The fall of the Guzmáns in Badiraguato

While Omar García Harfuch, Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, confirmed this Sunday in Culiacán that the Sinaloa Cartel is weakened, one of its factions was expanding and taking control of Badiraguato, a historic stronghold of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s family. In the midst of the internal war between cartel factions, which began a year ago, the Zambada family has arrived in the municipality and begun a purge.

In this region, nestled in Mexico’s so-called Golden Triangle of drug trafficking, an armed conflict is raging, involving clashes, blockades, and territorial propaganda. Armed groups set up checkpoints along the roads. Men watch like “hawks” on motorcycles in the towns, and graffiti on walls announces the arrival of a new criminal group, distinct from the Guzmán family or the communal landowners who once grew poppies or marijuana and now produce synthetic drugs.

“We just see them coming and going in their trucks. It’s not the same people as before, it’s different people leaving that graffiti,” says Mariana (not her real name), a resident of the municipal seat of Badiraguato. This territory is now part of an expanding war, despite Secretary García Harfuch’s assertions.

“Criminal organizations have definitely been diminished. At the beginning of the conflict, we saw convoys of several trucks in Culiacán. Today, we haven’t seen any of that. They’re becoming less frequent, if not months without roadblocks, like at the beginning. That doesn’t mean the situation is resolved. What we’re saying is that they’re no longer the same: these criminal groups don’t have the same firepower,” García Harfuch said at a press conference from the capital of Sinaloa.

But the reality on the ground is different. On July 25, 2024, Ismael Zambada García, known as “El Mayo,” was arrested after being kidnapped by Joaquín Guzmán López, son of his former partner, El Chapo, during a prearranged meeting in Huertos del Pedregal, a rural area north of Culiacán. Since then, a confrontation between the two cartel factions has erupted, marked by blockades, gunfights, more than 1,600 murders, and nearly 2,000 disappearances.

According to the Mexican government, it’s a dispute between Iván and Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, two of El Chapo’s sons and leaders of the Los Chapitos faction, and the son of El Mayo, Ismael Zambada Sicairos, also known as “Mayito Flaco.”

Although the epicenter of the conflict has been Culiacán— a key area for drug trafficking and retail sales — since September 9, it has spread to all 20 municipalities in Sinaloa, including Badiraguato, a region silenced by violence.

Today, in communities like Santiago de los Caballeros, Huixopa, La Tuna, Surutato, and other towns, there are new checkpoints where the Guzmán family once ruled. Prohibitions have been imposed: recording and reporting are prohibited, and those who now rule advertise themselves with graffiti marked with the letters MF, a reference to El Mayito Flaco. They have violently seized control of the territory that gave birth to the bosses who were once partners — and later enemies — of El Mayo.

“They are the drug traffickers”

Since its inception, the drug trade in Sinaloa has been linked to peasant families who, following the prohibition of poppies and marijuana, learned new ways of producing and trafficking. Middlemen emerged who bought opium gum and plants to convert them into heroin, which was then brought to the United States. There, during and after World War II, opioids were consumed to soothe the pain of wounds. Then came cocaine users from South America.

“They’re the drug traffickers, the ones who came and bought the drugs to make them. We just grew the plants. We’re not rich. Look at our houses. Do you think we are?” says Manuel, a farmer from Santiago de los Caballeros, Badiraguato.

Mexican traffickers learned from Colombian organizations. They formed alliances and established routes to supply the main consumer: the United States. Marijuana and poppies became key products in an illicit market fueled by international capital.

Badiraguato became a strategic area: the soil, climate, and geography provided ideal conditions for the cultivation of both crops. Although cultivation spread to other regions, this municipality remained the national epicenter.

The intermediaries’ fame grew until they began to be called “narcos,” and the rest is history. Badiraguato is the legendary location of Mexican drug trafficking: the birthplace of criminals such as Rafael Caro Quintero (of La Noria), Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo “Don Neto” (Santiago de los Caballeros), the Beltrán Leyva family (La Palma), Juan José Esparragoza Moreno “El Azul” (Huixopa), and the Guzmán family (La Tuna). Since the 2000s, this municipality has been a stronghold of the latter, led by brothers Joaquín El “Chapo” and Aureliano “El Guano” Guzmán Loera. Until now.

Among all these famous names, only El Guano Guzmán remains at large. The others, like his brother, are imprisoned in Mexico or the United States, or dead, like Arturo Beltrán Leyva and Juan José Esparragoza Moreno.

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