Extradition of El Chapo Guzman Clears Way for New, More Vicious Round of Cartel Fighting Christopher Woody - Business Insider
go to original January 30, 2017

California Inmates Are Already Plotting El Chapo's Next Prison Escape: “We want to tell the people this: If you bring El Señor here, and if El Señor asks us to free him, we are going to take him out immediately.” (Chicago Hood News)

Sinaloa cartel chief Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has spent much of the last three years locked up in Mexico, jail time that culminated in his extradition to the US in January.

While those stints in Mexican prison ostensibly took Guzman out of the picture, his presence, and influence, still loomed over the country's narco landscape.

Now, however, with Guzman in the US for good, a new dose of uncertainty has been injected into relations between Mexico's cartels, and with Guzman out of the way, a new round of drug-related violence seems likely.

The Jalisco New Generation cartel, a relatively new cartel that blossomed from a former Sinaloa cartel faction and has never shied from violence during its rapid expansion, seems likely to seize on the moment.

Over the last two years, the CJNG, its initials in Spanish, has challenged the Sinaloa cartel in parts of Mexico, including in Tijuana, the crown jewel in Mexico's drug-trafficking businesses.

The Sinaloa cartel "is still strong," Mike Vigil, the former chief of international operations for the US Drug Enforcement Administration, told Business Insider in the days after Guzman's extradition, and the cartel's horizontal structure, which has allowed it to endure personnel changes, may also help it survive in the near term.

Read the rest at Business Insider

Related: Billionaire Drug Lord ‘El Chapo’ Wants US Taxpayers to Foot Legal Bills (ABC News)

Related: ‘El Chapo’ Lawyers Oppose Video Court Appearances (Newsday)

Related: Forget El Chapo Guzman’s Escape, This Is the Most Audacious, Controversial Prison Break in the History of Mexico (AMT News)

Related: Mazatlán Leads Sinaloa Cities in Homicides as Crime Gangs Vie for Territory (Mexico News Daily)

Related: With Mexico Security Spending Slowing, Some Fear Ever-Worsening Murder Tally (Reuters)

Related: U.S. Provides Aid Worth $320 Million a Year to Mexico; Experts Say Yanking It Could Hurt (USA TODAY)

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