IN late October 2019, the Sinaloan town of Culiacan endured the dismissal of its chief warden, Eduardo Mendoza, after the escape and subsequent violent rampage of 55 prisoners. Aided and abetted by heavily armed convoys of paramilitary “Narcos” (drug cartel members) barrelling down central avenues sporting military-grade hardware, main roads were blockaded by burning trucks, creating a virtual quarantine from the authority of the Mexican army.

The humiliating defeat was all due to the state-sanctioned capture of a single man — Ovidio Guzman Lopez, one of notorious crime boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s eleven children.

Cartel violence has long found a home in Sinaloa; Narco culture is as much a part of the arid northern landscape as the Cosa Nostra is within the minds of most Sicilians. It is the home of the near-mythical Sinaloa Cartel, formerly headed by Guzman, who is currently incarcerated in the US after escaping from Mexican prison multiple times, using makeshift tunnels allegedly manufactured by out-of-work silver miners, and proceeding to give a surreal interview to Sean Penn.