![\"midas\"](\"https:\/\/hcsblogdotorg.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/03\/midas.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Mexican federal police and military units arrested<\/a> Juan Manuel \u00c1lvarez Inzunza, aka \u201cKing Midas,\u201d the alleged top money-launderer for the Sinaloa cartel of Joaqu\u00edn \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzm\u00e1n, on Sunday in the southern Mexican state\u00a0of Oaxaca.<\/p>\n \u00c1lvarez Inzunza, who was on vacation in Oaxaca when he was captured without violence, was arrested on a provisional extradition warrant<\/a> issued by the US, where he has been charged with money-laundering.<\/p>\n \u00c1lvarez Inzunza \u201cis linked with an international money-laundering network [operating] from cities like Tijuana, Culiac\u00e1n, or Guadalajara and linked with other nations, like Colombia, Panama, and the United States,\u201d the Mexican federal police said in a twitter post<\/a> announcing the capture.<\/p>\n The 34-year-old is suspected of operating money exchanges and cover businesses that laundered $300 million to $400 million a year for the Sinaloa cartel, operating primarily out of Sinaloa and Jalisco states on Mexico\u2019s west coast, processing<\/a> a total of around $4 billion over the last decade.<\/p>\n He is believed<\/a> to have run front companies purchased by third parties through money exchanges, and he is suspected<\/a> of involvement in a drug operation in Jalisco.<\/p>\n \u00c1lavarez Inzunza usually confined himself to his areas of operations in Sinaloa and Jalisco, but in recent days he had \u201crelaxed his circle of security\u201d in order to take a vacation in the capital city of Oaxaca state. This, according<\/a> to El Pa\u00eds, facilitated Mexican federal forces\u2019 efforts to capture him.<\/p>\n He was transferred from Oaxaca to Mexico City, where he is under the supervision<\/a> of the Mexican attorney general office\u2019s organized-crime division. Based on the warrant<\/a> issued by a US federal court, \u00c1lvarez Inzunza faces extradition.<\/p>\n \u00c1lvarez Inzunza\u2019s arrest is the latest in a series of blows to the Sinaloa cartel\u2019s ranks.<\/p>\n The organization\u2019s nominal leader, \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzm\u00e1n, was recaptured in early January after six months on the run<\/a>, and he too awaits likely extradition to the US. (How long his extradition will take<\/a>, though, is unclear<\/a>.)<\/p>\n At the end of January, 24 people suspected of being high-level Sinaloa cartel members werearrested in a covert US-Mexico law-enforcement operation<\/a> on the Arizona border.<\/p>\n On February 9, Guadalupe Fern\u00e1ndez Valencia, a 55-year-old woman suspected of being one of the Sinaloa cartel\u2019s top money managers, was arrested on the cartel\u2019s home turf<\/a> of Culiac\u00e1n in Sinaloa state. She had been designated a \u201cForeign Narcotics Kingpin\u201d by the US Treasury Department.<\/p>\n \u00c1lvarez Inzunza’s arrest also came just a day after police in Sonora state, which borders the US,captured Raul Beltran Quintero<\/a>, the Sinaloa cartel\u2019s boss in the state, along with eight suspected members of the organization. They were detained with eight handguns, ammunition, and two vehicles that had been stolen in the US.<\/p>\n While the Sinaloa cartel is generally regarded as the most powerful criminal organization<\/a> in the Western Hemisphere, if not the world, it is believed to operate as a group\u00a0of aligned factions, rather than a centralized, hierarchical organization.<\/p>\n This structure \u2014 along with the fact that two other top leaders, Ismael \u201cEl Mayo\u201d Zambada and\u00a0Juan Jos\u00e9 Esparragoza Moreno, aka “El Azul,”\u00a0remain free<\/a>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0make it hard to judge just how much damage the capture of any one person does to the Sinaloa cartel as a whole.<\/p>\n![\"Mexico](\"http:\/\/static1.businessinsider.com\/image\/56f961f39105844d018b924a-928-679\/screen%20shot%202016-03-28%20at%2012.53.01%20pm.png\")
Google Maps<\/span>Juan Manuel \u00c1lvarez Inzunza’s capture in Oaxaca was well south of his suspected areas of operation in Sinaloa and Jalisco states.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\nPersonnel problems<\/h2>\n
![\"Joaquin](\"http:\/\/static1.businessinsider.com\/image\/56da37cb5124c933118b4567-800-533\/family-and-lawyers-protest-treatment-of-mexican-kingpin-guzman-2016-3.jpg\")
Thomson Reuters<\/span>Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is escorted by soldiers during a presentation at the hangar belonging to the office of the Attorney General in Mexico City<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n![\"el](\"http:\/\/static4.businessinsider.com\/image\/56757d7e72f2c1dd038b6e3a-883-524\/screen%20shot%202015-12-19%20at%2010.52.39%20am.png\")
InSight Crime<\/a><\/span>A photo believed to show Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n