CULIACÁN — Mexican naval forces descended on a residential compound in El Álamo, a community in the southern Culiacán municipality of Sinaloa, on Thursday morning—and by the time the gunfire stopped, 11 people were dead, one of the Sinaloa Cartel’s most wanted faction leaders was in custody, and El Mayo Zambada’s daughter had been briefly detained and then quietly released, igniting an immediate controversy about what the operation actually accomplished.
The Operation: What Happened
The deployment took place on March 19 in the community of El Álamo, in the sindicatura of El Salado, south of Culiacán, as part of coordinated actions by Mexico’s Security Cabinet to curb the violence of criminal groups in the state.
Elements of the Secretariat of the Navy, through the Mexican Navy, conducted interventions at various properties linked to a cell of the Los Mayos faction. During the deployment, security personnel were attacked by members of the criminal group, resulting in an armed confrontation.
The Mexican Navy confirmed in a social media post that its personnel killed 11 assailants after returning fire during the raid, with high-powered weapons and tactical equipment seized at the scene.
Their identities have not yet been released to the public.
The primary target of the operation—Omar Oswaldo Torres Cabada, alias “El Patas”—was detained at the site. El Patas is identified as a leader of the Los Mayos cell operating in the southern Culiacán corridor—one of the most strategically contested drug trafficking corridors in Mexico following the internal fracture of the Sinaloa Cartel after El Mayo Zambada’s arrest in 2024.
The Controversy: El Mayo’s Daughter
The capture of El Patas was overshadowed within hours by a development that generated far more public and political attention: the brief detention—and rapid release—of Mónica Zambada Niebla, the daughter of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, one of the Sinaloa Cartel’s founding leaders currently imprisoned in the United States.
Mónica Zambada Niebla, born March 2, 1980, is the daughter of El Mayo Zambada and forms part of a family nucleus under scrutiny from U.S. authorities, alongside her sisters María Teresa, Midiam Patricia, and Modesta Zambada. Her name appears in U.S. Treasury Department investigations related to alleged financial structures linked to the La Mayiza faction, associated with various companies flagged for possible financial resource management operations.
Despite those U.S. Treasury connections, Mexican federal authorities confirmed her release on the grounds that she had no arrest warrant in Mexico and that no link to criminal activities in the country could be established.
“Regarding the release of El Mayo’s daughter, federal authorities reported that the action was taken after confirming she had no arrest warrant and that no connection to criminal activities in Mexico was accredited,” the official statement read.
The release drew immediate criticism from opposition politicians to the Sheinbaum government, security analysts, and social media users who questioned whether the decision reflected genuine legal constraints—or political pressure from the Sinaloa Cartel’s still-formidable local network in Culiacán, where Los Mayos retain deep community ties and significant leverage over local officials.
The operation’s optics recalled the 2019 “Culiacanazo”—when Mexican security forces briefly detained El Chapo’s son Ovidio Guzmán before releasing him under overwhelming cartel pressure—though Thursday’s operation resulted in eleven deaths and a confirmed high-value capture, distinguishing it meaningfully from that earlier episode.
The Sinaloa Civil War—The Context Behind the Operation
Thursday’s raid comes as governments across Latin America seek to deliver U.S. President Donald Trump tangible results in the fight against crime and drug trafficking. Just this week, the Mexican government participated in a law enforcement operation with Ecuador and Colombia to arrest Ángel Esteban Aguilar, the leader of the Los Lobos crime group.
The Los Mayos faction that El Patas led has been at war with Los Chapitos—the faction led by El Chapo Guzmán’s sons—since El Mayo’s arrest in July 2024. The faction has been in a bloody turf war since the arrest of its leader, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada in 2024—a conflict that has claimed hundreds of lives in Sinaloa and produced some of the most intense urban combat the state has seen since the cartel wars of the previous decade.
El Patas’s removal from the battlefield eliminates one of the faction’s regional commanders—but does not resolve the underlying power struggle that is driving the bloodshed.
Trump’s Pressure and Sheinbaum's Response
Thursday’s operation is the latest in a series of high-profile Mexican security actions that carry unmistakable domestic and international political dimensions. Trump has labelled groups like the Sinaloa Cartel “foreign terrorist organizations” and has indicated he would consider taking military action on Mexican soil against such groups, despite concerns that such actions would violate Mexican sovereignty.
Trump told the Shield of the Americas summit earlier this month that he considered Mexico to be the “epicenter” of cartel violence. “We have to eradicate them,” Trump said. “We have to knock the hell out of them because they’re getting worse. They’re taking over their country. The cartels are running Mexico. We can’t have that.”
Each major Mexican military operation against cartel leadership this year has been partly aimed at demonstrating to Washington that the Sheinbaum government is taking aggressive action—without crossing the sovereign red lines that Sheinbaum has maintained throughout her presidency.
President Sheinbaum has consistently refused to allow U.S. troops or unilateral U.S. military operations on Mexican soil—a position that has kept the bilateral relationship functional even as Trump escalates his rhetoric.
Thursday’s raid—eleven dead, a faction leader captured, a cartel heiress released—is Sheinbaum’s latest entry in that diplomatic ledger. Whether Washington credits it as sufficient is a question the coming days will answer.
