Federal authorities announced on Tuesday the arrest of an alleged Sinaloa Cartel figure who is said to be linked to the abduction and murder in Sinaloa of 10 employees of Canadian mining company Vizsla Silver.
The Ministry of National Defense (Defensa) and the federal government’s Security Cabinet announced that Gabriel “N” — identified in media reports as Gabriel Nicolás Martínez Larios — was detained on Monday in Rosario, a municipality in Sinaloa south of Mazatlán.
En una acción coordinada en El Rosario, Sinaloa, elementos de @Defensamx1, @GN_MEXICO_ y autoridades estatales detuvieron a Gabriel “N”, alias “Gabito”, identificado como generador de violencia y jefe regional de la facción “Los Menores”.
El detenido es investigado por su… pic.twitter.com/Ow6XbAqIue
— Gabinete de Seguridad de México (@GabSeguridadMX) June 2, 2026
The Mexican Army, the National Guard and Sinaloa state police were involved in the operation to detain Martínez, known as “Gabito” and “El 80.”
Defensa said in a statement that he is considered the “regional boss” of the “Menores” faction of the Pacific Cartel, as the Sinaloa Cartel is also known. The “Menores” faction of the Sinaloa Cartel is another name for the “Chapitos” faction, led by sons of convicted drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera.
According to Defensa, Martínez allegedly led the Menores in several municipalities in southern Sinaloa, including Concordia, the municipality where 10 Vizsla Silver employees were abducted in January. Nine of the 10 workers have been found dead.
Martínez “is considered a close collaborator and friend” of Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, one of El Chapo’s sons, Defensa said.
The ministry also said that he is “one of the main generators of violence in the southern area of the state of Sinaloa.”
He is under investigation for kidnapping, homicide and drug trafficking, and is linked to the kidnapping and homicide of “six workers and four suppliers of a mining company in the state of Sinaloa,” Defensa said.
Vizsla Silver has referred to the 10 abducted workers as “colleagues.” Federal Security Minister Omar García Harfuch said in February that four alleged members of the Chapitos who were arrested in connection with the abduction told authorities that the victims were mistaken for members of a rival cartel faction.
Vizsla Silver confirms 9 of 10 missing Sinaloa mine workers have been found dead
The Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that security forces seized weapons, ammunition, drugs, cash and a vehicle from Martínez, who was turned over to the Federal Attorney General’s Office in Culiacán, the state capital of Sinaloa.
The arrest of Martínez came a week after a nephew of Guzmán Loera was detained in the northern border city of Nogales, Sonora. Isaí Martínez Cepeda — who reportedly worked for the Chapitos — is wanted on drug trafficking charges in the United States.
A long-running dispute between the Chapitos and the “Mayos” faction of the Sinaloa Cartel intensified in 2024 after cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada was kidnapped by Joaquín Guzmán López — one of El Chapo’s sons — flown to the United States on a private plane and taken into U.S. custody.
U.S. prosecutors accuse Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rucha Moya of colluding with the Chapitos on a drug trafficking conspiracy. Nine other current and former Sinaloa-based officials, including the mayor of Culiacán and a federal senator with the ruling Morena party, were also accused of drug trafficking in the same indictment that was unsealed in late April. Two former Sinaloa government cabinet ministers turned themselves in to U.S. authorities last month, but the eight other defendants, including Rocha, have not been detained by Mexican authorities, who have asked their U.S. counterparts for more proof.
Mexico News Daily
