The Sinaloa-Tijuana war was a bloody gang war fought between the rival Sinaloa and Tijuana Mexican drug cartels in the states of Baja California, Sonora, Sinaloa, Durango, Jalisco, Guerrero, Michoacan, and Oaxaca from 1989 to 1993 and from 2001 to 2002. The gang war was marked by several gang shootings, bombings, and atrocities, and it was brough to an end in 2002 when the Tijuana leaders were taken down by both the Sinaloa Cartel and law enforcement.
Background[]
In 1989, the ambitious Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquin Guzman Loera approached the brothers Benjamin and Ramon Arellano Felix, the leaders of the Tijuana Cartel, and offered to work with them in the drug trade. However, the two brothers believed that he was an amateur and was not worthy of working with them, and they declined his offer. Guzman proceeded to anger them by trafficking drugs through their territory without informing them or giving them a cut of the action. The brothers retaliated by killing Guzman's envoy Rayo Lopez when he drunkenly showed up to their nightclub, with Ramon Arellano Felix shooting him publicly and having many of his family members killed to prevent reprisals. This act led to war between the two families.
War[]
1990s phase[]
Guzman was angered by the murder of his close friend Rayo, so he decided to avenge his death by killing the two brothers. The Arellano Felix brothers were ambushed by Guzman and a few of his hitmen as they drove down the Avenida Revolucion in Tijuana, and their bulletproof windows saved them from death. The Mexican government warned Guzman against disturbing the order in the country, but Guzman instead convinced Ismael Zambada Garcia to join his side of the war. The Tijuana Cartel retaliated with an attempted car bombing of Guzman's Guadalajara safehouse, where he was meeting with his lietuenant Hector Luis Palma Salazar, but they succeeded only in killing a few guards. The Sinaloa Cartel retaliated by raiding the Tijuana Cartel's drug warehouse in Otay. The theft of the large shipment of drugs convinced the Mexican government and the American DEA to release imprisoned trafficker Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who was sent to mediate a peace between the parties. Peace was made between the two cartels at Carrillo's ranch, but the Arellano Felix brothers quickly betrayed this arrangement by having their Venezuelan associate Enrique Rafael Clavel Moreno kill and behead Palma's wife, send Palma her head, and throw their two young children over a bridge in Venezuela. Palma had his men kill Clavel in prison, and he demanded the deaths of the Arellano Felix brothers.
On 8 November 1992, several Sinaloa Cartel hitmen in police uniforms massacred several Tijuana Cartel members and partygoers at the Christine nightclub in Puerto Vallarta, where Benjamin Arellano Felix was having his birthday party. The shootout led to a renewal of all-out warfare, and Carrillo Fuentes sided with the Tijuana Cartel, seeking to have Guzman killed. On 24 May 1993, Logan Heights Gang hitmen hired by the Tijuana Cartel attempted to kill Guzman in a double-assassination at the Guadalajara International Airport; they succeeded in killing the other target, Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo. The Tijuana Cartel failed in its goal of killing Guzman, but Guzman would be arrested in hiding in Guatemala, and he was accused of the murder of the cardinal. He would spend the years 1993 to 2001 in maximum-security prisons.
2000s phase[]
The shooting of Ramon Arellano Felix
On 19 January 2001, Guzman escaped from prison in a laundry cart, and he returned to lead the Sinaloa Cartel. Guzman proposed the creation of a federation of drug cartels to fight against the Arellanos, but all of the other cartels refused; however, they promised that they would join the federation if he succeeded in eliminating the Arellanos. Guzman later cut a deal with politician Conrado Higuera Sol and the DEA, telling him that he would help them destroy the Arellano brothers, but only one would be allowed to live.
On 10 February 2002, Ramon Arellano Felix travelled to Mazatlan, where he was told that Sinaloa co-leader Ismael Zambada Garcia was attending its carnival with two bodyguards. Arellano Felix brought with him just his henchman Alambra, as Benjamin told him that any more hitmen would draw attention to the cartel. The two men met up with their contact, Carlos Tirado Lizarraga, who told them about the situation; they were unaware that Tirado had lured them into a trap at the behest of Guzman, who had ordered the kidnapping of Tirado's sister to force him into betraying his boss. During the parade, Guzman and Zambada observed Arellano and Alambra from a rooftop, watching through binoculars as they waded through the crowd. Tirado then distracted the two men by calling out Ramon's name, and as Ramon and Alamba turned around, two gunmen approached them from behind and shot them several times with handguns.
On 9 March 2002, Guzman moved in for the final blow. He bribed the leader of a special forces team sent to track him down to become one of his henchmen, using him to hunt down other cartel bosses in exchange for $30,000 a month. The squad discovered that Benjamin Arellano Felix was hiding at a safehouse in Puebla with his henchman Charalito, and Conrado Higuera Sol - now operational director of the federal police - oversaw the operation that led to Arellano Felix's capture. His downfall ended the war between the two cartels.
Aftermath[]
The downfall of the Arellano Felix brothers allowed for Guzman to create his drug cartel federation with the support of the Mexican government and the DEA, but Osiel Cardenas Guillen and his Gulf Cartel did not attend the meeting. Guzman told his followers (including the Juarez Cartel and his Sinaloa Cartel men) that those who did not stand with the federation stood against it, and that the federation would monopolize all criminal enterprises in the country. He then proceeded to declare war on the Gulf Cartel, arranging for a series of raids targeting Cardenas Guillen and his brother, Antonio Cardenas Guillen, in Nuevo Leon, starting a new war.