Massacre at rehab center highlights cartel war violence in Northwestern Mexico

Mexico Metropolis, Mexico — Armed males stormed a rehabilitation heart in Culiacán, Sinaloa and opened hearth on April 7, killing 9 individuals and injuring 5 others. 

The subsequent day, Mexico’s high safety official, Omar García Harfuch, mentioned the bloodbath on the Shaddai rehabilitation heart was yet one more violent episode within the ongoing civil conflict between the 2 most important factions of the highly effective Sinaloa Cartel. The facility battle has resulted in elevated bloodshed within the area since September final 12 months. 

Learn extra: The cartel civil war that is terrorizing Sinaloa, Mexico

The assault in Culiacán resulted within the demise of 9 individuals and the kidnapping of the Shaddai’s President Guillermo Rodríguez, who operates a number of rehab facilities within the state. He was later discovered useless, displaying seen indicators of torture, in response to authorities.

Harfuch mentioned this newest  assault provides to the over 800 murders Sinaloa has documented since September 9, when the conflict between Los Chapitos and Los Mayos erupted, following the arrest of cartel chief Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada by U.S. authorities final summer time.

On April 8, Harfuch revealed that the armed group chargeable for the bloodbath belonged to Los Chapitos, the faction of the Sinaloa Cartel managed by the sons and heirs of former cartel boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, who’s at present incarcerated in the US.

Allegedly, Los Chapitos had been focusing on suspected members of Los Mayos hiding within the rehab heart. Los Mayos are loyalists to Zambada, vying for management of the cartel following the previous kingpin’s arrest.

In Mexico, rehabilitation facilities have more and more develop into targets for drug cartels. Authorities neglect and the vulnerability of residents in these services have enabled cartels to recruit—typically forcibly—recovering addicts as informants, drug sellers, and even assassins.

As an example, in 2020, a dozen closely armed younger males had been arrested within the border metropolis of Mexicali, a number of hundred miles from Sinaloa. In accordance with authorities, the boys had been recovering addicts recruited by Los Salazar—a bunch allied with  Los Chapitos—from a rehab heart known as Oportunidad de Vida in Mazatlán, Sinaloa.

For simply 2,000 pesos (round USD $100), the boys had been deployed to Mexicali to take over territory managed by Zambada’s forces.