Video: ‘Los Chapitos’, the cartel under the sights of the US and linked to shootout in CdMx

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The police arrested 14 people on the Mexico-Cuernavaca federal highway, near Topilejo; they are alleged members of the cartel linked to the children of El Chapo Guzmán.

The four sons of drug lord  Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán, known as Los Chapitos, have become priority targets of the United States authorities and even offered 20 million dollars for information that allows their capture.

The fight to expand the drug trafficking business, apparently, reached Mexico City. Yesterday, after a confrontation, elements of the Secretariat of Citizen Security (SSC) in the capital detained 14  alleged members of Los Chapitos in an abandoned restaurant.

The shooting was recorded in the Topilejo area, at kilometer 28 of the Mexico-Cuernavaca highway, in the San Andrés Totoltepec neighborhood, Tlalpan mayor’s office. The Secretary of Security, García Harfuch reported that four police officers were injured and four people deprived of their liberty were released. 

Arrested for shooting in Mexico-Cuernavaca linked to criminals in Sinaloa

In December 2021, the US State Department published the “Wanted” poster in which it offered a reward of up to 5 million dollars for information leading to the arrest and conviction of each of the four children of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, who They serve as high-ranking members of the Sinaloa cartel. 

The organization of the four Chapitos has at least 5,000 armed men and controls the transfer of drugs in the northern area of ​​Sinaloa, the western part of Sonora and all of the states of Nayarit, Chihuahua and Baja California Sur, according to the Attorney General’s Office. of the Republic (FGR).

The CdMx police guard the abandoned restaurant where the confrontation occurred in Topilejo.  |  Javier Rios
The CdMx police guard the abandoned restaurant where the confrontation occurred in Topilejo. | Javier Rios

Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, Ovidio Guzmán López and Joaquín Guzmán López have been identified by the US government as “prolific drug traffickers” within the Sinaloa cartel.

All, according to US authorities, “are high-ranking members of the Sinaloa cartel and each is linked to a federal indictment for their involvement in illicit drug trafficking.”

Joaquin Guzman Loera, El Chapo.  (darkroom)
Joaquin Guzman Loera, El Chapo. (darkroom)

However, the drug traffickers, with the exception of Ovidio Guzmán, do not have arrest warrants in Mexico and despite the arrest of their father, El Chapo, the brothers have continued to run the business.

According to the files issued by the United States, Jesús Alfredo Alfredillo is 36 years old and is one of the two Chapitos, along with Iván Archivaldo, sons of the capo and his first wife, María Alejandrina Salazar.

Alfredillo is one of the 10 most wanted criminals by the  Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)  since 2018 and is accused of conspiring to possess controlled substances with the intention of distributing, importing and exporting them.

For all this, they use tactics such as the acquisition of weapons, corruption of authorities, threats, kidnapping, and intimidation of authorities and members of rival organizations. Both brothers have expanded the business and sophisticated fentanyl laboratories in Culiacán, Sinaloa.

In addition, they have expanded drug transfer operations using maritime transportation and tunnels at border crossings.

The United States recalled that on April 2, 2018, both brothers were indicted by a Federal Grand Jury in the District of Columbia, for conspiracy to distribute more than 5 kilograms of cocaine, 500 grams of methamphetamine and one thousand kilograms of marijuana.

Methamphetamine producers 

Ovidio and Joaquín Guzmán López, 38 and 35 years old, respectively, according to the files, are also an important part of the Sinaloa cartel.

US authorities maintain that they began their drug career after the death of their brother, Édgar Guzmán López, focusing on investing large amounts of money to acquire marijuana in Mexico and cocaine in Colombia.

They also began to buy large quantities of ephedrine in Argentina and organized the smuggling of this product when they began to experiment with the production of methamphetamine. Until a year ago it was known that they are in charge of supervising 11 methamphetamine laboratories in Sinaloa, which produce between 3,000 and 5,000 tons per month.

The Mouse, behind murders 

These drugs are sold to other members of Sinaloa and to distributors in the United States and Canada. Ovidio, who is known as El Ratón, is assured that he has ordered the murder of informants, drug dealers and a Mexican singer who refused to perform at his wedding.

El Chapo, former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, was extradited from Mexico to the United States on January 19, 2017, and sentenced to life in prison on July 17, 2019, in a Federal Court in New York. He is currently serving his sentence in a maximum security prison in Colorado.

According to the executive order signed on December 15 by President Joe Biden, the United States would pay up to 5 million dollars to anyone who provides reliable information that can lead to the whereabouts and arrest of each of El Chapo‘s children.

Ovid Guzman Lopez.  / AFP
Ovid Guzman Lopez. / AFP

After the announcement, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that if the heirs of El Chapo are in Mexican territory, “whoever must stop them is our authority, no foreign force is allowed to act in this matter and in no other. in our territory.”

Although the Army has significantly increased the seizures of fentanyl and methamphetamine, during the three years of the López Obrador government there have been no arrests of the main drug lords who control drug trafficking.

Mexico Daily Post