Mexico links Sinaloa rehab center massacre to cartel infighting

By Jorge Antonio Rocha

MEXICO CITY (AA) - Mexican Security Chief Omar García Harfuch said Tuesday that the deadly attack on a rehabilitation center in Culiacan, Sinaloa, which left nine people dead and five others injured, is connected to a violent internal conflict within the Sinaloa Cartel.

In the early hours of April 7, heavily armed men stormed the Shaddai rehab center in the capital of Sinaloa state, reportedly asking whether any patients were affiliated with organized crime. The attackers opened fire inside the facility, killing nine people and injuring five more. Guillermo Rodriguez, president of the Shaddai association, was abducted during the raid and later found dead with signs of torture.

“Everything indicates — these are the first reports — that it was a cell from those known as ‘Los Chapitos’ attacking a cell within this rehabilitation center from their rival group, ‘Los Mayos,’” Harfuch said. “We will provide more precise information as the investigations progress.”

The Sinaloa Cartel, long regarded as one of the most powerful criminal organizations in Mexico, has fractured into competing factions following the arrest of its co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada by US authorities last year. The cartel is now embroiled in an internal war between Zambada’s loyalists, known as “Los Mayos,” and “Los Chapitos,” the sons of former kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

The ongoing power struggle has triggered a surge in violence across Sinaloa, with over 800 murders reported since the conflict erupted in September, according to official data.