“Sol Prendido” for Borderland Beat
The border municipality of Sonora has been the epicenter of violent episodes involving armed groups working for the main leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel.
The sun was just beginning to rise in the Golfo de Santa Clara community last Tuesday, March 19, when the roar of gunshots announced a new confrontation between organized crime groups fighting for control of the border crossing into the United States.
It was at kilometer 94 on the highway to Puerto Peñasco in San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora, where hours later the bodies of seven men were located, in addition to confirming the looting of at least 15 vehicles by criminals from tourists and truckers circulating in the area.
“The deceased, all male, had gunshot wounds, were wearing tactical clothing and footwear. Currently, work is being done on DNA comparisons and a review of the Automated Fingerprint Identification System database to obtain their identities,” reported the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE).
The identification work carried out by the FGE allowed them to confirm the death of Samuel Ibarra Peralta, better known as El Pía. At 48 years of age, authorities in Sonora and Mexicali had him identified as a dangerous plaza boss of Los Chapitos, the faction of the Sinaloa Cartel led by the sons of Joaquín Guzmán Loera.
El Pía used to operate in the Mexicali Valley and due to his extensive criminal history he was considered by the Baja California Prosecutor’s Office as a priority objective, however, after the arrival of a convoy of around 35 trucks to San Luis Río Colorado, the lieutenant from Los Chapitos had recently moved to the north of Sonora.
The recent and violent episode that had the Golfo de Santa Clara community as its epicenter added to the extensive history of disputes that armed groups of Los Chapitos and Ismael El Mayo Zambada have carried out over control of the main drug trafficking routes from both Baja California as well as Sonora.
La Chapiza vs Los Rusos: the dispute over San Luis Río Colorado
The capture and extradition to the United States of Joaquín Guzmán Loera implied a rearrangement in Mexico of the criminal empire that he built together with Ismael El Mayo Zambada in the Sinaloa Cartel.
El Chapo’s ‘exit from the game’ caused different criminal cells that work for the criminal organization to begin to dispute control of the border region that includes the Mexicali Valley, Sonoyta and San Luis Río Colorado.
Regarding this last municipality, information from the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) collected for MILENIO by journalist Héctor Navia pointed out that it had an increase in violence – at least since 2017 – due to the emergence of the armed wing known as Los Salazar. , former associates of El Chapo who after their arrest continued working for the faction currently headed by brothers Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar.
The criminal cell, headed at the time by Adán Salazar Zamorano – better known as Don Adán – operated in Chihuahua, Sonora and Sinaloa, however, they have displaced local drug traffickers who support another criminal group that has a presence in the Mexicali Valley. , adjacent to San Luis Río Colorado: Los Rusos.
Led by Juan José Ponce Félix, according to an investigation carried out by the weekly ZETA Tijuana, the armed wing has been identified as an ally of Ismael El Mayo Zambada’s faction. Although the dispute over control of the border area began to leave violent episodes in San Luis Río Colorado since 2017, the quarrels between both criminal cells increased after the authorities’ failed attempt to arrest Ovidio Guzmán López in October 2019.
That day, also known as El Culiacanazo, the army of hitmen at the service of El Chapo’s sons unleashed terror in the capital of Sinaloa to prevent the extraction of El Ratón, however, and faithful to the low profile and diplomacy that have characterized El Mayo Zambada, Los Rusos chose not to mobilize.
Although in Sinaloa the dispute between both armed groups was controlled to a lesser extent to prevent it from affecting the interests of the criminal organization, the conflicts moved to the north of Sonora and the limits of Baja California.
“The situation of conflict or struggle is due to the animosity of two criminal groups of the same transnational organization that is the Sinaloa Cartel […] These two rival groups, some enter through the Gulf (of Santa Clara) in San Luis Río Colorado and others are settled in the defense of their interests, which is the Mexicali Valley,” explained the Baja California prosecutor in May 2022.
The truce between Los Chapitos and ‘El Mayo’ Zambada
On January 5, 2022, personnel from the Mexican Armed Forces achieved the definitive recapture of Ovidio Guzmán López in the Jesús María community in Culiacán. Nine months later he was extradited to the United States and booked into the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago.
The hard blow received against what is considered the most powerful faction of the Sinaloa Cartel caused them to make a series of rearrangements both to its organizational chart and to the coordination of the criminal activities they perpetrate, including fentanyl trafficking.
Among the actions taken by the children of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the truce they requested from someone who was for decades a partner and ‘compadre’ of their father, but who after his arrest became one of his fiercest opponents, stood out: Ismael Zambada García , El Mayo.
In December 2023, the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) prepared a report that was consulted by journalist Óscar Balderas for MILENIO in which it is detailed that the brothers Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo maintained communication with the Señor del Sombrero to request a cessation of hostilities between both sides with the aim of concentrating on common enemies.
Military sources also consulted by the aforementioned journalist report that the agreement between Los Chapitos and El Mayo was sustained under three important conditions: the children of Joaquín Guzmán Loera would renounce the fentanyl business to reduce pressure from the United States, both sides would unite to stop the advancement of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) in Durango and Zacatecas, in addition to the fact that everyone would be activated in case they were surprised by any action by the authorities.
The actions undertaken by both factions would end up confirming their truce to the authorities, however, since the Sinaloa Cartel is a horizontal organization – that is, with several leaders – it is not surprising that both Los Rusos and La Chapiza continue to clash in certain regions. key for the trafficking of drugs, weapons and migrants, just as San Luis Río Colorado is in Sonora.