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Security Forces Deployed to Sinaloa
The Mexican government deployed 2,700 troops and federal law enforcement officials to Culiacan and Novolato, Sinaloa state, on May 13 to conduct counternarcotics operations. Since coming into office in December 2006, President Felipe Calderon has prioritized combating organized crime throughout Mexico. So far most of the government’s efforts have focused on Mexico’s border with Texas, essentially giving the Sinaloa cartel a free pass to conduct normal operations.
While the government has sent troops and federal police to Sinaloa state before, this deployment is the largest yet under the Calderon administration. But whether sending just 2,700 security forces to a city with a population of more than 745,000 people significantly will disrupt narcotics operations, much less in the larger region, remains to be seen.
Pressure on Sinaloa Signals Factional Splits
The Juarez cartel under the leadership of Vicente Carrillo Fuentes reportedly has decided to break ties with the Sinaloa cartel and its leader, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera. This fracture could be due to the increase in pressure on the Sinaloa cartel due to moves by the Mexican government, which have included the interception by federal agents and military personnel of some 19 tons of various forms of narcotics over the past three months in Chihuahua state.
The disruption of drug trafficking operations in other areas of Sinaloa influence has sparked conflict between the smaller cartels operating under the Sinaloa cartel. This is a trend we expect to continue due to the increase in federal and military activities disrupting operations in these regions, as the pressure is now forcing individual cartels to look out for their own interests. Government pressure on one cartel can create opportunities for affiliated cartels to betray the pressured cartel for financial gain. This may be happening among the factions of the Sinaloa cartel. As El Chapo and his organization come under more pressure, the groups may be smelling blood in the water. One of these is the Beltran Leyva brothers’ faction.
Following the May 13 arrival of troops in Sinaloa state, federal and local government officials confirmed that the Beltran Leyva brothers were cutting ties with El Chapo. One of the three brothers, Arturo Beltran Leyva, is believed responsible for ordering the targeted assassinations of Edgar Millan Gomez and Roberto Velasco Bravo, two high-ranking federal law enforcement officials in Mexico City. Another brother, Alfredo Beltran, was a high-level commander for the Sinaloa cartel until his arrest in January in Culiacan in an operation led by Millan Gomez. There is speculation that the intelligence that led to Alfredo Beltran’s arrest came from El Chapo, and that the death of Edgar Guzman Beltran, El Chapo’s son, last week was retribution for that betrayal.
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