Welcome to Culiacán: ‘El Gavilán’

This was how 'El Gavilán' announced his new position within the Cartel: the new plaza boss of Culiacán.

CULIACÁN, Sinaloa.— "Welcome to Culiacán," read the message spray-painted in black on the white paint of a van left on the outskirts of the capital of Sinaloa. Inside were eight bodies, all male, young, no older than 35. Tortured and shot to death. All tied up with adhesive tape.

This was how 'El Gavilán' announced his new position within the Cartel: the new plaza boss of Culiacán.

'El Gavilán,' whose real name is unknown, is a young hitman working for the Los Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa Cartel, more specifically under Iván Archivaldo Guzmán, the eldest son of the drug lord 'El Chapo' Guzmán, and now the head of his own faction.

"And to work for Don Iván, I'm part of El Chapo Guzmán's people, don't push me or I might get mad, let me introduce myself, I'm El Gavilán," says the most popular ballad about El Gavilán sung by the famous Peso Pluma.

'El Gavilán,' along with his brother, both notably tall—over 1.80 meters— and his right hand known as ‘El Toner’, rose through the ranks of Los Chapitos' hitmen after protecting Kevin Alonso Gil, known as 'El 200,' and his brother, Karim Elias Gil, 'El 300.’