War between factions in Mexico puts influencers in the crosshairs of crime

One of the most recent cases in this war involves Mexican-American influencer Nicole Pardo, 20, kidnapped by armed men in Culiacán, a stronghold of the Sinaloa Cartel. The investigation points out that the kidnapping may be linked to the dispute between the two main factions of the criminal organization: Los Chapitos, led by the sons of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, and La Mayiza, linked to the group of the founder of the Sinaloa Cartel Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.

According to the Spanish newspaper The Countryshe opened a clothing business associated with drug trafficking. Some of the merchandise had the image of one of the founders of the Sinaloa Cartel, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. The area where she and her family lived, however, was controlled by La Mayiza.

Nicole was rescued alive. While she was still in captivity, a video surfaced in which she claimed that she worked for the La Mayiza faction. The recording reinforced the hypothesis that the kidnapping was related to the war between rival groups of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Nicole’s case is part of a series of recent threats and murders against “narco-influencers” in Mexico.

In January, an unknown helicopter dropped thousands of leaflets over Culiacán, capital of the Mexican state of Sinaloa, accusing content creators and musicians of “serving organized crime.”

The flyers displayed the faces of at least 25 people. In four of them, the word “ELIMINATED” appeared stamped on the photo, indicating that they had already been killed. Among the other names was Grammy-winning Mexican singer Peso Pluma. Since then, at least nine other targets on the list have been murdered, according to the Mexican press.

How the parallel war began

This new method of action by criminals gained strength after the capture of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, one of the founders of the Sinaloa Cartel alongside “El Chapo”, by American authorities. He was detained after a small plane landed in Texas in July 2024.

At the time, “El Mayo” accused one of El Chapo’s sons of betraying him and handing him over to the US. Since then, La Mayiza, a group linked to El Mayo and led by his son, has been at war with another faction of the cartel led by two of El Chapo’s sons, known as “Los Chapitos”.

Markitos Toys, a 26-year-old influencer, was one of the best-known names included in flyers distributed in January. He built an audience on social media by showcasing sports cars, designer clothes and a lavish lifestyle. Over time, he became associated with the Los Chapitos faction.

The content creator is part of a list of 64 influencers from Sinaloa investigated by Mexico’s Financial Intelligence Unit. The suspicion is that criminal groups have artificially inflated their numbers on social networks to increase the monetization of accounts and use this revenue as part of a money laundering and propaganda scheme for cartel factions. Markitos Toys denies the allegations.

Organized crime uses social networks to recruit teenagers

In addition to facilitating money laundering, social networks have become a lever for these criminals to recruit new members, through displaying a life of ostentation.

Followers end up attracted to the luxurious life artificially recorded in these profiles, without users really knowing the origin of all the money involved in these performances.

According to a special report in the newspaper The Guardian On this topic, criminals select influencers to show a certain lifestyle and mask the discourse about organized crime with aspirational terms, which ends up attracting the attention of mainly teenagers.