “The Mouse” Guzman was arrested in Mexico and extradited to Chicago, his brother Joaquin was subsequently arrested along with cartel founder El Mayo. The arrests marked the beginning of a series of criminal cases targeting Chicago that would lead to a wave of firebombings, mass killings and terror in several Mexican states.

According to law enforcement officials, more than 150 people have been killed in Mexico in the past month alone. They have blamed the explosion of violence on rival drug cartels trying to take action to address power imbalances after the arrests in Chicago.

“The numbers are terrible. I mean, in political science we think we have, you know, definitions of a civil war and what Mexico is facing now is way above that,” said Michael Albertus, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago. “These thresholds are classified as civil war. I mean, the violence is just staggering in terms of the levels and it affects, you know, everyday life, up and down in every aspect imaginable.”

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A recent assassination target was Alejandro Arcos Catalán, 43, who was recently sworn in as mayor of Chilpancingo, Mexico. He was beheaded on Sunday during a spike in cartel violence.

Arcos is the youngest of more than two dozen political figures in Mexico killed during this year’s election cycle.

“An organization like the Sinaloa cartel is not an extremely close-knit, top-down organization,” Albertus said. “Instead, it’s a kind of federation of many different organizations at the ground level that are acting collectively in a sense. You know, dividing territory, dividing control, sharing things in certain ways. And so, you know, when top leaders get arrested and a vacuum arises in leadership at the top, different people try to grab more of that territory, more resources and more control. And so a conflict arises at lower levels.’

Top Mexican officials, including the outgoing president, have disparaged the United States for this wave of killings and violence, claiming that the Chicago cartel cases and the arrest of El Mayo Zambada have predictably sparked a turf war.

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The US ambassador to Mexico has said that Washington had nothing to do with the way these cartel cases played out.