Sinaloa Federation

Pope Francis will be in Morelia, the capital of the state of Michoacan today speaking to citizens and young people who have lived in a country hit hard by drugs, drug smuggling, and trafficking by violent drug cartels. He begins his fourth day of his Apostolic Journey to Mexico.

Recently re-captured drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán is willing to accept extradition to the U.S. and plead guilty to drug trafficking charges. However, he will only do so if that plea keeps him out of a high-security prison.

Given Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán’s talent for escaping repeatedly from maximum security prisons, several extra measures are being taken to keep him in place until his extradition to the U.S. However, now Guzmán is complaining that he’s not sleeping and guards are engaging in cruel behavior directed at him.

It was the interview heard ‘round North America—the clandestine meeting between actor Sean Penn and notorious drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, and the Rolling Stone article that followed. But what Penn intended to be a vehicle to initiate a deeper conversation about US drug policy ended up being a mockery of investigative journalism, and an example of a lifelong criminal manipulating an American activist for his own agenda.

Only days after his client’s capture and the highly controversial interview of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán by actor Sean Penn, Guzmán’s lawyer is calling the actor’s retelling of El Chapo’s drug trafficking claims “a lie” and “absurd speculation.”

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto took to Twitter today to make one of the biggest announcements of his presidency—the most wanted man in the Western Hemisphere, drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, had been recaptured seven months after escaping from a Mexican maximum security prison.

Several years after being arrested in Mexico, a top drug cartel operative has agreed to change his plea to guilty in response to U.S. drug trafficking charges. His potential prison sentence is yet to be determined.

It’s no secret that Mexico’s largest drug cartel has a strong partnership with Colombia’s largest narcoterrorist group. However, recent statements made by a former Colombian president are shedding light on the multibillion dollar value of that relationship.

The drug trafficking ties between Colombia and Mexico go back decades, to when Colombian cartels started supplying Mexican drug runners with cocaine in the late 1970s. Those ties have since strengthened, and the recent discovery of a money laundering network between the two countries’ more powerful cartels is evidence of this.

A blog about Mexican drug cartels reported on December 7 about a leaked encrypted email supposedly sent by notorious Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán to prominent Islamic State (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. In the email, Guzmán allegedly threatens to retaliate against ISIS for destroying drug shipments and interfering in cartel business. Despite numerous mainstream media outlets reporting this “story” on December 10, the sole unverified source for this information is an unidentified Mexican blogger.

Mexican authorities recently announced they have confiscated 11 planes, eight vehicles and six houses belonging to notorious kingpin and Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán in the past five months. However, concern is growing in Mexico over why the government can’t—or won’t—seize even more of the drug lord’s considerable assets.

An Ohio county sheriff recently announced his agency had made one of the largest heroin seizures ever in the Miami Valley – drugs that were sourced to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel. Hundreds of thousands of dollars and several firearms were also seized. The sheriff is now warning the cartel to stay out of his territory.

Law enforcement officials in rural Indiana were in for a shock when they started searching a 148-acre tract of land in Delaware County during a murder investigation. The deceased owner of the property had allegedly been purchasing thousands of pounds of marijuana every year from a Mexican cartel, and a three-day search, begun on November 5, was attempting to uncover the remains of a snitch the owner had buried on his land over a decade ago.

It has long been known that Colombian terrorists produce roughly half of the cocaine that enters Mexico en route to the US. Panamanian authorities have recently revealed that the Sinaloa Cartel has had a direct presence in Panama for years—including most-wanted kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán himself.

On October 8, Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office announced that the pilot who helped notorious drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán escape from a high-security prison had been captured. This was the first time any mention had been made of a pilot being involved in the plot, and authorities did not say if the arrest was bringing them any closer to discovering Guzmán’s whereabouts.

Since his highly publicized escape from a maximum-security Mexican prison in July, it has been assumed that notorious drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera has once again taken the reigns of the powerful Sinaloa cartel. By his side for years has been Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia, who has so far escaped arrest. However, both drug lords are estimated to be in their early sixties, which means successors must be designated and groomed. The question is, will any of El Mayo’s four sons—known as “Los Mayitos”—fit this bill?

The coastal resort city of Acapulco has always been known for its beautiful beaches and sparkling waters. But in the last decade it has become a regional epicenter of drug war violence that Mexican authorities have been largely powerless to stop. The most recent wave of killings and kidnappings comes as a result of a turf war between multiple drug organizations that want control of the lucrative port city.

Online publications continue to erroneously hype a violent Mexican cartel by claiming that it is the most powerful such organization in the world, even though the top security agencies in the U.S. and Mexico have already dismissed those claims.

MCALLEN, Texas — The Sinaloa Federation, or its increasingly independent Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion faction, appear to have been using this border city as a staging area to move heroin to northern cities in Ohio and New Jersey.