Newly Appointed Warden in Sinaloa Prison Found To Have Links to Jalisco Cartel

It has been a turbulent start of the month for the Aguaruto prison, located less than 10 miles outside of the city of Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa. On Dec. 1, a shootout broke inside the penitentiary causing the death of one inmate and leaving three others injured.

The commotion caused by the events drove authorities in Sinaloa to replace the prison's warden, José Alfredo Martínez Álvarez, who had been in charge of the prison since 2022. However, his replacement is already embattled as he has been previously linked to the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG).

Sinaloa's minister of public safety said in a press conference that authorities made the necessary background checks on Adrián Zapién Arenas, and decided to give him the job since there were no red flags on his record.

"I reiterate, I do not defend him...we have consulted our databases, there are no negative things on his record and now what is next is for us to conduct a trust-test," Gerardo Mérida Sánchez said.

But although there are no records surrounding Arenas' past, the now Aguaruto prison warden has been linked to the Jalisco cartel since 2020. Before moving to Sinaloa, Arenas was a regional coordinator for Michoacán's Ministry of Public Safety between 2019 and 2020.

He lost his job soon after due to his alleged complicity in allowing a convoy of 15 SUV's that belonged to the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación to enter the municipality of Zamora. For about two hours, the alleged Jalisco Cartel members wreaked havoc in the community by shooting and burning homes, as well as kidnapping some of the residents.

"Yes, he was in Michoacán, he was fired...but there is no sanction in our databases that say he cannot hold the position," Mérida Sánchez added.

Shakeup in the Aguaruto prison

After the recent brawl, Mérida Sánchez said that authorities will replace all the necessary personnel inside the prison to guarantee the safety of inmates.

"We will remove as many people as necessary," Mérida Sánchez said. He added that the warden is responsible of supervising his personnel and that many other people were responsible for the recent shootout inside the prison.

Although he suggested that people will be fired, Sinaloa's top security official many will be reassigned to other positions within the prison. Mérida Sánchez said that even if they replaced the entire personnel, such measures did not guarantee a better oversight of the prison.

"We don't want to say this is the correct course of action and that will 100% fix everything, it has to be followed by other actions not only by the warden or authorities within the prison, it has to come from us too," he added.