A faction of the Sinaloa cartel led by the sons of imprisoned Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera reportedly has ordered a halt to the cartel’s production of fentanyl — the deadly drug blamed in at least 1,825 deaths in Cook County last year.
Reuters and the Wall Street Journal have reported that the group, known as “the Chapitos,” is demanding that fentanyl suppliers dismantle their factories in Mexico or face death.
One of El Chapo’s sons, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, is in jail in Chicago, extradited from Mexico last month to face charges of running the Sinaloa cartel through violence. His brothers — Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar and Joaquin Guzman Lopez — also have been charged in Chicago but remain in Mexico.
Banners that have been hung from bridges in Mexico call for the end of fentanyl production and are signed “the Chapitos.” But it’s unclear whether any of the sons was directly involved in the order.
Their father had faced drug charges in Chicago but was tried in federal court in Brooklyn, convicted in 2019 and is now serving a life sentence.
The Wall Street Journal, reporting from Mexico, published a story Monday quoting a “mid-level Sinaloa cartel operative” who said the Chapitos were leaving the fentanyl business to get U.S. authorities to shift their attention to the rival Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which also produces the drug.
The operative said he ran 25 fentanyl labs he’s now destroying. A human rights activist said about a dozen people in Sinaloa have gone missing recently, and most were likely involved with fentanyl production and sales, the Journal reported.
In early October, Reuters reported that banners called “narcomantas” were being hung from bridges in Sinaloa, proclaiming the Chapitos were banning fentanyl production and sales.
That followed a story in a Mexican publication that said in Culiacan, the state capital of Sinaloa, bodies were being discovered of men who’d been tortured and had blue fentanyl pills strewn on them in an apparent signal to others to stop making and selling them.
One of the banners said: “In Sinaloa, the sale, manufacture, transport or any kind of business involving the substance known as fentanyl, including the sale of chemical products for its elaboration, is permanently banned. You have been warned. Sincerely yours, the Chapitos.”
Chicago is one of the main destinations for Mexican-made fentanyl, which is mixed with heroin and other drugs, often leading to fatal overdoses because of the potency of fentanyl. According to the Cook County medical examiner’s office, a record 2,000 Cook County residents died of opioid-related overdoses in 2022, with 90% involving fentanyl.
Stopping illicit sales of the drug is a top mission for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. Sheila Lyons, head of the DEA office in Chicago, said in March: “It’s everywhere, this awful, terrible challenge of fentanyl. It’s in every suburb. It’s in every corner of the city. It’s in every state in the union. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen in my 30 years in law enforcement.”
In May, the DEA said a yearlong operation targeted Sinaloa and Jalisco cartel operations in Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana, leading to the seizure of 126 pounds of fentanyl powder and 223,000 pills — equivalent to more than 3.3 million doses.
DEA Administrator Anne Milgram “is on record saying the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels are responsible for flooding the U.S. with fentanyl,” a DEA spokesman said. “If they are changing their strategy, that is not information that we will provide publicly.”
Jack Riley, who formerly headed the DEA office in Chicago and was the No. 2 official at DEA headquarters in Washington, said he doubts the order to stop making fentanyl is legitimate.
“I don’t buy this for a minute — this is right out of the playbook of Chapo Guzman himself,” Riley said. “Sinaloa is too heavily invested in fentanyl and its revenue to pull out. I believe they are trying to gain favor with the Mexican government and bring heat on their largest competitor.
“Sinaloa’s relationship with China-based criminal chemical suppliers has never been stronger or more lucrative,” Riley said. “However, I am optimistic that Sinaloa leadership is very worried about being arrested and shipped to the U.S., as well as the U.S. designating the cartels as terrorist organizations.”
He also said the real power in Sinaloa — a Mexican state on the Pacific ocean north of Puerto Vallarta and far northwest of Mexico City — is held by El Chapo’s long-time associate Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia, “who is clearly no fan of Chapo’s nitwit sons.”
Ovidio Guzman’s attorney didn’t respond to a request for comment.
