A leader of a notorious Mexican drug cartel with a bounty on his head in the United States was killed in a clash with army troops, authorities said Saturday.
Sinaloa state, home to the powerful cartel of the same name, is embroiled in a conflict between two rival factions that has killed approximately 1,200 people since September.
Jorge Humberto Figueroa, also known as “El Perris,” was shot and killed Friday during an arrest raid, public safety secretary Omar Garcia Harfuch wrote on social media.
The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was offering up to $1 million for information leading to his arrest on suspicion of fentanyl trafficking and money laundering.
Harfuch claimed that Figueroa was one of the masterminds behind an infamous clash with authorities in Culiacan in 2019.
In that case, cartel members fought security forces who had apprehended Ovidio Guzman, the son of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, a Sinaloa cartel co-founder.
Mexican authorities controversially released Ovidio Guzman at the time, citing a desire to avoid further bloodshed. However, he was re-arrested in 2023 and extradited to the United States, where he remains in custody.
Earlier this month, Harfuch confirmed that 17 family members of cartel leaders recently entered the United States as part of an agreement between Ovidio Guzman and the Trump administration. Griselda Lopez Perez, El Chapo’s ex-wife, and her daughter were among the family members who entered the United States, according to local media.
According to Mexican press reports, Figueroa belonged to a Sinaloa cartel faction led by the older Guzman’s sons, who are serving life in prison in the United States.
This faction has been fighting another faction led by the heirs of cartel co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who was lured to the United States in a sting operation in 2024 and arrested.
According to Reforma, Figueroa was the head of security for the Chapitos, a faction led by Guzman’s sons. According to a 2023 indictment by the US Justice Department, the Chapitos and their cartel associates tortured their rivals with corkscrews, electrocution, and hot chiles, with some of their victims being “fed dead or alive to tigers.”