Omar Osvaldo Torres, leader of the Los Mayos faction of the Sinaloa criminal network, was detained in the raid.
Published on 19 March 2026
Mexican authorities have revealed that 11 people were killed during a raid to capture Omar Oswaldo Torres, a leader of a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel.
In a social media post Thursday, the Mexican Navy said the raid took place in Culiacan, part of Sinaloa state in northern Mexico.
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It alleged that its personnel were attacked at the raid site and 11 “attackers” were killed in retaliatory firing. Their identities have not yet been released to the public.
“High-powered weapons and tactical equipment were seized at the scene,” the Navy said in a statement.
The Navy said a woman identified as Torres’ daughter was also present during the operation, but was released to her family due to her lack of connection to criminal activity.
Torres, known by the nickname “El Patas”, is the leader of the Los Mayos faction of the Sinaloa Cartel.
In recent years, Los Mayos has been at war with another faction, Los Chapitos. Each side is named after a different Sinaloa Cartel leader: Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, both of whom have been arrested and jailed in the United States.
Thursday’s raids come as governments across Latin America try to deliver concrete results to US President Donald Trump in the fight against crime and drug trafficking.
This week, the Mexican government participated in a law enforcement operation with Ecuador and Colombia to arrest Angel Esteban Aguilar, the leader of the Los Lobos crime group.
Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera, also known as “El Mencho,” was killed in a separate Mexican military operation in Jalisco state last month.
Criminal groups responded with a surge of violence, including blockades and attacks on security forces posts across Mexico.
Critics have questioned the efficacy of the more militarized methods that Trump has pressured Latin American leaders to use against cartel leaders.
Capturing or killing cartel leaders is sometimes referred to as the “assassination strategy”, and this method is designed to weaken the structure of the criminal network.
But experts have warned that the “assassination strategy” risks increasing violence in the long run, as new conflicts emerge to fill the leadership void.
Many also point out that such militarized approaches fail to address the root causes of crime, including corruption and poverty.
Nevertheless, Trump has labeled groups such as the Sinaloa Cartel as “foreign terrorist organizations”, and has indicated that he would consider taking military action against such groups on Mexican soil, despite concerns that such actions would violate Mexican sovereignty.
Trump told a summit of Latin American leaders earlier this month that he considered Mexico the “epicenter” of cartel violence.
“We have to destroy them,” Trump said of the cartels. “We have to put an end to them because they’re getting worse. They’re taking over our country. Cartels are running Mexico. We can’t do that.”
Meanwhile, Mexican officials have called on the US to stem the flow of illegal weapons into Mexico, but to no avail.
Last year, the Supreme Court threw out a Mexican government lawsuit accusing American gun manufacturers of negligence after their products armed criminal networks in the Latin American country.
