‘El Max,’ cell leader in ‘El Mayo’ Zambada’s faction, arrested in Sinaloa shootout with 19 dead

Inter-factional violence within the Sinaloa Cartel has reached a new high point. The Mexican Ministry of National Defense (Sedena) confirmed the capture of Edwin Antonio Rubio López, also known as “El Max” or “El Oso,” after a pitched battle between soldiers and cartel members that left 19 attackers dead. It was the bloodiest armed confrontation that has occurred in seven weeks of open war between the factions of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Los Chapitos, led by the sons of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, for control of the Sinaloa Cartel. El Max was considered a mid-level operator in El Mayo’s structure, said security analysts consulted by this newspaper, but he has been singled out as one of the greatest “generators of violence” in recent weeks by Sedena. The clash between law enforcement and cartel members affiliated with Zambada took place in the rural community of Plan de Oriente, 11 kilometers (seven miles) east of Culiacán.

The confrontation began when more than 30 members of El Max’s bodyguard team and other cartel hitmen opened fire on the military personnel on Monday, according to Sedena. The soldiers repelled the attack and arrested Rubio López. They also seized weapons, tactical equipment and seven vehicles. Among the weapons seized were four machine guns, 17 long weapons, five handguns and a Barrett rifle, the type that the U.S. army used in the Gulf War.

According to authorities, all of the deceased were members of a cell linked to La Mayiza, as those loyal to Zambada are known. Sedena did not specify how many of its members were killed or injured. The army stressed that the operation was carried out with “strict adherence to the law” and “full respect for human rights.” In the past, the actions of military personnel in public security tasks have been questioned by specialists and organizations that oppose militarization because of the blind spots left after such confrontations and, precisely, the suspicion of human rights violations.

The 19 people killed did not make it into the official records of last Monday, when the federal government reported only three deaths. Amid the conflict within the Sinaloa Cartel there have been recurring discrepancies and inconsistencies between the figures reported by the Sinaloa Security Secretariat, the state Attorney General’s Office, and federal authorities. However, the war between La Mayiza and Los Chapitos has already left more than 200 people dead since hostilities broke out on September 9, according to daily monitoring by federal authorities. If the balance left by the confrontation to capture El Max is taken into account, last Monday was the most violent day of the conflict.

Authorities describe El Oso as the “alleged leader of a criminal cell affiliated with the El Mayo Zambada faction” and an “active participant” in the violence that has put Culiacán — the Sinaloa Cartel’s historic stronghold and the epicenter of the conflict — in the crossfire. El Mayo accuses Los Chapitos of betraying him and kidnapping him in order to hand him over to the United States, where he was arrested on July 25. El Max has been linked as one of the masterminds behind the murder of a U.S. consular official, but Washington has not commented on his capture and there are no public records of open cases against him in the U.S.

Earlier this week, Ovidio Guzmán López, one of El Chapo’s sons, who was extradited in September of last year, appeared in court in Chicago. It was his first hearing since the capture of El Mayo and his older brother, Joaquín Guzmán López, the main suspect in the kidnapping of the drug lord, according to the Attorney General’s Office. Their lawyers spoke publicly for the first time about the possibility of signing a plea agreement, although there is still nothing official about a deal with U.S. authorities. El Mayo faced Judge Brian Cogan last Friday in New York, the same magistrate who sentenced El Chapo to life in prison in 2019. While the leaders of both factions try to maneuver out of their judicial processes in the United States, Sinaloa is living under a siege of 44 consecutive days of shootings, kidnappings, narco-blockades, robberies, and threats against the civilian population.

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