A shocking incident in Chihuahua, Mexico, has exposed the grip of cartel power over law enforcement. According to leaked reports, ten state police officers were surrounded, abducted, and beaten by more than 80 Sinaloa Cartel gunmen before being released. The attack occurred on August 24, but Mexican officials attempted to suppress details until testimonies surfaced this week through El Diario de Juarez.
The officers reported that a convoy of 20 SUVs carrying heavily armed cartel members cornered them, seized their weapons, and held them for several hours. Government officials initially denied that the abduction took place, but testimony filed with the Chihuahua Attorney General’s Office contradicts those claims.
Two different accounts have emerged about what triggered the assault. In one version, officers had stopped a vehicle carrying the son of Ventura “El 35” Corral Felix, the leader of Gente Nueva Los Ventura, a Sinaloa Cartel armed wing designated by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization. Within minutes, dozens of gunmen surrounded the squad, overpowered them, and beat them as a warning before eventually returning their weapons and letting them go.
A second version suggests that Ventura Felix himself ordered the abduction in retaliation for another police unit allegedly stealing a cartel drug shipment from a tractor-trailer. According to this account, the beating was intended as a brutal message to law enforcement.
The incident highlights the ongoing impunity cartels enjoy in Mexico, where widespread corruption and weak enforcement leave police forces often outgunned and vulnerable. Meanwhile, U.S. officials continue to pressure Mexico to crack down on cartel operations that fuel the fentanyl and drug crisis devastating American communities.
