Mexico Sends Dozens of Special Forces Troops To Sinaloa In Bid To Counter Ongoing Cartel Violence


Almost three months since the streets of Sinaloa were set ablaze due to territorial conflicts between “Los Chapitos” and “La Mayiza,” two of the Sinaloa Cartel’s most prominent factions, local and federal government officials continue to make efforts in order to curb ongoing violence in the region.

In this context, Mexico’s Ministry of Defense (SEDENA) is reinforcing its presence in the state by sending 100 new units of the country’s Special Forces. As Infobae reports, an aircraft belonging to the National Guard this week transported the Army’s Special Forces Corps to join hundreds of troops already in the area.

Read more…
Source: MSN News


Sign up for Counter-IED Report Newsletter


Related:

  • New York: Governor of Sinaloa and nine other officials charged with drug trafficking and weapons offenses

    April 29, 2026

    The Defendants Allegedly Conspired With Leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel to Import Massive Quantities of Narcotics Into the United States in Exchange for Political Support and Bribes. United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, and Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”), Terrance C. Cole, announced today the unsealing of ...

  • Mexico: Two CIA officers and two Mexican investigators killed in car crash after counter-narcotics operation in Chihuahua

    April 21, 2026

    Two U.S. officials killed in a vehicle crash as they returned from destroying a clandestine drug lab in a rugged region of Mexico over the weekend were working for the CIA, according to a U.S. official and two other people familiar with matter. Two Mexican investigators also were killed in the crash, which Mexican authorities said ...

  • Mexico, a country without drug lords

    February 24, 2026

    When the Mexican Navy killed Heriberto Lazcano, the leader of the fearsome Los Zetas cartel who pioneered narco-terrorism in Mexico, in 2012, El Mencho was just beginning to emerge. He had helped weaken that group of elite ex-military personnel and was already plotting a break with the Sinaloa Cartel to launch his solo career. By 2014, ...

  • Mexico: State Attorney General’s Office attacked with drone in Buenavista

    February 23, 2026

    The attacks of organized crime against institutions do not cease. During the early hours of this Monday, the offices of the State Attorney General’s Office in Buenavista were attacked. According to the data collected by the authorities, a drone was used to launch homemade explosives against the facilities of the autonomous body, sources close to the ...

  • Mexico: Leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel killed in security operation

    February 22, 2026

    The Mexican military killed Rubén Nemesio Oseguera, alias “El Mencho,” the most wanted and dangerous drug trafficker in the world, this weekend in the state of Jalisco, in central Mexico, according to official sources who confirmed the information to EL PAÍS. The leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), the country’s most significant criminal group, ...

  • Mexico: In 1 year, Michoacán authorities deactivated more than 1,600 improvised explosive devices

    January 20, 2026

    The number of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) located, seized and deactivated by state authorities in Michoacán more than doubled last year, indicating that criminal groups’ use of the makeshift bombs is becoming more prevalent. According to data from the Michoacán Security Ministry, 1,645 IEDS were neutralized by state authorities last year, an increase of 122.5% compared ...

  • Mexico: Car bomb targeting community police station kills 6 in Michoacán

    December 8, 2025

    The explosion of a car bomb outside a community police station in the town of Coahuayana, Michoacán, on Saturday killed six people, including at least three police officers. Michoacán Attorney General Carlos Torres Piña reported on Sunday that the death toll had risen to six from an earlier report of five fatalities. He reported that seven ...

  • US military strikes 4 boats in the Pacific, killing 14, in ramp-up of campaign against alleged drug trafficking

    October 28, 2025

    The US military conducted strikes against four more boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Monday, killing 14 people on board the vessels, with one survivor, according to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. It marked the first time multiple strikes were conducted on the same day as part of the Trump administration’s accelerating campaign against boats ...

  • Mexico: Gulf Cartel gunman caught near Texas border with explosives, drones, and IEDs

    October 22, 2025

    Authorities in Mexico arrested a suspected member of the Gulf Cartel who had 151 drone explosives, 18 drones, three IEDs, and various other weapons. The seizure also included state-of-the-art anti-drone weapons. The arrest took place in the border city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, a region that continues to see high levels of violence as the Gulf Cartel ...

  • Mexico has no evidence linking Venezuela’s Maduro to drug cartel

    August 8, 2025

    The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, has denied that her government has any evidence linking Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro to the Sinaloa Cartel, a criminal network based in her country. Sheinbaum’s statements on Friday were prompted by an announcement one day earlier that the United States would double its reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest, ...

  • Mexican cartels using Ukrainian frontline to learn more about drone warfare

    July 31, 2025

    Mexican cartel operatives are understood to have joined Ukraine’s frontline so that they can learn advanced drone training to deploy against rivals and US security forces back in their homeland. Ukraine’s counterintelligence service confirmed it was currently investigating the potential infiltration of its International Legion, a military unit composed of foreign volunteers, by Latin American drug ...

  • Mexico: Former Jalisco cartel member details use of explosive drones by elite unit ‘Fuerzas Especiales Mencho’

    July 29, 2025

    In a recent interview, a former member of the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) described the recruitment and training process, as well as the operations within one of the cartel’s elite units that serves Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, also known as “El Mencho.” Identified by the alias “Lima,” the man detailed the structure and methods behind the ...

  • Mexico: Criminal groups are using drone bombings to displace indigenous communities in Northwest

    July 7, 2025

    In recent months, more than a dozen Indigenous communities in northwest Mexico have been violently displaced from their lands by criminal organizations. Drawn by the promise of gold and other valuable minerals, these groups have escalated their tactics—using drones armed with explosives to terrorize residents and forcibly drive them out. According to witness accounts, residents in ...

  • Chemists develop contactless system to detect Fentanyl, explosives and other harmful substances

    June 24, 2025

    A system that detects trace levels of fentanyl, cocaine, explosives and other harmful substances through the air has been created by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. New test results of a device based on the technology that was originally developed by PNNL chemist Robert Ewing and colleagues were presented at the ...

  • Illicit Innovation: Latin America Is Not Prepared to Fight Criminal Drones

    June 11, 2025

    The scene is by now all too familiar for those acquainted with coverage of modern war. A bird’s-eye view frames two figures ambling about below, then charts the path of an improvised explosive charge as it tumbles down, impacting with a puff of smoke and an explosion that is felt, not heard, through the camera ...

  • Mexico: Four cartel suspects killed during chase in the municipality of Frontera Comalapa days after ambush killed 5 officers in same area

    June 9, 2025

    Police in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas and federal forces killed four suspected criminals on Sunday during a chase in an area bordering Guatemala, the local government said. The incident unfolded just days after five police officers were killed in an ambush by an armed group in the same area. A statement from the local ...

  • Mexican Cartel Tactical Note #53: Recent Improvised Landmine attacks in Michoacán and Jalisco

    May 31, 2025

    On 27 May 2025, eight Guardia Nacional (GN) personnel assigned to the Fuerza de reacción inmediata (FERI), an immediate reaction special force team, were killed when their armored vehicle ran over an artisanal landmine, in Los Reyes, Michoacán. The officials were in the area as part of ongoing counter-cartel operations. The region is contested and contains ...

  • Mexico arrests 10 Colombian ex-soldiers after deadly blast

    May 30, 2025

    Ten Colombian former soldiers were among the suspects arrested after an improvised landmine killed six Mexican troops in a drug cartel heartland this week, authorities said Friday. More than 40 explosive devices were seized along with other weapons in the western state of Michoacan, according to statements from the national and local governments. In total, 17 ...

  • Mexico: Cartels are recruiting artisans to manufacture explosives, 3,454 devices seized in Michoacán alone

    May 30, 2025

    Criminal groups in Michoacán are recruiting local pyrotechnic artisans to manufacture improvised explosive devices (IEDs), often under threat, according to federal and state authorities. Carlos Roberto Gómez Ruiz, deputy director of the Explosives and Hazardous Materials Unit of the Michoacán Public Security Secretariat, said cartels like Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) and Los Viagras exploit both ...

  • Mexico: Eight soldiers killed in explosion on the borders of Michoacán and Jalisco

    May 28, 2025

    The number of Special Forces soldiers killed by the explosion of a mine-type device on the border between Michoacán and Jalisco has risen to eight, federal sources reported. The initial report had been of two officers and four troops killed yesterday when they were patrolling in an armored vehicle of the Special Immediate Reaction Force (FERI), ...

  • Venezuela suspends flights from Colombia after arrests of ‘mercenaries’

    May 20, 2025

    Venezuela has suspended flights from neighbouring Colombia after authorities detained more than 30 people allegedly plotting activities to destabilise the country before Sunday’s parliamentary election. Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello announced on state television on Monday that the flight ban was “immediate” and would last for a week. Cabello said the antigovernment plans involved placing explosives ...

  • Texas: Concerns over cartel drone threats expanding

    March 31, 2025

    The war in Ukraine opened Pandora’s box when it comes to using drones in combat. The low-cost, remotely guided flying contraptions can drop explosives from the sky or come down and literally blow up in an enemy combatant’s lap. Now some in the United States are worried if the newly designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations that are ...