Prosecutors in northern Mexico’s Sinaloa state are investigating the discovery of 20 male bodies with gunshot wounds – including five that were decapitated – on a bridge over a federal highway.
Local media reported that a message was also found hanging over the bridge in Culiacán. The prosecutor’s office told CNN it had no comment on the message but would investigate.
Sinaloa Secretary General Feliciano Castro Meléndez called the case a “regrettable situation” and said it was “part of the violence and insecurity that Sinaloa is experiencing.”
Since 2024, Culiacán has been the epicenter of armed clashes between rival factions of the Sinaloa cartel.
Two of the most prominent factions are La Mayiza, which is loyal to the cartel’s alleged co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, and Los Chapitos, which is loyal to the sons of former drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
The violence in Sinaloa escalated after Zambada and one of El Chapo’s sons, Joaquín Guzmán López, werearrestedlast year by US authorities in El Paso, Texas.
An official familiar with the operation told CNN at the time that Guzmán López had organized his arrest along with that of Zambada by luring him on a flight to examine a piece of land he thought was in Mexico. Instead, the plane landed in El Paso, Texas, where federal agents arrested them both.
Former Mexican Secretary of Security Rosa Icela Rodriguez said Guzmán López had reachedan agreementwith one of his brothers, Ovidio Guzmán López, who is in US custody, “So that they would go to the United States to surrender.”
However, an attorney for Ovidio told CNN that Rodriguez’s claim was “a complete and utter fabrication.” An attorney for El Mayo said he “neither surrendered nor negotiated any terms with the US government” and described the flight to the US as a violent kidnapping.
Ovidio had been extradited to the US in September 2023 to face drug trafficking charges over his alleged role in the Sinaloa cartel. Days after his extradition, he pleaded not guilty to the charges in a US court.
But in May, he reached an agreement to change his plea, according to a court document reviewed by CNN.
Later that month, several members of his familyentered the USas part of an apparent “negotiation or plea deal opportunity provided by the (US) Department of Justice itself,” Mexico’s Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch said.
Two other sons of El Chapo, Ivan Archivaldo and Jesus Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, are still at large. The US has accused them of leading large-scale drug trafficking operations for the cartel and has issued $10 million bounties for information leading to each of their arrests.