Gente Nueva
Members of Gente Nueva interrogating a man.
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| Founded | 2007 by Noel Salgueiro |
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| Founding location | Sonora, Mexico |
| Years active | 2007−2012 |
| Territory | Sinaloa, Mexicali, Chihuahua, Durango, |
| Ethnicity | Mexican |
| Criminal activities | Drug trafficking, kidnapping, extortion, murder |
| Allies | Sinaloa Cartel, Artistas Asesinos, Los Mexicles, Los Antrax |
| Rivals | Los Zetas, Juárez Cartel, Los Santos (gang), La Línea, Los Aztecas Los Caballeros Templarios |
Gente Nueva (English: New People), also known as Los Chapos, in reference to their drug lord Joaquín Guzmán Loera, is a group of hitmen that works as the armed wing of the Sinaloa Cartel, created to counter the Juárez Cartel influence in the Mexican north-west.
Since its foundation in 2007, Gente Nueva has served as the main branch of the organization in Ciudad Juárez and in the rest of the state, where they have engaged in a four-year war with the Juárez Cartel and its enforcer wing, La Línea, for the control of the smuggling routes to the United States. Amid the internal struggles and infightings in the Juárez cartel, Gente Nueva began to recruit the cartel's members.
By 2012, U.S. intelligence indicated that the Sinaloa cartel and Gente Nueva have emerged victorious and successfully relegated the Juárez cartel to the sidelines. The El Paso–Juárez corridor is a lucrative route for drug traffickers because the DEA estimates that about 70% of the cocaine that enters the United States flows through that area.
The war between the Juárez Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel for the control of the smuggling routes in Ciudad Juárez broke out on 5 January 2008, when five men were shot dead with AR-15s in a matter of hours; within a few days, several policemen and nearly two dozen civilians lay dead. The Juárez cartel used La Línea and Los Aztecas gang to fight off the forces of the Sinaloa cartel, which had employed the gangs known as Artistas Asesinos and Los Mexicles, along with its armed wing, Gente Nueva. The turf wars between them have left more than 10,000 dead in four years.
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Wikipedia