Cartel leader's death could lead to more bloodshed

The right arm of “El Chapo Guzman” has been severed by the Mexican military according to press reports covering the death of a high-ranking member of the Sinaloa Cartel and brother in law of its leader “El Chapo.” On Thursday night about 150 members of the security forces arrived in a suburb on the outskirts of the city of Guadalajara to raid two houses being used as a hideout by Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel. It appears that the operation was specifically organized to detain the cartel leader and that that the military where acted on intelligence from the Secretary of National Defense. According to the FBI – who had a 5 million dollar reward on his head – “Nacho was in charge of an operation that smuggled vast quantities of methamphetamine Into the United States.

According to the press reports “Nacho” was not intimidated by the military raid on his hideout and stood his ground, opening fire on soldiers as they entered his bedroom.
The soldiers immobilised him with two shots to the chest but only after he had killed the officer leading the raid and seriously wounded another soldier. According to reports from the military he was wearing an Adidas t-shirt, which was left with blood stains. The soldiers that took part in the operation confirmed that they believed that the man who they had killed was indeed Ignacio Coronel and that unlike many other cartel leaders on the run he had not had plastic surgery to change his appearance. Testament to the power and arrogance of these figures “Nacho” had not changed his appearance from the mugshot distributed of him, keeping the same style of beard and slicked back black hair.

In his hideout they found suitcases filled with US dollar bills, jewels, firearms and mobile phones. According to the latest reports “Nacho” was only accompanied by one bodyguard, who gave himself up to the security forces as the operation began. Sources have divulged that the decision to only use one bodyguard was part of the fugitive’s strategy to not raise suspicions amongst his neighbours.

Despite boasts from the Mexican government that they have dealt a huge blow to the Sinaloa Cartel operations such as this can have an effect of increasing the violence in Mexico’s already bloody drug war. No doubt the Sinaloa cartel – one of the most powerful criminal organisations in Mexico – will not take the death of one of their key figures lightly. They may decide to take revenge on the government. In May previous presidential candidate and one of the most important figures in Mexican politics Diego Fernandez de Cevallos was kidnapped. Many Mexicans believed that the timing – a day after “Nacho” was rumoured to have been arrested on the outskirts of Guadalajara – was not coincidental but in order to conduct a prisoner exchange between the Sinaloa Cartel and the government. Even if that was not true Fernandez de Cevallos has still not been found proving that criminal organisations can strike at the heart of the Mexican government. The Sinaloa cartel may also take revenge on the civilian population, which can have repercussions on the government. A number of horrendous massacres of innocent civilians have caused backlashes against the government as Mexicans blame them for the violence and insecurity. What is almost certain to happen is that now a power vacuum has been created violence will be intensify as individuals fight to fill his shoes in search of the lucrative profits to be made from importing illicit drugs into the United States.