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Corpses found wearing sombreros in Mexico as cartel violence rages after Sinaloa leaders arrested in U.S.
Mexican media reported at least 10 new deaths this weekend — including corpses found wearing sombreros or with pizza slices pegged onto them with knives — in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, where rival cartel factions have been in open conflict with each other and authorities in recent days.
The uptick in violence comes after the surprise arrest on U.S. soil of Sinaloa Cartel co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada in late July, which is believed to have unleashed an internal power struggle within the group.
Around 70 people have been killed in the state since September 9, mostly in the capital city Culiacan, according to official and press tallies.
Three incidents occurred on Saturday in the central Tres Rios area of Culiacan.
The first was a shootout between police and alleged hitmen, after which unknown individuals blockaded a road with cars and motorcycles about 650 feet from the prosecutor’s office.
Separately, security agents were attacked by gunmen who then fled into an apartment building. An ensuing shootout left three alleged criminals dead, one arrested and two soldiers injured, Governor Ruben Rocha Moya wrote on social media.
“The security forces managed to evacuate six adults and a minor from the property where the aggressors were taking refuge,” said Rocha, who traveled on Saturday to Mexico City to meet with president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum.
The federal government also sent 600 soldiers on Saturday to reinforce security in Sinaloa.
Local media also reported seven other deaths. The bodies of five people were left in the street, half-naked and wearing hats, in what is presumed to be a message of intimidation between the warring factions.
Bodies have appeared across the city, often left slung out on the streets or in cars with either sombreros on their heads or pizza slices or boxes pegged onto them with knives. The pizzas and sombreros have become informal symbols for the warring cartel factions, underscoring the brutality of their warfare.
IVAN MEDINA/AFP via Getty Images
Zambada, 76, was arrested on July 25 after flying across the US border. He claims he was kidnapped in Mexico and delivered into US custody against his will.
He was detained along with Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of Sinaloa Cartel co-founder Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison in Colorado after being convicted in 2019 on charges including drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons-related offenses. Last year, El Chapo sent an “SOS” message to Mexico’s president, alleging that he has been subjected to “psychological torment” in prison.
The wave of violence is believed to pit gang members loyal to El Chapo and his sons against others aligned with Zambada.
Zambada pleaded not guilty last week in New York in a drug trafficking case that accuses him of engaging in murder plots and ordering torture.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who leaves office at the end of the month, has placed partial blame on the United States, saying it unilaterally planned Zambada’s capture.
The claim was rejected by U.S. ambassador Ken Salazar on Saturday.
“It is incomprehensible how the United States can be responsible for the massacres we see in different places,” Salazar said in a news conference in Chihuahua on Saturday. “What is being seen in Sinaloa is not the fault of the United States.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Damascus — In a remote corner outside Damascus, a now abandoned potato chip factory has shone a light on one of the ousted Bashar al-Assad regime’s many dark, but open secrets.
A CBS News team gained access to the site, finding a storeroom lined with hydrochloric acid and acetic acid on an industrial scale, which are precursor chemicals needed to make Captagon, one of the most popular street drugs in the Middle East and beyond.
Ahmed Abu Yakin is with Syria’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, one of the main groups in charge of the country after Assad fled on Dec. 8. Yakin says this massive underground stash of Captagon was found just days after the rebel group’s takeover. The pills stuffed into large stacks of household volt regulator kits ready for shipment.
Often referred to as “poor man’s cocaine,” Captagon is a highly addictive amphetamine-type stimulant.
“We feel bad for the young people who were addicted to it,” Yakin said. “The Assad regime was destroying a generation and couldn’t care less. They only cared about making money.”
And that money is staggering. Analysts estimate the Assad regime raked in $5 billion per year from the trade, dwarfing Syria’s official budget and making it a vital lifeline for the bankrupted state. The drug costs just pennies to make but can sell for up to $20 for a single tablet. The haul seen at the abandoned factory is potentially worth tens of millions of dollars.
For years, neighboring countries accused Assad’s Syria of being the world’s main supplier of the illegal drug. In March 2023, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned several Syrians for their alleged involvement in the “dangerous amphetamine”, including two of Assad’s cousins.
“Syria has become a global leader in the production of the highly addictive Captagon, much of which is trafficked through Lebanon,” said Andrea Gacki at the time, who was then-director of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. “With our allies, we will hold accountable those who support Bashar al-Assad’s regime with illicit drug revenue and other financial means that enable the regime’s continued repression of the Syrian people.”
Now, his wildly lucrative drug business appears to have been crushed, along with his brutal and corrupt regime. For Yakin, Captagon has no place in Syria’s future.
“We will destroy it all,” Yakin said. “We will eliminate anything that has to do with drugs, and anything that has to do with the criminal Assad regime.”
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