Mexican security forces destroyed two drug labs and seized nearly 5,000 kilograms of methamphetamine in Sinaloa in July 2025, the latest high-profile raid in the heart of the Sinaloa cartel’s power center. The operation, conducted by the Mexican Navy, National Guard and other security forces, also captured chemical precursors and equipment. In total, the forces disrupted a $70 million illicit manufacturing operation, and the case has been turned over to the federal Attorney General’s office, according to a news release from Mexico’s Secretariat of the Navy.
Along with the Navy, the Secretariat of Defense, which controls the Army and Air Force, participated in the raids as did the Secretariat of Citizen Security and Protection, which was recently reorganized under Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to take a greater role in the fight against transnational criminal organizations (TCO). The labs were in the villages of Loma and Tecomate, in the municipality of Culiacán, Sinaloa, according to the release. Culiacán is the home of imprisoned Sinaloa leader Joaquín Guzmán Loera, known as “El Chapo.”
Elements of the Mexican Navy, almost certainly Naval Infantry Marines, found the labs while on patrol. So far in 2025, Mexico has seized nearly 424 tons of “chemical substances” in clandestine labs, the release stated. “In this way, the Secretariat of the Navy, through the Mexican Navy, in coordination with the institutions of the Security Cabinet, contributes to the sum of efforts to combat organized crime and prevent the distribution of drugs by criminal groups, in order to contribute to the security of Mexican families,” the release stated.
The bust is the latest in a series of operations against the Sinaloa cartel. In January, authorities undertook a massive raid in Sinaloa, netting thousands of kilograms of methamphetamine and thousands more kilograms of chemical precursors. Similar operations have continued throughout the year, most recently in June and July when the Mexican Navy marines and helicopters in coordination with the Attorney General’s Office discovered six cartel labs in the northern Mexican state. “The Navy emphasized the significance of this operation in their fight against organized crime,” reported Cartel Insider, a website tracking Mexican cartel activity. All seized materials were destroyed on site, Cartel Insider reported.
The Sinaloa cartel was one of eight the United States government designated this year as foreign terrorist organizations. Originating in the Guadalajara Cartel in the 1970s, the Sinaloa cartel has grown to become a powerful global criminal organization. Its notorious leader, El Chapo, was arrested in 2016 and extradited to the U.S., where he was sentenced in 2019 to life in prison without parole and forfeited nearly $13 billion in assets. He is an inmate in the federal supermax facility in Florence, Colorado.
After El Chapo’s downfall, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcìa, one of the cartel’s founders, and Guzmán’s two sons, known as “El Chapitos,” took control. In July 2024, U.S. law enforcement arrested Zambada García and Joaquín Guzmán López. Authorities subsequently revealed that Guzmán López had abducted Zambada García and forced him onto the airplane. Violence among factions in the Sinaloa cartel has been endemic in recent years as the leadership vacuum has led to instability within the ranks.