Sinaloa Cartel-Juárez Cartel turf war The war between the
Juárez Cartel and the
Sinaloa Cartel for the control of the smuggling routes in
Ciudad Juárez broke out on 5 January 2008, when five men were shot dead with AR-15s in a matter of hours; within a few days, several policemen and nearly two dozen civilians lay dead. The Juárez cartel used
La Mafia and
Los Muertos to fight off the forces of the Sinaloa cartel, which had employed the gangs known as
Artistas Asesinos and
Los Mexicles, along with its armed wing, Gente Nueva. The turf wars between them have left more than 10,000 dead in four years. When
Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, jumped into the territory of the Juárez organization in 2007, he attempted to split his rival organization and recruit the dissidents into his own invasion force – Gente Nueva. Gente Nueva is responsible for a number of crimes, including but not limited to extortions, kidnappings, tortures, and assassinations.
Ciudad Juárez rehab center attack Masked gunmen stormed the El Cristal
Military education center in
Ciudad Juárez,
Chihuahua on 3 September 2009, gathered all of the patients together against a wall at a central patio, and then opened fire at them with
AK-47 rifles. When the Mexican authorities removed the dead bodies, a thick layer of blood was left at the concrete floor of the clinic, from the entrance to the sleep quarters. Gente Nueva had killed 8 people at the 7&7 Bar in Ciudad Juárez just a few weeks before the rehab center attack. The attack was materialized within sight of the U.S.-Mexico border and is one of the worst single mass shootings in the history of Ciudad Juárez. The Mexican authorities stated that the drug trafficking organizations use rehabilitation clinics to recruit foot soldiers and smugglers, and often kill those who do not cooperate. Others are killed for failing to pay for their drugs or for ripping off a dealer. In addition, the cartels frequently target unlicensed rehabilitation centers, since they are likely to accept active gang members seeking to free themselves from an addiction. Unlike the government-licensed clinics, the private centers are not associated with the penal system and have limited security measures, leaving the victims vulnerable to attacks by gangs seeking revenge or the elimination of a potential police informant. Some cartel members even check themselves in the facility and pose as addicts. Once they gain information of why the facility works, they co-opt with workers or threaten to kill them. In 2010, violence in Ciudad Juárez reached its peak, seeing an average of 10 homicides per day, or about 230 murders per 100,000 people annually. but evidence shows that the murder rates in Ciudad Juárez decreased by 59.8% in the first half of 2012 when compared to the same period in 2011, and Mexican officials have attributed this decline to the success of its law enforcement agencies. Nonetheless, experts told
El Paso Times that part of the reason why the violence in
Ciudad Juárez toned down is because the Sinaloa cartel has consolidated its dominance over the now-weakened Juárez cartel.
NPR reports indicated that several people in Ciudad Juárez, including but not limited to local journalists and former policemen, perceived that the Mexican government allegedly favored the Sinaloa cartel in their battle against the Juárez cartel. Nonetheless, counterarguments from security experts were also included. With limited options, the Juárez cartel has been forced to reorganize its forces and opt for extortions and kidnappings, while Gente Nueva – the Sinaloa cartel's armed wing – receives funding from other states. In addition, the drug corridor in Ciudad Juárez remains a crucial territory for the Mexican drug trafficking organizations, so the city could continue to see battles for the control of the lucrative smuggling routes – even at a diminishing scale. And although the rise of the New Juárez Cartel has yet to materialize, the threat still remains. Through a banner, Gente Nueva and Los Ms, a faction led by
Ismael Zambada García, accused other lieutenants in the cartel of "heating up the plaza" in Durango by trying to attract law enforcement presence in the area, usually through indiscriminate killings and other violent tactics. The message warned their rivals that they had only 24 hours to leave the area before they were killed. He later confessed that there was a feud between several factions of the Sinaloa cartel for the control of the drug corridors in Acapulco.
Veracruz incursion and massacre The tit-for-tat fighting between
Los Zetas and the Sinaloa cartel started in the Mexican state of
Veracruz, a strategic smuggling region with a giant gulf port. On 20 September 2011 at around 5:00 pm, several vehicles blocked a major avenue in
Boca del Río, Veracruz. Once traffic stopped, armed men abandoned two trucks in the middle of the highway. The cartel members then fled the scene. The two trucks that were left at an underpass near a shopping mall contained 35 dead bodies. Consequently, the stunned motorists began to grab their cellphones and post messages on Twitter warning other drivers to avoid the area. but it was later proven that only six of them had been involved in minor crime incidents, and none of them were involved with organized crime. Some of the victims had their hands tied and bore signs of torture. The message left behind stated the following: The banner's reference to "G.N." was a clear reference to Gente Nueva, but the
Jalisco New Generation Cartel later assumed full responsibility for the massacre and the incursions in the state of Veracruz, traditionally considered turf of Los Zetas.
Present-day The group suffered setbacks in 2013. Mario Nuñez Meza, also known as, M-10 or El Mayito, was arrested in
Ciudad Juarez. Months later they arrested his brother M-12 also in Juarez. On 11 December 2013, Gente Nueva high-ranking leader Jesús Gregorio Villanueva Rodríguez (alias "El R5") was shot and injured as he left a fast food restaurant in the state of
Sonora, his area of operations. His girlfriend and he were taken to the hospital, but Villanueva Rodríguez died after receiving medical attention. ==Known leaders of Gente Nueva==