The murder of “El Cheyo Ántrax” could be a response to the expansion of Los Chapitos in Sinaloa

Journalist José Luis Montenegro links the “war” in the Sinaloa Cartel with the alleged territorial expansion of Los Chapitos in the areas of “El Guano”, El Mayo and the Caborca ​​Cartel

In less than a week, two events related to the Sinaloa Cartel were reported, specifically with the faction of this cartel that is commanded by Ivan, Alfredo and Joaquin (Los Chapitos): “El Nini” was extradited to the United States on May 25 and five days later the murder of Eliseo Imperial Castro, known in the criminal world as “El Cheyo Ántrax”, was reported.

In one of the documents hacked from the National Defense Secretariat (Sedena) by Guacamaya Leaks, a map of Culiacán can be seen with the division of the territories where the different armed branches of the Sinaloa Cartel operate: Los Ántrax, Los Ninis, Los Chimales, Los Teos, Los Güeros Ranas, Los Davidsillos and Los Rinos.

According to the Sedena report, it was in 2016 when Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas (“EL Nini”) became the head of a group of 40 hitmen under the command of Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, leader of Los Chapitos; his main area of ​​operations would be the south of Culiacán, a region neighboring the domain of Los Ántrax.

Today “El Nini” is incarcerated in a New York jail and has already rejected the agreement offered to him by the United States prosecutors to plead guilty; meanwhile, Los Chapitos – who are presumed to have handed him over – seek to extend their dominion in Culiacán, or at least that is what journalist José Luis Montenegro observes, who has investigated Los Menores in recent years.

“I find it interesting that the murder of this man (“El Cheyo Ántrax”) occurs just under these conditions, in an armed attack in Culiacán, in a rearrangement that evidently obeys the expansion of the criminal group Los Chapitos. They want to have much greater control over the areas of operation in Sinaloa.”

Since Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán was captured (for the third time) in January 2016, things within the Sinaloa Cartel have not been the same; for a couple of years now there have been problems between the leaders of Los Chapitos, the Dámaso and Ismael El Mayo Zambada, according to the account of journalist Anabel Hernández in her book The Secret History: AMLO and the Sinaloa Cartel.

Several attempts to assassinate Los Chapitos, a kidnapping of Iván and Alfredo, the arrests of the Dámasos, the extradition of El Chapo Guzmán, the estrangement with his uncle “El Guano” (Aureliano Guzmán Loera), the Culiacanazo, the arrest and extradition of Ovidio Guzmán López and the production and trafficking of fentanyl, among many other things, put Los Menores in the center of public attention and that of the authorities of Mexico and the United States.

The “publicity” that Los Chapitos received was not accidental; they were interested in becoming the most powerful faction of the Sinaloa Cartel, even if that meant declaring war on their father’s former allies. And so they did.

Although in March 2024 several narco-banners appeared with the legend “There is no war in Sinaloa”, supposedly signed by Iván Archivaldo himself, for José Luis Montenegro – author of the book Los Chapitos: criminal radiography of the heirs of the Sinaloa Cartel – there is an internal and external war disputed by the so-called Pacific Cartel.

In an interview for Infobae Mexico, the journalist recalled that Los Chapitos are facing the factions of “El Guano” and El Mayo Zambada, with whom they dispute the control of the squares and the routes in the mountains of Sinaloa and in the strip that divides Sonora with Baja California; In addition, we must specify that Los Menores have another war in Sonora with the Caborca ​​Cartel, created by Rafael Caro Quintero.

“Evidently the people of El Mayo Zambada, some remnants of the Caborca ​​Cartel and “El Guano”, are causing some discomfort to Los Chapitos. “Cheyo Ántrax was really a fundamental piece for the financial structure of the Sinaloa Cartel and he was killed this afternoon”: José Luis Montenegro.
The alleged betrayal of Los Chapitos to “El Nini” and the murder of “El Cheyo Ántrax” would be part of this “strategy” of Iván, Alfredo and Joaquín to grow their criminal organization and, why not, become the new cartel that emerges during the next six-year term.

Source: infobae