Sinaloa on edge: brothers linked to El Chapo's first escape and to El Mayo murdered in Mexico

The Mexican state of Sinaloa is on high alert following the murder of two significant drug lords, Martín and Leobardo García Corrales, both linked to infamous cartel leader Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and allegedly accomplices of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán during his first escape from jail.

The tortured bodies of the García Corrales brothers were discovered on a rural road in the municipality of Elota, near the state Capital of Culiacán, on Saturday morning, alongside a third unidentified body.

The discovery comes on the heels of the late July capture of Zambada, a leading figure in the Sinaloa Cartel, after an alleged betrayal by the sons of his former partner, "El Chapo" Guzmán. The arrest in El Paso, Texas, has further destabilized an already volatile region. While the Mexican government has delivered stern warnings to organized crime in the region, hoping to prevent a full-out war between warring factions in the Sinaloa Cartel, things are heating up, as many analysts expected.

Who were the García Corrales brothers?

U.S. authorities had long sought the García Corrales brothers, offering up to $4 million in rewards for information leading to their capture. They were accused of conspiring to traffic fentanyl into the United States and possessing automatic weapons.

The García Corrales brothers had been under scrutiny by U.S. authorities for some time, suspected of orchestrating large-scale fentanyl operations. Documents from the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York, released months ago, detail meetings between the brothers and members of their network discussing the production and trafficking of fentanyl, a potent opioid responsible for thousands of deaths annually in the U.S.

The investigation tracked the brothers and their associates between August 2022 and February 2023. While the methods of information gathering remain unclear, the prosecution described several critical meetings. In one instance, Leobardo García Corrales met with associates at a Sinaloa ranch in August 2022 to negotiate the sale of a ton of fentanyl, intended for New York, at $15,000 per kilogram. He reportedly boasted of his connections with El Mayo Zambada and former Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.

In another meeting in September 2022, Leobardo discussed relocating his fentanyl labs to Oaxaca, on the southern Pacific coast of Mexico. In October, U.S. authorities intercepted a 10-kilogram shipment of his fentanyl in a California parking lot. Similar allegations were made against his brother, Martín García Corrales, who, in August 2022, met with Humberto Beltrán Cuen, alias "Don Chino," to discuss fentanyl sales in the U.S.

The brothers were also alleged to have helped El Chapo hide after his first prison escape in 2001.

The case against Martín also detailed meetings where he and Beltrán Cuen discussed purchasing "hundreds" of automatic weapons, including .50 caliber rifles and grenades. The pair reportedly agreed on a weapons-for-fentanyl exchange, leading to international arms deals. Beltrán Cuen was arrested in Guatemala in March last year and later extradited to the United States.

Mexican experts in the Sinaloa Cartel say the García Corrales brothers were allied with El Chapo sons, who control the faction of Los Chapitos.

Sinaloa on high alert

While the exact role of the García Corrales brothers within the Sinaloa Cartel's hierarchy remains uncertain, the significant reward offered by U.S. authorities and their apparent capacity to procure weapons and produce fentanyl highlight their power within the organization. The U.S. Department of Justice and the Attorney's Office linked them to Zambada and El Chapo, a connection inferred from the brothers' own statements. However, last year, the DEA and U.S. Attorney's Office also included the García Corrales brothers in Los Chapitos' network, the faction led by El Chapo's sons.

The violent deaths of the García Corrales brothers further complicate an already tense situation in the region. Following El Chapo's capture in 2016, conflicts between various factions of the Sinaloa Cartel have intensified. The betrayal of Zambada, seemingly orchestrated by Los Chapitos, has plunged the cartel into uncharted territory, raising questions about its future cohesion and organization. As Sinaloa braces for the potential fallout from these murders, the region remains on high alert, anticipating further violence.