Mexican security forces arrest 214 Sinaloa cartel members over 2 years

A total of 214 members of the Sinaloa cartel, a criminal organization led by jailed drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” (Shorty) Guzman and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, were arrested by Mexican security forces between 2013 and 2015, the daily El Universal reported Sunday.

Some 1,145 members of Mexico’s different drug cartels were arrested in those two years, the newspaper said, citing information provided by the SEIDO organized crime unit of the federal Attorney General’s Office.

The Sinaloa gang was the cartel most affected by arrests, but authorities detained 159 Gulf cartel members and 138 members of the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion, a drug trafficking organization led by Nemesio Oseguera.

The security forces also arrested 136 Los Zetas cartel members; 130 Beltran Leyva cartel members; 126 Familia Michoacana cartel members; and 109 Guerreros Unidos members, El Universal said.

The Guerreros Unidos organization has been accused of being behind the Sept. 26, 2014, disappearance of 43 Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School students.

A total of 67 Caballeros Templarios members; 48 Cartel Independiente de Acapulco members; 13 Juarez cartel members; and five Tijuana cartel members were also arrested.

Authorities arrested 92 of the 122 individuals on the list of mostwanted criminals drawn up by President Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration.

The most important arrest made over the twoyear period was that of Guzman, who was captured on Jan. 8 in Los Mochis, a Pacific coast city in Sinaloa state.

Guzman had escaped from a maximumsecurity prison outside Mexico City through a 1.5kilometer (0.9mile) tunnel dug to his cell on July 11, 2015.

The drug lord had earlier busted out of a Mexican prison in 2001 and evaded authorities for more than 13 years before being recaptured on Feb. 22, 2014, in the Pacific resort city of Mazatlan.

Authorities seized 31,000 rifles, dismantled 382 drug labs, seized 3,200 grenades and impounded nearly 38,000 vehicles, boats and aircraft, the newspaper said, citing AG’s office figures.