SEATTLE - For the past few years, the Sinaloa cartel, one of Mexico's biggest and strongest criminal organizations, has been undergoing changes to the way it operates. In July, the arrests of Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán López complicated things further, as the cartel got divided into two factions, those loyal to Zambada and a group known as "Los Chapitos," who pledges allegiance to Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán and his sons.
After Guzmán López allegedly kidnapped Zambada and turned him in to U.S. authorities, both factions started a war against each other, looking to control territory and drug smuggling routes in Sinaloa. Since the war between "Los Chapitos" and "La Mayiza" erupted in Sept. 9, there have been 326 murders reported in Sinaloa, according to Sinaloa's Attorney General Zulema Sánchez Kondo.
