The Sinaloa Cartel, believed to be one of the most powerful
criminal organizations in the world, is no longer at war with itself, but it is
struggling to re-organize after internal strife and continued pressure from the
Mexican government.
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| "El Vic" in custody |
The result is that the security situation in rural Sinaloa
has fallen apart. The circumstances are particularly grave in the municipality
of Concordia, in the Sierra Madre Occidental, with mines closing and hundreds
of people fleeing their villages due to threats from drug traffickers. Many of
these villages are now completely vacant ghost towns.
This is happening as the Sinaloa Cartel struggles to recover
from a breakdown that began while its leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was on
the run, and that accelerated with his detention on January, 2016. By the time
of his extradition to the United States, one year later, the leadership vacuum
was complete.
