EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A war that started shortly after an airplane dropped off the reputed cofounder of the Sinaloa cartel at an El Paso-area airport has claimed 500 lives and cost Mexican businesses more than $1 billion in losses.
That’s according to reputable Mexican news sources keeping track of daily crime reports from the Sinaloa Attorney General’s Office and business leaders calling for help in stopping the violence and so they can keep their shops open.
“We are not looking for handouts. We want help so we can continue paying taxes; have the (security) conditions to open our doors, to keep people employed, to have customers come shop,” Martha Reyes, president of the Mexican Business Confederation (COPARMEX) in Sinaloa, told Grupo Formula radio on Monday.
She said the violence is keeping visitors from flying to Pacific Coast resorts and led to the cancelation of the state’s agricultural fair and causing employees not to show up to work.
Jose Manuel de las Rivas, head of the hotel association in the state capital of Culiacan, told reporters half the rooms are empty and some owners are pondering suspending operations or declaring bankruptcy due to losses.
The economic and public safety crisis plaguing the state began brewing in an El Paso federal courtroom beginning on July 25.
An airplane with bogus registration flew into the U.S. from Mexico unannounced that day carrying two passengers. One was Joaquin Guzman Lopez, son of jailed Sinaloa cartel drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman; the other was Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a long-time “El Chapo” associate and heir apparent.
Guzman Lopez reportedly had been talking to U.S. officials for some time about surrendering and securing better jail conditions for a brother imprisoned stateside. Zambada arrived in zip ties — after being kidnapped in Mexico by Guzman Lopez, according to his lawyer. The drug case against Zambada has moved to a New York federal courtroom.
As details of his father’s apparent betrayal surfaced, Zambada’s son prepared to go to war with the sons of “El Chapo,” security analysts told Border Report.
On Sept. 9, Ismael Zambada Sicairos, aka “El Mayito Flaco,” struck his rivals leaving 12 people dead, 11 injured and more than 20 missing in Culiacan. Since then, 507 individuals have been murdered, including nine police officers, and more than 400 are missing, according to Milenio and Lopez-Doriga Digital. This, in a state that previously averaged 30 to 40 homicides per month.
Some of the victims are left on sidewalks wearing baseball caps or cowboy hats – a reference to Zambada Sr., also known as the “Lord of the Hats.”
In the pre-dawn hours of Tuesday, two explosions rocked Culiacan, followed by intense gunfire. Public Safety Secretary Omar Garcia Harfuch denied reports that car bombs had been detonated.
“We are looking into each explosion … we have no knowledge of car bombs but in recent days we have secured an important amount of improvised explosive devices,” Garcia said in a Tuesday news conference broadcast on YouTube.
Mexican television reports showed a tall plume of black smoke in the outskirts of Culiacan. Other media, citing state officials, said what exploded was the gas tank of a pickup or SUV transporting a large quantity of firearms.
Garcia said the violence in Sinaloa can be traced to a Sept. 3 disagreement between two organized criminal groups and one of the groups launching an attack against the other group on Sept. 9.
Since then, murders have shot up, he said.
“We have made high-impact arrests. This (situation) will be resolved, but it is not going to be solved overnight,” Garcia said. “We have an intense display of army (resources) in Culiacan, the navy in Mazatlan, staffing highways to guarantee safe transit of people. We will continue the build-up and specific operations to detain those who generate violence.”