Gruesome details of the torture methods used by the Sinaloa cartel, formerly led by the now-imprisoned Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, were revealed last Friday after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed charges against 28 members of the criminal organization, including three sons of the former cartel boss.
In a DOJ press release, DEA Administrator Anne Milgram stated that the Sinaloa cartel had been running one of the world’s most extensive fentanyl trafficking operations, referring to Guzmán’s sons as “Chapitos.”
“The Chapitos pioneered the manufacture and trafficking of fentanyl — the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced — flooded it into the United States for the past eight years and killed hundreds of thousands of Americans,” Milgram said, per the DOJ press release.
The unsealed indictments revealed how the Chapitos deployed torture against their enemies, which included rival gangs as well as law enforcement and government officials.
In one instance of torture, cartel members had allegedly captured a Mexican federal agent and used a corkscrew to tear out at least one of his muscles, then “poured hot chiles in his open wounds and nose,” the New York Post reported.
The indictments also alleged that the Chapitos and their associates would test the potency of fentanyl on their captives, as well as feed them to tigers, sometimes when they were still alive, according to CBS News.
“[The] indictments target every element of the Sinaloa Cartel’s trafficking network and reflect the Justice Department’s commitment to attacking every aspect of this threat: from the chemical companies in China that spawn fentanyl precursors, to the illicit labs that produce the poison, to the networks and money launderers and murderers that facilitate its distribution,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, per the DOJ press release.
News of the indictments comes just a few months after one of the Chapitos was arrested in Mexico following a day-long exchange of gunfire between cartel members and the Mexican military that resulted in roughly 20 deaths, as previously reported in The Dallas Express.
As of Saturday afternoon, April 22, it is unclear how many of the indicted individuals have been taken into custody. The press release noted that seven are currently in the hands of Mexican authorities. However, CBS News reported that the number is eight.
The fentanyl being trafficked into the United States by the Sinaloa cartel has ravaged the country in recent years, with overdose deaths continuing to climb.
North Texas has recently become especially sensitive to the issue following a wave of overdoses and deaths among public school students that rocked the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District, as previously reported in The Dallas Express.
“Far too many Americans have become victims in the national fentanyl crisis. These cartels have shown us they will stop at nothing to manufacture, traffic, and push these dangerous drugs to every corner of our country,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said, per the press release.
In Dallas, where City leaders have yet to get drug trafficking under control, there have been a total of 3,162 drug offenses committed since the beginning of the year through Thursday, according to the City of Dallas Open Data crime analytics dashboard.