The charred shell of an artificial Christmas tree smoldered in the fire’s aftermath, and ash covered the tiled floor as flames continued to lick the charred ceiling.
The burned-out building was the size of a modest living room and was built for a similar purpose. It is a place where loved ones gather and enjoy each other’s company on holidays and special occasions.
However, this building is not a home. It is a grave in Mexico’s Sinaloa state that was targeted by arson earlier this month because it belongs to the family of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, known as the co-founder of the country’s most powerful drug cartel. has been.
Zambada, 78, was arrested by U.S. authorities at an airport near El Paso in July after decades on the run. A war has broken out between rival cartel factions after he claimed in a letter from prison that his arrest was orchestrated by the son of his longtime partner Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
The birthplace of Mexico’s drug culture, Sinaloa has seen its share of horrific violence during past cartel conflicts. But the desecration of the grave underscores the deep animosity that has developed between El Chapo’s adult sons, known as “Los Chapitos,” and those who cooperated in the U.S. case against their father. .
In Sinaloa, it is customary, especially among families of those killed in drug trafficking, to build elaborate tombs to honor the dead. The flashiest ones resemble small churches where families can comfortably live together, or condo-style apartments with air conditioning, televisions, and sofas. Jardines del Humaya, a vast cemetery on the outskirts of Sinaloa’s capital Culiacan, is home to several huge mausoleums, including one made to resemble the Taj Mahal.
Jardines del Humaya, a cemetery on the outskirts of Culiacan, Mexico, is home to a number of large mausoleums that are the final resting places of some of the state’s most prominent drug traffickers.
(Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times)
At least two incidents of desecration have occurred so far. The most recent involves the Zambada tomb, built for one of El Mayo’s grandsons, who is said to have died as a 7-year-old boy in an ATV accident. He was the son of Vicente Zambada Niebla, who was heir to the cartel’s throne until his arrest in Mexico City in 2009. After being extradited to the United States, Zambada Niebla cooperated with federal authorities and served as a key witness in El Chapo’s 2019 trial.
The men looted the Zambada mausoleum near Culiacan on January 4 and set it on fire, said people familiar with the latest incident, speaking on condition of anonymity out of fear of possible retaliation.
Sources said that a few days after the graves were burned, the men returned to do more damage and remove the bodies of some of Zambada’s relatives.
Zambada Niebla is believed to be in witness protection in the United States. His lawyer, Frank Perez, who also represents El Mayo, declined to comment.
The elder Zambada has pleaded not guilty to a series of federal charges, including murder charges that carry the death penalty. He appeared before a judge on Wednesday and said he trusted Perez to continue handling the case despite a potential conflict of interest and despite also representing his son, Zambada Niebla. He told the court that he could be called as a witness if the case went to trial.
The case took place in the same Brooklyn courthouse where El Chapo was convicted on drug smuggling, money laundering and weapons charges. He is serving a life sentence in a U.S. federal prison, but an appeals court on January 10 rejected a last-ditch effort to overturn his conviction. Two of his sons are free in Mexico and are believed to be top cartel leaders. The other two are in U.S. custody.
At a court hearing in Chicago last week, federal prosecutors said Joaquín Guzmán López, 38, and his brother Ovidio, 34, are negotiating a plea deal for a “global settlement” of multiple pending indictments. He said that he is doing Both men are accused of smuggling large quantities of fentanyl and other drugs across the border, contributing to a spike in U.S. overdose deaths. Their lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.
After his arrest in the summer, El Mayo newspaper reported that Guzmán López’s brother lured him to a rally outside Culiacan, then abducted him and forced him onto a plane bound for the United States, where federal agents were waiting for him when he landed. insisted.
El Mayo explained the charges in a statement from jail released by his lawyer in August and ended his message by calling on “the people of Sinaloa to exercise restraint and maintain peace in the state.”
“Violence will not solve anything,” El Mayo newspaper wrote. “We’ve been down that road before, and everyone loses.”
Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, 78, the alleged co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel, and Joaquín Guzmán López, 38, the alleged leader of the Los Chapitos faction of the cartel. Both men were arrested in July, with Zambada claiming that Guzmán López had “kidnapped” her, forced her onto a plane and handed her over to U.S. authorities.
(U.S. Department of State, via AP)
But since then, gunfights have broken out regularly around Culiacan, and decapitated bodies with threatening messages have been left on public display.
Even in past eras, cemeteries were not completely off-limits. Drug lord Arturo Beltrán Leyva, known as the “boss of bosses,” was shot dead by Mexican security forces in December 2009 and later moved to Jardines del Humaya, the final resting place of many prominent traffickers. He was buried in a mausoleum. Within weeks, a severed head with a red flower behind the ear appeared in front of the grave, and nearby were the remains of the body in a black plastic bag.
Beltrán Leyva and his brothers, once close to both El Chapo and El Mayo, are in an all-out war with their former allies. Sinaloa has seen bouts of intense violence, particularly in response to government operations to capture El Chapo’s sons, but recent years have also seen widespread tensions between the Zambada family, the Guzmán family, and other prominent cartel factions. A state of relative peace prevailed under a long but fragile alliance.
Now that the Pax Mafiosa has collapsed, at least one side of the conflict appears ready to try new extremes to settle old scores and instill fear. The cartel has not claimed responsibility, and no messages were left at the scene indicating a motive. However, all of the targets have ties to families who collaborated against El Chapo.
Shortly after El Mayo’s arrest in late July, another tomb destruction occurred. That time, a group of men used heavy machinery to destroy a mausoleum in the city of El Dorado containing the remains of the family of Damaso López Nuñez and his son, Damaso López Serrano. They are nicknamed “El Rick” and “Mini Rick” respectively.
López Nuñez was a former Mexican prison official who became El Chapo’s right-hand man. He was also arrested, extradited, and served as a government witness in El Chapo’s trial, testifying in exchange for leniency in his own case.
Videos circulating online showed the facade of El Dorado’s mausoleum reduced to rubble and the structure severely damaged. Some reports claimed that the bodies contained there were dismembered. Mexico’s then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador acknowledged at a press conference that the graves had been destroyed, but denied that they reflected deeper problems in Sinaloa and surrounding states.
“The most sacred thing is life. We must cherish it and protect it,” López Obrador said. “We’re paying attention. There’s nothing strange or exceptional in this whole area.”
López Serrano turned himself in at the Mexicali-Calexico border crossing in 2017 amid fighting between his family’s cartel factions and Los Chapitos. He cooperated with federal investigators, pled guilty to federal drug charges in San Diego, and was sentenced to time served in 2022.
“I know I’m going to be a completely different person,” López Serrano told the court at the time. “Please give me a chance to start a new life.”
But on Dec. 14, federal authorities in the Eastern District of Virginia filed criminal charges against López Serrano for allegedly trafficking fentanyl, according to court records. He remains in jail and his case is pending. His attorney, Matthew Lombardo, declined to comment.
López Serrano, 37, is wanted by Mexican authorities for being the “mastermind behind” the 2017 murder of prominent Sinaloa journalist Javier Valdez Cárdenas. Mexico Ati. Gen. Alejandro Goertz said at a news conference last month that the United States considers López Serrano a “protected witness” and has refused to extradite him “on countless occasions.”
Valdez, 50, is a recipient of the International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists and is known for his unflinching coverage of crime in what remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. was. He was shot 12 times in broad daylight near the offices of his weekly newspaper Riodoce.
Lopez Nuñez testified at El Chapo’s 2019 trial that Valdez published the article against the wishes of El Chapo’s sons. The sons allegedly sent men to follow the delivery truck in an attempt to snatch copies of the newspaper before it hit the newsstand.
“My son and I are innocent of this man’s murder,” Lopez-Nunez said. “He disobeyed the threatening orders that my countrymen’s sons actually gave him, and that’s why he was killed.”
Valdez had recently written a column describing López Serrano as a “weekend gunman” and questioning his suitability to take over the cartel after his father was captured.
Two of the killers, said to be from López Serrano’s cartel faction, were convicted in Mexican courts. A third suspect was found murdered in 2018.
After a Mexican judge issued a warrant for his arrest in 2020, López Serrano issued the following statement through his lawyer: “These accusations are baseless and reckless. I had no involvement or role in the death of journalist Javier Valdes-Cardenas. I am confident that I can prove my innocence, but this accusation… I am worried that it is completely manipulated to influence me and that it is aimed at extraditing me to Mexico.”
Friends and colleagues of Mr. Valdez, along with international press freedom advocates, are calling for Mr. López-Serrano to be tried for the murder, or for U.S. authorities to ensure that Mr. Chapo’s sons are They are calling for the release of any evidence that could support their claims that he was the perpetrator.
Valdez’s editor at RioDoce, Ismael Bojórquez, called for López Serrano’s extradition to the United States after his latest case is resolved. He said Mexican prosecutors had a strong case and a conviction would send a strong message to end impunity.
“97% of attacks against journalists go unpunished in this country,” Bojórquez said, citing government statistics. “It has always been very important to us to raise the fight for justice in Javier’s case. If we find out that there are intelligent writers who are not paying their fees, [ordering] Javier’s sins, we want him to pay. It is a fundamental question of justice. ”
Source link
