A video showing two men handing out food and drinks in front of a hospital in Culiacán, Sinaloa, is making the rounds on social media after they claimed to have been sent by the son of former Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. 

The men were filmed as they stood in the back of a pickup truck, wearing masks and gloves as a small crowd formed around them. 

“What they are doing is good,” one woman said off-camera. “Boys, you’re going to heaven,” another woman tells them.

The men did not specify which of El Chapo’s sons sent the provisions, but they told the crowd that they were there to help them with anything they might need. One woman wrote down one of the men’s phone numbers.

El Chapo has several sons, by some accounts as many as 15, and a number of them, known as “Los Chapitos,” have been trying to gain control of the Sinaloa Cartel which has been under the control of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada since Joaquín Guzmán’s incarceration. 

Los Chapitos refuse to recognize Zambada’s authority after his brother and son testified against El Chapo in 2018 in exchange for a plea deal. The former cartel leader is serving life plus 30 years in an American supermax prison after he was convicted on charges of money laundering, drug trafficking, kidnapping and murder.

At least four of El Chapo’s sons, Joaquín Guzmán López, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, Iván Archivaldo Guzmán and Ovidio Guzmán López are suspected of following in their father’s footsteps.

In April, El Chapo’s daughter Alejandra Guzmán distributed boxes of provisions to elderly citizens in Guadalajara. Alejandra runs a clothing line based on her father’s likeness, called El Chapo 701, and the boxes of food were stenciled with a drawing of the cartel leader. 

Other cartels that have offered handouts during the coronavirus pandemic include Los Viagras in Michoacán, the Gulf Cartel in Tamaulipas and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel in San Luis Potosí.

Source: 24 Horas (sp), Vanguardia (sp)