A Mexican police officer stands guard at the site where a body was found lying on the side of a road in Culiacan, Sinaloa state, Mexico, early hours of Tuesday, May 20, 2025. Felix Marquez / AP

Thirteen suspected drug cartel members died Monday in a shootout with authorities in the troubled Mexican state of Sinaloa, officials said.

Another four suspects were arrested and nine people kidnapped by the gang were freed following the clash in Guasave, a municipality in the northwestern state, Security Secretary Omar Garcia Harfuch said in a social media post.

He said security personnel carrying out a patrol were attacked by gunmen hiding under a bridge, prompting officers to respond.

After the firefight the law enforcement officers also seized seven vehicles, high-powered weapons, and tactical equipment, Garcia Harfuch said.

Sinaloa has been rocked for more than a year by a conflict between factions of a powerful local cartel. The violence has left at least 1,700 people dead, 57 of them minors, and nearly 2,000 missing.

The cartel's internal war began after the capture of Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, the group's historical leader, who was betrayed and taken to the United States in July 2024 by a son of his former partner, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

Following their arrests and Zambada's allegations of kidnapping, horrific fighting erupted in Mexico between a cartel faction loyal to him and another tied to the "Chapitos," Guzmán's sons.

The Chapitos have used corkscrews and electrocution to torture their rivals while some of their victims were "fed dead or alive to tigers," according to an indictment released by the U.S. Justice Department.

In recent months, bodies have appeared across Sinaloa, often left slung out on the streets or in cars with either sombreros on their heads or pizza slices or boxes pegged onto them with knives. The pizzas and sombreros have become informal symbols for the warring cartel factions, underscoring the brutality of their warfare.

Last week, authorities said El Chapo's hometown was hit in attacks by explosive-laden drones.

El Chapo was sentenced to life plus 30 years and is serving time at a Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado. In 2023, the cartel leader sent an "SOS" through his lawyers to then-President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador for help due to alleged "psychological torment" he says he is suffering in prison

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