Authorities said Saturday that a leader of a famous Mexican drug gang with a reward on his mind in the United States died in a confrontation with army personnel. The powerful cartel of the same title, which is based in Sinaloa state, is engaged in a conflict between two rival parties that has resulted in about 1,200 fatalities since September. Omar Garcia Harfuch, the public health secretary, wrote on the social media platform X that Jorge Humberto Figueroa was shot and killed on Friday in a attack carried out to assault him. On suspicion of fentanyl trafficking and money laundering, the US Drug Enforcement Administration ( DEA ) had been offering up to$ 1 million for information leading to his arrest. According to Harfuch, Figueroa was one of the organizers of the notorious Culiacan police fight in 2019. In that case, gang people fought back against security forces who had detained Joaquin” Chapo” Guzman, the son of Sinaloa cartel co-founder, and Ovidio Guzman. At the time, Mexican officials made controversial decisions to release Ovidio Guzman, saying they wanted to stop more violence. However, in the end, he was detained again in 2023 and extradited to the United States, where he is still being held. According to Mexican media accounts, Figueroa belonged to a Sinaloa cartel group led by the younger Guzman, who is currently serving a life sentence in the United States. This team has been fighting a party that is led by the descendants of gang co-founder Ismael Zambada, who was detained after being extorted into the US during a stinging operation in 2024. Figueroa was the faction’s head of security, according to Reforma’s paper Reforma.
