Cartel feud sparks kidnapping and murder of Mexican engineer and Canadian miners

On Jan. 23, 2024, armed men, allegedly aligned with a Sinaloa cartel faction, stormed the gated compound of Vizsla Silver Corp. in Concordia, Sinaloa and seized ten Canadian mining workers. The same morning, 26‑year‑old engineer Pablo Osorio Sánchez was kidnapped and later killed in the same town.

Sánchez’s family says his last phone call ended abruptly. About two weeks later, federal authorities located his body in a clandestine grave called “fosa 2” in the village of El Verde. That grave also held the remains of nine of the ten kidnapped workers.

The attacks occurred amid a more than two‑year‑long civil war within the Sinaloa cartel, pitting the La Chapiza faction – loyal to the sons of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán – against the La Mayiza faction, aligned with the son of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambado.

Federal authorities have arrested three La Chapiza members – Gabriel “El Gabito” Martínez Larios, Angel “El Tronco” Gabriel and Milton Yair – for their role in the Vizsla Silver kidnapping.

The case shows that fights inside a drug cartel can quickly affect ordinary people, turning towns into danger zones for locals and foreign workers alike.

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