Mexican Cartel Throwing People Off Planes to Punish Rivals

An old method of execution commonly used by the Sinaloa Cartel appears to be making a comeback after three men were thrown off an airplane.

Earlier this week, employees at the local hospital in the town of Eldorado, Sinaloa discovered the body of a man who had been thrown off a passing airplane, Mexico’s El Financiero reported. The bodies of two other victims are believed to have been taken by gunmen in SUVs who fled the scene; the victims are believed to have also been thrown off the passing plane.

Mexican authorities confirmed that the victim who fell on the hospital’s rooftop was in fact thrown and did not show signs of previous execution. 

Breitbart Texas’ access to various U.S. intelligence files revealed that the Sinaloa Cartel has a history of using airplanes for executions. The practice is used primarily in the Sonoran Desert and Chihuahua. This is the first reported execution of its kind in a populated area.

Sinaloa is currently under the control of the cartel faction of the same name, led by Damaso “Mini Lic” Lopez, the son of the now jailed capo Damaso “El Lic” Lopez, who at one time was one of the closest allies of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

Currently, the Lopez faction has been waging a war for control of the criminal organization and its key lucrative drug smuggling areas with the faction led by Guzman’s sons. Since El Chapo’s highly publicized arrest and subsequent extradition to the U.S., his empire has been rocked by infighting and the encroachment of other cartels such as the Beltran Leyva, Jalisco Nueva Generación, and others.

As Breitbart Texas reported in August 2016, a team of gunmen stormed an upscale restaurant called La Leche in the resort city of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco. The gunmen kidnapped various individuals including at least one of Guzman’s sons. It remains unclear how many victims were actually taken and how the Sinaloa Cartel was able to get their freedom since Mexican authorities did not take part in a rescue operation.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon.  You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.