CBS News
At least 10 murders in Mexico appear linked to arrests of cartel leaders in U.S.
The murders of at least 10 people in the northern Mexican state of Sinaloa appear to be linked to infighting in the dominant drug smuggling cartel there, confirming fears of repercussions from the July 25 detention of two top cartel leaders.
Last month, Joaquín Guzmán López, a capo from one faction of the Sinaloa cartel – the Chapitos or “Little Chapos,” the sons of imprisoned cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán – turned himself in to U.S. authorities. However, he allegedly abducted the leader of the rival faction, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, forcing him on to the same flight to El Paso and turning him in.
Mexican authorities are caught in the middle of the coming storm: they weren’t involved in the July 25 capture, but they are unwilling to use the opportunity to crack down on the Sinaloa cartel. The cartel is splintering, and what’s at stake is who will take over Zambada’s faction now that he is in a U.S. jail.
To paraphrase a famous Mexican corrido song, “Smuggling and Betrayal,” the mixture of the two always leads to murder.
Analysts say the government doesn’t want to get involved, because both sides in the Sinaloa cartel’s internal dispute have damaging information on officials they could release at any time. So they have limited themselves to increasingly desperate appeals to both sides not to fight among themselves.
On Monday, Sinaloa state Gov. Rubén Rocha acknowledged that four killings on Friday and six murders on Saturday were related to the dispute between warring factions of the cartel.
“These are related to the drug cartels … and they can be linked to the situation that arose after the detentions of July 25,” said Gov. Rocha. “What I want is peace, and I have to ask for that from whomever, from the violent ones.”
/ AP
That echoed a statement earlier in the day from President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who acknowledged that two more killings were linked to the dispute.
“We don’t want the situation in Sinaloa to take a turn for the worse,” López Obrador said. “It has been stable as far as violence is concerned. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t violence, but there wasn’t confrontation, fighting between groups.”
“Public opinion bombs”
That kind of peace – where drug cartels go about their business of smuggling, dealing and extortion, but don’t cause too much violence – is something the president has praised in the past. Rooting out the cartels, he says, is a policy imposed upon Mexico in the past by the United States, and is something he does not agree with.
But Mexican security analyst David Saucedo said authorities seem loathe to intervene for another reason. Zambada, the captured drug lord, appears to be willing to use the damaging insider knowledge he has about corrupt Mexican politicians to pressure them.
Zambada has already shown he is willing to do that. In a jailhouse letter, Zambada gave a version of the killing of Hector Cuén – a political rival of Gov. Rocha who was killed the same day Zambada was kidnapped – and blamed it on the Chapitos faction.
Rocha and state prosecutors claimed Cuén was killed in a random, unrelated gas station robbery, and published security camera footage they said backed that up. But federal prosecutors later said the governor’s version didn’t add up and was probably a fake.
Zambada apparently has more information he can release if things get too hot in Sinaloa, and if his sons are prevented from taking over his part of the business: the names of politicians, police and military officers he has paid off.
“It seems to me that Mayo Zambada’s media strategy is focused on assuring an orderly transition in the organization he commands,” said Saucedo. “With these (media) hand grenades, these public opinion bombs, Zambada is trying to assure that federal authorities don’t try to interfere in the leadership succession in his organization.”
If that’s the goal – keep things orderly in Sinaloa so drug leadership can pass from one generation to another, and politicians don’t get publicly exposed for cooperating with drug cartels – then the most recent killings don’t bode well for the strategy.
At least two of the men killed last week – they were tortured, shot and found with their heads wrapped in duct tape – were close associates of Zambada.
The Chapitos and their cartel associates used corkscrews, electrocution and hot chiles to torture their rivals while some of their victims were “fed dead or alive to tigers,” according to an indictment released by the U.S. Justice Department.
IVAN MEDINA/AFP via Getty Images
But as usual, it’s hard to decipher which killing or act of violence was committed by which cartel faction, and why.
For example, somebody started to methodically destroy the lavish family tomb of a prominent Sinaloa cartel clan a couple of days after July 25 arrests of the two capos. They used bulldozers and backhoes to break open the walls of the mausoleum and dig up the crypts.
The clan whose grandfather’s and uncle’s bodies lay in the tomb – both corpses were stolen – had had violent brushes with both the Chapitos and Zambada factions in the past.
In his jailhouse letter, Zambada called on the governments of the United States and Mexico to be “transparent” about his abduction, subsequent disappearances, and death.
“I also call on the people of Sinaloa to use restraint and maintain peace in our State,” Zambada wrote. “Nothing can be solved by violence. We have been down that road before, and everyone loses.”
If there is any clear victim to be laid to rest in the conflict, it’s the idea that the Sinaloa cartel was ever a monolithic, hierarchal gang with one leader at the top. As the war of lavish tombs in Culiacán, the state capital, shows, the cartel has always been made up of a loose alliance of drug trafficking clans who try to one-up each other, even in death.
El Chapo, the Sinaloa cartel’s founder, is 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 Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, alleging that he has been subjected to “psychological torment” in prison.
Former President Donald Trump meandered Saturday through a list of grievances against Vice President Kamala Harris and other issues during an event intended to link his Democratic opponent to illegal border crossings.
A day after Harris discussed immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border, Trump spoke to a crowd in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, about immigration. He blamed Harris for migrants committing crimes after entering the U.S. illegally, alleging she was responsible for “erasing our border.”
“I will liberate Wisconsin from the mass migrant invasion,” he said. “We’re going to liberate the country.”
The Republican nominee also intensified his personal attacks against Harris, insulting her as “mentally impaired” and a “disaster.”
“Joe Biden became mentally impaired,” Trump said. “Kamala was born that way. She was born that way. And if you think about it, only a mentally disabled person could have allowed this to happen to our country. Anybody would know this.”
The personal attacks have been something of a trend for Trump since Harris entered the race. In July, Trump falsely questioned Harris’ racial identity during a panel with the National Association of Black Journalists.
“I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now she wants to be known as Black,” Trump said at the time. “So I don’t know, is she Indian, or is she Black?”
When asked in an interview with CBS News last month if he believes the personal attacks will hurt him with voters, he responded, “No, I don’t think so.”
Trump, meanwhile, hopes frustration over illegal immigration will translate to votes in Wisconsin and other crucial swing states. The Republican nominee has denounced people who cross the U.S.-Mexico border as “poisoning the blood of the country” and vowed to stage the largest deportation operation in American history if elected. And polls show Americans believe Trump would do a better job than Harris on handling immigration.
Trump shifted from topic to topic so quickly that it was hard to keep track of what he meant at times. He talked about the two assassination attempts against him and blamed the U.S. Secret Service for not being able to hold a large outdoor rally instead of an event in a smaller indoor space. But he also offered asides about climate change, Harris’ father, how his beach body was better than President Biden’s, and a fly that was buzzing near him.
“I wonder where the fly came from,” he said. “Two years ago, I wouldn’t have had a fly up here. You’re changing rapidly. But we can’t take it any longer. We can’t take it any longer.”
Trump repeatedly brought up Harris’ Friday event in Douglas, Arizona, where she announced a push to further restrict asylum claims beyond Biden’s executive order announced earlier this year. Harris denounced Trump’s handling of the border while president and his opposing a bipartisan border package earlier this year, saying Trump “prefers to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem.”
“I had to sit there and listen” to Harris last night Trump said, eliciting cheers. “And who puts it on? Fox News. They should not be allowed to put it on. It’s all lies. Everything she says is lies.”
Trump professed not to understand what Harris meant when she said he was responsible for taking children from their parents. Under his administration, border agents separated children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border in a policy that was condemned globally as inhumane and one that Trump himself ended under pressure from his own party.
Harris, at a rally in San Francisco, told supporters there were “two very different visions for our nation” and voters see it “every day on the campaign trail.”
“Donald Trump is the same old tired show,” she said. “The same tired playbook we have heard for years.”
She said Trump was “a very unserious man.”
“However the consequences of putting him back in the White House are extremely serious,” she said.
The Harris campaign Saturday again challenged Trump to a second debate, this time in the form of a football-themed television ad. Following his Wisconsin rally, Trump traveled to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to attend the Alabama-Georgia football game Saturday evening, and the Harris campaign premiered the ad during the game.
“Champions know its anytime, anyplace, but losers, they whine and waffle,” the ad’s narrator said.
Kendy Howard was found dead in her bathtub. While dispatched as a suicide, clues at the scene made Kootenai County authorities suspicious. Here’s a look at the case:
A 26-year marriage
Brian Wilkins
Dan and Kendy Howard had been married since 1994. By 2021, Dan Howard had gone from working as an Idaho State Trooper to working in the Alaskan oil fields for three weeks at a time.
Kendy seeks divorce
Brian Wilkins
On Jan. 28, 2021, just five days before she died, Kendy Howard picked Dan Howard up from the airport and told him she wanted a divorce. She described Dan’s reaction to a friend as having been “not good.”
Dan Howard’s call to 911
Kootenai County Prosecuting Attorney
On the night of Feb. 2, 2021, at 10:43 p.m., Dan Howard called 911, screaming Kendy had shot herself. “She’s in the bathtub dead …”
The call was dispatched as a suicide.
Dan Howard at the scene
Kootenai County District Court
Kootenai County Sheriff’s Deputy Miranda Thomas was one of the first officers to arrive. Thomas said she witnessed Dan Howard screaming, crying and gagging.
Kendy Howard found in the bathtub
Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office
Caption: Kendy Howard was found dead, naked in the bathtub of her home, with a gunshot wound to her head. Kendy’s gun was submerged in the bathwater.
A packed duffle bag
Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office
Thomas noticed a duffle bag with what she said seemed to be women’s clothing packed inside.
A clue on the dryer
Kootenai County District Court
Kootenai County Sheriff’s Detective Jerry Northrup said that in the dryer he observed “bathmats and towels … and they were still somewhat warm,” which he said led him to question when the cycle had been started.
How did Kendy Howard really die?
Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office
Kendy Howard’s gun was found in the bathtub. Investigators said they would have expected to see a lot more blood in the bathtub if she had been alive when she was shot.
Kendy’s daughter accuses Dan Howard
CBS News
When Dan Howard called his stepdaughter Brooke Wilkins with the news of Kendy’s death, investigators said they could overhear Wi accuse Dan of killing her mother. Despite their suspicions, detectives said there was not enough evidence at the scene to arrest Dan.
Dan Howard arrested
Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office
It took two years for prosecutors to build their case. In July, 2023, Dan Howard was arrested and charged with Kendy Howard’s murder.
Dan Howard on trial
Pool
On March 4, 2024, the trial of Dan Howard began. The prosecution claimed Dan had killed Kendy by putting her in a carotid restraint hold – a maneuver he had learned in his law enforcement training. The defense maintained that Kendy’s death was a suicide. After 10 days of testimony, 62 witnesses, and just over eight hours of deliberations, a verdict was reached.
Dan Howard found guilty
On March 19, 2024, the jury found Dan Howard guilty of second-degree murder and domestic battery.
Life in prison
Pool
At Dan Howard’s sentencing hearing in May 2024, Judge Lamont Berecz told him, “You killed a mother. You killed a grandmother. You killed a sister … You snuffed that out because of your own pride, greed, and anger.” Dan Howard was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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