Almost three months after a long-running feud between rival factions of the Sinaloa Cartel escalated into a full-blown war, Security Minister Omar García Harfuch has arrived in Sinaloa to coordinate the security strategy in the violence-plagued northern state.

On Wednesday, García admitted that there is no silver bullet to the violence in Sinaloa, but emphasized that the government is committed to bringing peace to the state no matter how long it takes.

The violence, he said, “won’t be resolved from one day to the next.”

More than 500 people have been murdered in Sinaloa since a full-scale war between the Los Mayos and Los Chapitos factions of the Sinaloa Cartel broke out on Sept. 9.

The trigger for the escalation in the conflict was the arrest of cartel kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada in the United States in late July after he was allegedly kidnapped and forced onto a private plane by Joaquín Guzmán López, one of the sons of convicted drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

The federal government has deployed additional security forces to Sinaloa, but has been unable to stanch the bloodshed in any significant way.

Sheinbaum: García will seek to improve security strategy in Sinaloa

President Claudia Sheinbaum announced Wednesday that García traveled to Sinaloa on Tuesday.

“He will be there a few days with a special team from the Ministry of the Defense and the Ministry of the Navy,” she told reporters at her morning press conference.

She said that García will help “local forces to coordinate in a better way the [security] strategy in Sinaloa.”

The day the security minister arrived in Sinaloa, federal security forces completed the largest fentanyl bust in Mexican history, seizing more than 1,000 kilograms of the synthetic opioid in the municipality of Ahome.

García announced the bust as well as the arrest of two men on social media, and declared that “these actions will continue until violence decreases in the state of Sinaloa.”

In addition to the hundreds of murders in Sinaloa in recent months, scores of suspected cartel members have been arrested in the northern state.

But the violence has continued: At least 12 people were killed in the state on Wednesday alone.

At her Wednesday morning press conference, Sheinbaum also conceded that violence in Sinaloa won’t “drastically decrease” in a short period of time.

But it will decline, she pledged before emphasizing the importance of a coordinated security plan and reiterating the four pillars of the federal government’s strategy, namely attention to the root causes of crime; consolidation of the National Guard; strengthening of investigative and intelligence practices; and coordination between authorities at all levels of government.

“In Sinaloa, in particular, we took the decision for the minister to go there for a period to guarantee this coordination with Army and Navy forces,” Sheinbaum said.

She didn’t offer any other specific examples of how García will go about improving the security strategy in Sinaloa, which has recorded the second highest number of homicides among Mexico’s 32 federal entities since the new federal government took office on Oct. 1.

Sinaloa and federal authorities will maintain ‘permanent coordination,’ says governor 

García met with Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya in Culiacán on Wednesday morning to discuss the current security strategy in the state.

Rocha, who has faced criticism over his management of the security crisis in Sinaloa, said that he and García spoke about “the special strategy for Sinaloa” and about “the presence” the federal security minister “will personally have in the state.”

The governor said they evaluated the security operations that have already been carried out, and declared that state and federal authorities “will be in close permanent coordination in order to strengthen security for the good of Sinaloa residents.”

“El Mayo” Zambada claimed in August that Guzmán López lured him to a property in Culiacán on July 25 on the pretext that he would help resolve a dispute between Rocha and former Culiacán Mayor Héctor Cuén over who should head up the Autonomous University of Sinaloa.

Cuén was allegedly killed at the property where Zambada was supposedly kidnapped. Rocha has denied that he was at the property, or that he had any knowledge of the meeting.

García: Pacifying Sinaloa will take ‘as long as necessary’ 

After his meeting with Rocha, García told a press conference that Sheinbaum gave him the instruction to “review, supervise and coordinate” the security strategy in Sinaloa and ultimately “pacify” the state.

Asked how long pacification of the state would take, he responded:

“I can give you an answer that won’t be very popular: as long as necessary.”

“The important thing,” García continued, is that security authorities are present in the state and ready to “combat violence.”

“Citizens have to be clear about who their allies are. The authorities are the allies of citizens,” he said.

“… We’re going to work every day to reduce violence and actions such as the confiscation of fentanyl won’t stop,” García said.

“A lot of the time we can’t prevent terrible acts like homicides, robberies, … there are things that are beyond our reach … [but] what is within our reach is to prevent [crimes] from going unpunished. That is the task, that is the instruction,” he said.

Much of the recent cartel-related violence in Sinaloa has occurred in and around state capital Culiacán. But García is expected to visits various municipalities in Sinaloa as he pursues a strategy aimed at reducing violence across the state, including in the Pacific coast resort city of Mazatlán.

Federal focus on Sinaloa could help appease Trump 

García Harfuch’s presence in Sinaloa and the focus on the fight against fentanyl in the northern state could help the Mexican government to get on the right side of Donald Trump, who will be sworn in as the United States 47th president on Jan. 20.

Trump last week threatened to impose a 25% tariff on all Mexican and Canadian exports to the United States due to what he described as the “long simmering problem” of migrants and drugs entering the U.S. via Mexico and Canada.

He said he would impose the tariffs on the first day of his second term and that they would remain in effect “until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!”

The record seizure of fentanyl in Sinaloa came just eight days after Trump issued his threat.

Operativo realizado en la Col. Francisco I. Madero, de #Sinaloa, por parte se @SEMAR_mx, @SEDENAmx, @GN_MEXICO_ y @FGRMexico.
Se logró el decomiso de 151 maquinitas tragamonedas, las cuales se encontraban en 17 establecimientos que operaban de manera irregular como mini casino. pic.twitter.com/8SfB0bz3ve

— Santiago Delta (@Santiagod181281) December 4, 2024

On Tuesday, authorities also seized more than 100 slot machines allegedly operated by Sinaloa Cartel factions.

Ioan Grillo, a Mexico-based crime journalist, wrote on his Substack site Crash Out Media that it was “hard to believe” that the timing of the raids on two properties were the record amount of fentanyl was seized on Tuesday “was a coincidence.”

“Mexican agents will often make big busts handily before bilateral meetings with Washington,” he added.

Sheinbaum hopes that Mexican officials will have the opportunity to meet with members of Trump’s team before Jan. 20 so that they can present their case against the tariff that the former and future U.S. president has threatened to impose on Mexican exports.

In addition to seizing more than 1 tonne of fentanyl in the coastal municipality of Ahome, the army on Tuesday also confiscated in Sinaloa more than 4,000 liters of “chemical substances” used to manufacture methamphetamine, according to a government statement.

Authorities have reported other drug busts in recent days as well as arrests and seizures of firearms and slot machines at “casas de juego” — illegal casinos — allegedly operated by a criminal organization.

On Thursday, García noted on X that another suspect had been arrested in connection with the 1-tonne fentanyl bust on Tuesday.

“The investigations in the state continue,” he added.

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Sinaloa Cartel, which was founded by El Mayo, El Chapo and others, “is largely responsible for the massive influx of fentanyl into the United States over the past approximately eight years.”

With reports from El Universal, El Financiero and Aristegui Noticias