Police arrested 22 members of the Sinaloa Cartel, including a regional leader, who were operating in the Monterrey metropolitan area this week. In recent months, the border state of Nuevo Leon has become the latest front of a fierce turf war as the cartel tries to expand its territories.
The raid took place this week just north of Monterrey where agents with the Nuevo Leon State Investigations Agency (AEI) found a country-style inn where the gunmen were throwing a party, law enforcement sources revealed to Breitbart Texas. Authorities managed to arrest 22 individuals described as members of the Sinaloa Cartel. The suspects included 20 men and two women. One of the men has been identified as Jorge or “El Negro.”
After the initial arrest, state investigators raided homes in the Monterrey area, where they seized several firearms and drugs.
The raids comes at a time when the Sinaloa Cartel is waging a fierce turf war against other criminal organizations to take control of Nuevo Leon. Cartel gunmen are linked to kidnappings, murders, and shootouts. The gunmen have also targeted street-level dealers from the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas and others to take drug trafficking routes into Texas.
Breitbart Texas was the first outlet to report on the presence of Sinaloa Cartel in Nuevo Leon in 2021. At the time, gunmen performed kidnappings and murders in the town of Montemorelos before expanding into Monterrey.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.