According to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the Sinaloa cartel, whose leaders are Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, and Joaquín Guzmán López, a son of “El Chapo” Guzmán, has operators in several countries, including Guatemala.
From individuals to a drug trafficking organization known as “The Pochos”several Guatemalans have been linked to the cartel; who have been sanctioned by the United States or extradited to that country on drug trafficking charges.
Jason Antonio Jang Lopez
The most recent to be linked to the Sinaloa cartel, in May 2024, was Jason Antonio Jang Lopez, accused of helping to acquire and import fentanyl precursor chemicals from China into Mexicoso that the opioid could be transported to the United States.
Jang Lopez He was arrested in Mexico and later handed over to Guatemalan authorities, before being extradited by a Florida District Court.
“The Pochos”
In February 2024, the following were also linked to the Sinaloa cartel: Juan Jose Morales Cifuenteshis wife Low Súñiga, current mayor of Tecún Umán (Ayutla), San Marcos; already Erick Manuel Ochoa Villagran.
The three were identified as alleged leaders of the “Los Pochos” structure, previously led by Erik Suñiga, who died in 2020, after having surrendered to the DEA and having admitted the charges against him for drug trafficking.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Department of the Treasury sanctioned “Los Pochos” and four affiliated companies based in Guatemala, freezing their assets in that country, in addition to disqualifying them from any type of financial activity.
The United States said the measure was taken “due to a change in the leadership and participation of its members in local Guatemalan politics,” referring to Súñiga’s daughter and her husband, Juan José Morales Cifuentes, alias “Pancho.”
Morales Cifuentes was extradited on May 16, 2024 for his alleged connection to the Sinaloa cartel, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas said at the time.
The US Attorney’s Office linked him directly to the Mexican cartel and described him as a person who used violence to gain territorial control in favor of the Mexican cartel.
According to information presented to a US court, the organization “Los Pochos,” based in Guatemala and Mexico, “supplied multi-ton quantities of cocaine to multiple high-level cocaine trafficking cell leaders based in Guatemala and Mexico”describes a statement issued on May 17.
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Ana Gabriela Rubio Zea
In March 2023, the United States Department of Justice alleged that Ana Gabriela Rubio Zea worked with the powerful Sinaloa Cartel.
According to the indictment, he was an accomplice to the four sons of Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, better known as “los Chapitos,” in trafficking fentanyl.
In addition to the Guatemalan, the United States then charged 28 other members of this structure, who were accused of having experimented with fentanyl on people, and even injecting a person with doses of the drug until causing death.
In the case of Rubio, Zea acted as an intermediary who, using her connections, guaranteed the supply of chemical precursors for the cartel to produce the fentanyl that it then trafficked to Mexico and the United States.
For this reason, the Guatemalan woman was charged with the crimes of conspiracy to import fentanyl, conspiracy to traffic fentanyl and conspiracy to launder money. She was finally extradited on July 20, 2023.
Read also: “I don’t want them to continue like this”: the unusual request that “El Chapo” Guzmán made to his children through a letter
Alleged partners of “Tony Hernandez”
Otto Salguero and Ronald Salguero Portillocousins and ranchers from Los Amates, Izabal, were sentenced to 12 years in prison by the Federal Court of the Southern District of New York on June 27, 2023.
Both were found guilty on drug trafficking charges, accused of having supplied cocaine for 15 years to “El Chapo” Guzmán.
During a trial, a former Honduran mayor told a judge that the two Guatemalans were present at a meeting attended by “El Chapo” and that he had given a million dollars to “Tony” Hernandez, the former president of Honduras also convicted of drug trafficking.
According to the case file, it was one of several transactions aimed at importing large quantities of cocaine into the United States.
The two Guatemalans and others accused of drug trafficking received the cocaine shipments in Honduras, and according to the accusations, paid significant bribes to public officials including Hernández and other politicians in order to move the drugs through Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, coming from the southern region that was sent from Colombia and Venezuela.
Read also: Massacre in Chiapas: 4 facts about the attack between drug traffickers that would have left Guatemalans dead
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