SUMMARY

The Sinaloa Cartel – Los Mayos was one of the two leading factions of the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel after the arrest and extradition of its infamous boss, Joaquín Guzmán Loera “El Chapo”, in January of 2016. The main business of Los Mayos was drug trafficking.

Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García was the leader and namesake of the Los Mayos faction of the Sinaloa Cartel. He was the last member of the Sinaloa Cartel’s old guard and was El Chapo’s right-hand man before his arrest. After El Chapo’s arrest El Mayo made use of his already established position within the Sinaloa cartel in order to become the arguably highest ranking figure within the cartel at the time.

El Mayo was believed to operate from a Sinaloa cartel stronghold in the area known as the “Golden Triangle”, a mountainous region which includes rural areas in Sinaloa, Durango and Chihuahua. Other strongholds for his faction were the northern Mexican states of Baja California and Sonora, were it is said that his faction controlled the border town of Nogales.

Externally, the Los Mayos faction shared the same allies and enemies as the Sinaloa Cartel at large. Internally, the Los Mayos faction were embroiled in a conflict with the Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa Cartel for the dominant position within this cartel. One well-known ally of the Los Mayos faction in its fight against the Chapitos faction was the Caborca Cartel. There was also intelligence which indicated that El Mayo Zambada had high-ranking connections within the Mexican government, something which Los Mayos made use of, publishing narco-banners which claimed that the federal government of Mexico was on their side.

The Sinaloa Cartel – Los Mayos has been involved in the non-state category of UCDP organized violence.