Can “El Mayo” avoid the same supermax fate as his former business partner “El Chapo”?
Will renewed US bounties bring down the last two fugitive Chapitos?
And what do Colombia’s latest coca figures mean for the incoming president’s promised eradication push?
This week’s top three organized crime stories in On the Radar.
1: ‘El Mayo’ Asks to Avoid ‘El Chapo’s’ Supermax Prison
The co-founder of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel Ismael Zambada García, alias “El Mayo,” told a US federal court he will not fight the mandatory life sentence he faces but is asking to avoid the “supermax” prison that holds his former business partner, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. El Mayo’s lawyers this week asked a judge to recommend a federal medical facility instead, citing his age and deteriorating health. A bloody internal war between El Mayo’s loyalists and El Chapo’s sons, the Chapitos, continues to ravage Sinaloa as both Sinaloa Cartel co-founders face life sentences.
2: The Last Chapitos Standing
The United States this week reaffirmed the $10 million reward on each of the two fugitive Chapitos brothers, Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, sons of El Chapo. “Two down and two to go,” Homeland Security Investigations wrote in a social media post, referring to the 2023 and 2024 captures of their brothers Ovidio and Joaquín Guzmán López.
The renewed push comes as US prosecutors ramp up cases against Mexican officials accused of protecting the Chapitos, a sign that Washington’s campaign is widening beyond the brothers themselves.
3: Colombia’s Coca, New Data, Old Strategies
Colombia’s coca crops grew 3.5% in 2024, to over 260,000 hectares, with roughly half of that area concentrated in just 10 municipalities across four departments, according to a new United Nations report.
The figures offer President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella, who takes office in August, a clear set of targets for the aerial eradication campaign he promised on the campaign trail. But similar hard-line strategies have failed before, and Colombia’s traffickers have a long history of staying one step ahead.
Visit InSightCrime.org for our full profiles of El Mayo and other criminal leaders, a special series on the Sinaloa Cartel war, and years of coverage on Colombia’s coca economy and the country’s drug policies.