The Sinaloa cartel has had a tight grip on street drug trafficking in Chicago for decades, controlling 80% of all illicit drug sales, according to federal investigators.
But now — there are questions about whether that grip is slipping.
Could the gang founded by El Chapo be running out of gas?
Here’s how it breaks down:
Four of El Chapo’s sons were put in charge of the Sinaloa cartel when their dad went to prison for life at the Supermax in Colorado. This foursome, known as “the Chapitos,” instantly became America’s most wanted fugitives.
Their captures would be considered a grand slam for law enforcement. Two were captured in recent years and have plea deals with federal prosecutors in Chicago. Two others are still in Mexico with targets on them, but law enforcement sources say they may be preparing to join their brothers in Chicago, in what would be a huge win for the feds.
The Sinaloa state in Mexico has been a target of Mexican and American law enforcement for more than 50 years, since Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman moved up through cartel ranks and eventually established the Sinaloa cartel. Ten years ago, when a firefight brought an end to Chapo’s reign, the cartel started to unravel.
His offspring, Los Chapitos, took over. Sons Ovidio and Joaquín were both arrested in 2024 and brought to Chicago, where the family is under indictment after cornering the drug market here. Since then, the two remaining El Chapo sons, Iván and Jesús, have become top DEA targets, each with capture bounties of $10 million. Now, with the screws tightening on corrupt public officials, law enforcement sources say the remaining two Chapitos are in secret negotiations on a possible plea deal and surrender in Chicago.
“I think there could be a couple of things going on. First and foremost, their two brothers are incarcerated and are cooperating at some level. So that may hasten their exit from Mexico,” said retired Chicago DEA Special Agent in Charge Jack Riley. “And at the same time, we’ve got to be careful here, Chuck, because this is the greatest cartel show on earth.”
Former DEA official Jack Riley is guarded, he said, until the last two sons are in custody, but Riley said there is motivation for a deal.
“We’ve got to stop their political arm, because that’s kept them safe for 30, 40 years. And I think that’s what they’re after. And that’s something clearly these two knuckleheads could give us,” Riley said.
NBC CHICAGO’S CHUCK GOUDIE: “Could you really imagine a time when we’d be talking about El Chapo locked up for life and potentially all of his sons who had been running the cartel in his wake also being in U.S. custody?”
Jack Riley/RETIRED DEA OFFICIAL: “I can tell you when I started chasing him 20 years ago, I never thought we’d get him in custody. I really believed that he would be killed, either by the Mexicans or by rivals. I never thought he’d be sitting in jail.”
And now, more than five decades after El Chapo entered the cartel ranks, Riley, who has been chasing him for his entire career, says enough is enough.
“We’ve been at this long enough now in terms of Sinaloa and Chapo and his offspring that we really could see the final chapter of this come to a close,” Riley said.
Riley and other drug investigators say they know that there are other cartels in Mexico ready to fill the void left by a Sinaloa grand slam, and some of those moves have already begun.
But as El Chapo’s dynasty dials down, U.S. justice officials are also penetrating Mexican politics to make it harder on the next regime, arresting 10 current or former government and law enforcement officials on drug and corruption charges. They’re now in custody in New York.
Those locked up in New York include the former chief of public safety in Sinaloa, who stands accused of taking $100,000 per month from the Chapitos.
