México said Jesús González Peñuelas, a wanted Cártel de Guasave operator, was killed in a clash with Mexican Navy personnel in Sinaloa during a drug trafficking operation. Omar García Harfuch said the confrontation happened on Monday near Alfredo V. Bonfil in the municipality of Sinaloa.
The Security Secretariat chief said two people died in the operation and repeated that the United States had offered a $5 million reward for González Peñuelas. He also said González Peñuelas was accused of manufacturing, distributing and importing cocaine and heroin, placing him in a role that connected local violence in Sinaloa to routes reaching the United States.
Sinaloa operation near Alfredo V. Bonfil
García Harfuch said González Peñuelas and another alleged criminal died after confronting Mexican Navy personnel who were carrying out the operation. After the shootout, the Navy seized four vehicles, three long guns, magazines and ammunition. Those details show the operation was not limited to one arrest attempt; it also stripped equipment from the group on the ground.
Federal sources said González Peñuelas had led an organization dedicated to producing and distributing methamphetamine, marijuana and heroin since the beginning of the century, and that he had more recently entered fentanyl trafficking. Authorities identified him as one of the main operators of Fausto Isidro Meza Flores, also known as El Chapo Isidro.
Reward and network reach
The U.S. reward changed the scale of the case. A five-million-dollar offer signals a target viewed as important to trafficking networks rather than a low-level figure, and García Harfuch said the money had been on the table for González Peñuelas before his death. His structure operated mainly in Sinaloa and Sonora, with connections on the northern border and distribution networks in California, Texas, Colorado and Washington.
González Peñuelas also maintained links with Rafael Caro Quintero, who was extradited to the United States last year. The names attached to him place the killing inside a wider cross-border trafficking map rather than a single local dispute.
Cártel de Guasave and Sinaloa
The Cártel de Guasave has been immersed in an internal war since 2024, and that fighting has unfolded alongside the internal war inside the Cártel de Sinaloa between factions linked to Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán and Ismael El Mayo Zambada. García Harfuch said the score-settling in Culiacán has left more than 2,000 dead since 2024, making Sinaloa the backdrop for a broader struggle over routes, territory and leadership.
Authorities said the identities of the two people killed on Monday were still pending forensic confirmation, even as González Peñuelas was publicly named as one of them. That leaves one final administrative step before the death is fixed in the record, while the Navy, the Army and the Security Secretariat prepare coordinated supervision visits in Sinaloa this week to monitor deployments, speak with local police and inspect the land where a new prison will be built.
