CULIACÁN (AFP) – Escalating fighting between factions of one of Mexico’s most violent drug cartels has left at least 15 people dead this week in a gang stronghold shaken by gunfire, abductions and arson, authorities said on Friday.
Security reinforcements have been sent to the northwestern state of Sinaloa – the bastion of jailed drug kingpin Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman and his sons – where bodies have been abandoned in the streets.
The fighting follows the dramatic arrest on United States (US) soil in July of Sinaloa Cartel co founder Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada, who claimed he had been kidnapped in Mexico and delivered into US custody against his will.
Zambada, 76, was detained along with Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of El Chapo, who is serving a life sentence in the US.
The wave of violence in Sinaloa state capital Culiacan is believed to pit gang members loyal to El Chapo and his sons against others aligned with Zambada, who pleaded not guilty to a raft of charges in a New York court on Friday.
“The rivalry stems from the events of July 25,” Sinaloa state governor Ruben Rocha Moya said.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday urged the warring factions to “act with a minimum of responsibility”, urging them not to “harm innocent people”.
He called on residents “to act with caution, but without alarmism”.
