CARTEL WATCH
The Narco Trafficker Next Door
Even in some of Mexico’s most expensive and exclusive neighborhoods there is no escaping the drug cartels—they’re your neighbors.
Photo Illustration by Lyne Lucien/The Daily Beast
GUADALAJARA, Mexico—Gabriela Navarro, who lives in an exclusive gated community in southern Guadalajara, suspects three locals of having ties to one of Mexico’s most powerful drug cartels. She bases this belief on their unconventional working hours, unexplained wealth, and fondness for narcocorridos—folk ballads that glorify drug traffickers.
All, she says, are from Sinaloa, the mountainous home-state of drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and the ruthless Sinaloa Federation, one of the largest criminal organizations in the world.
“Some people’s backgrounds are a bit doubtful,” said Navarro, who is in her forties and asked that her name be changed to protect her identity. “They have lots of money and big trucks. No one knows what they do, but it makes you wonder.”