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The sun is burning in the morning sky, the heat is intense, the humidity suffocating.

Flies buzz around our sweating brows as we peer down a dirt road, past heavily armed soldiers and their yellow crime scene tape flickering in the breeze.

It’s the latest crime scene, a double murder, two men found after dawn on an innocuous side road in a residential area of the city of Culiacan, in western Mexico.

The scene of a double murder in Culiacan. Pic: Sky News
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The scene of a double murder in Culiacan. Pic: Sky News

There are many gang-related murders in Mexico every day, but this is different.

We are in the headquarter city of the Sinaloa drug cartel, arguably the most powerful crime gang in this country of cartels, and this isn’t a random gang killing, these are the latest murders in a war between two of the cartel’s leading factions – a war that could spread across this country and spill over the border into the United States.

This is a fight to the death over control of a business whose tentacles spread around the world.

The brutality, power, wealth and influence of the Mexican drug cartels are well-documented and even immortalised in fictional and factual films.

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The bullet-riddle armoured vehicle abandoned by a cartel gunman. Pic: Sky News
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Pic: Sky News

The bullet-riddle armoured vehicle abandoned by a cartel gunman. Pic: Sky News
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The bullet-riddle armoured vehicle abandoned by a cartel gunman. Pic: Sky News

Perhaps the most famous of all the many cartels here is the Sinaloa cartel, led by Joachim El Chapo Guzman, now incarcerated in a United States prison where he will likely be for the rest of his life.

But the Sinaloa cartel is currently engaged in a brutal internal war between its two main crime families – those loyal to El Chapo, and those who support his former partner-in-crime, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.

Zambada was abducted in Mexico by one of El Chapo’s sons and flown to the United States in July. He was then handed over to the authorities, and Chapo’s son turned himself in.

It was the ultimate betrayal. And would always end as it has, with a war between the crime families.

Deserted streets in Culiacan, a city ravaged by gang war. Pic: Sky News
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Deserted streets in Culiacan, a city ravaged by gang war. Pic: Sky News

I’ve come to Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, and the headquarters of the cartel, to assess what might happen here in the coming days, weeks, months and even years as the families battle for control of this multi-billion-dollar business synonymous with efficiency, and cold-blooded execution of this business model.

I found myself at the latest crime scene, a double murder, another cartel gang killing. It is daily now.

A heavily armed column of state police rumbles through the streets in a neighbourhood in the city’s east. They’re providing extra security around the crime scene.

A convoy of armed state police in Culiacan, Sinaloa. Pic: Sky News
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A convoy of armed state police in Culiacan, Sinaloa. Pic: Sky News

The type of weaponry and armour the police are using is the type of thing you see in wars. The army is here too, guarding the perimeter.

On a small dirt road lie the bodies of two men who were found at daybreak. They are face down, next to each other. One of the men’s arms has been placed around the other, both are barefoot.

One of them has a small blanket across his body, and a green plastic bag covering his face. Children’s toys have been placed on top of them.

Why they were killed isn’t known. And why whoever killed them decided to leave them in this position is also unclear.

Sinaloa state police in Culiacan. Pic: Sky News
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Sinaloa state police in Culiacan. Pic: Sky News

But people are being murdered across Culiacan every day as this gang war intensifies. And many times, at these crime scenes, the killers will leave a message – in this case, the toys.

A group of women, clearly upset, arrive at the scene. The two dead men haven’t been identified yet, but the police say the women could be family, or they could have missing relatives, and they’ve come to see if it’s them.

This level of brutality hasn’t been seen for years in Culiacan.

The Sinaloa State Police commander in charge of the scene tells me that when the violence flares up, everyone across this city, this state, and even further afield is affected.

Sinaloa state police at the scene where two men's bodies were discovered in Culiacan. Pic: Sky News
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Sinaloa state police at the scene where two men’s bodies were discovered in Culiacan. Pic: Sky News

“Whenever there are high-impact violent events, and they are generalised in the city or in different parts of the State, it is very possible that there will be social and economic impacts,” Commander Jacobo Guerrero said.

“Because businesses close, people can’t go out, and there are impacts of that nature.”

Forensic officers arrive, painstakingly assess the scene of the crime. They inspect the bodies, photograph them, and try to ascertain how the men were killed.

Eventually the bodies are zipped into bags, loaded into a white van, and taken away.

Two more murder investigations added to a growing list.

Driving around the city, the first thing I notice is the streets of Culiacan are virtually deserted. The main roads are empty of vehicles and people, and shops and businesses are shuttered.

Police at a crime scene in Culiacan. Pic: Sky News
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Police at a crime scene in Culiacan. Pic: Sky News

Sinaloa state police in Culiacan. Pic: Sky News
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Sinaloa state police in Culiacan. Pic: Sky News

People are too scared to go out – it’s as simple as that. And many of them tell me it’s quieter now than even at the height of the COVID pandemic.

I’ve reported on the Sinaloa cartel and its activities for over a decade. The cartel is actually a conglomeration of different crime families and crime gangs.

Sometimes those involved are happy to talk, but getting access is extremely hard, and we had to exploit our contacts and history of reporting from here to arrange a meeting in Culiacan.

We were allotted a time and a place to meet a cartel “sicario”, a hitman, senior enough to speak for his leadership.

Forensics officers collect evidence at the scene of a deadly cartel battle in which a soldier was killed. Pic: Sky News
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Forensics officers collect evidence at the scene of a deadly cartel battle in which a soldier was killed. Pic: Sky News

He ushered me into a house in a dimly lit street, past their ferocious dogs snapping at us through iron-bars of security gates. Inside he explained we were in a safe house for the “sicarios” where they plan their hits on rival gang members.

The man, who called himself Tony, was originally a member of the Chapo crime family, but he says they were taking such a large cut from his drug smuggling business that he decided to join the Mayo family because they’re more fair.

“To be honest, the entire problem, the problem here in Sinaloa has been extortion – charging people to work, charging shops, not letting people work freely,” he explained to me.

“I mean, when I started working in the cartel, I could do my job freely, and right now I can’t work or I have to pay 80% to work. They’re making me pay to work, I have to pay to work in the cartel.”

We were joined by another masked sicario, who didn’t give a name – false or otherwise.

Members of a faction in the warring Sinaloa cartel. Pic: Sky News
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Members of a faction in the warring Sinaloa cartel. Pic: Sky News

What was clear from the start is that they consider themselves caught up in war that would cost the lives of many, even their own.

“No one is indispensable in this business, in this business one person is killed and there is another one ready to take their place,” the second man told me.

They both insist that this could go on for one, two, or even three years. And that until the score is settled, it simply won’t end.

“Tony” says that Chapo’s faction has around 2,000 to 3,000 people, and that Mayo’s has around 5,000 to 6,000.

“This will end… when there is only one side left, one of them has to emerge as the winner,” he added.

The two crime families may count their available gunmen in the thousands, they may be loyal, but they are also considered utterly expendable by their crime bosses. And the attrition rate in a war like this is horrendous.

In such times, abducting innocent young men and forcing them to fight is, we are told, becoming common.

Shortly after arriving in Culiacan, the son of a famous local journalist was abducted with two of his friends, by the cartel.

The journalist feared he had lost his son for good, and immediately contacted news organisations here in Sinaloa, and the authorities begging for help.

It seems that pressure was applied on the cartel, and the son was released within a day. He was fortunate, to say the least. Very few others would be, indeed his two friends are still missing.

I asked “Tony” and his colleague about this practice, and they confirmed it was happening, unsurprisingly perhaps, claiming their faction were not involved and blaming it on the Chapos.

Read more
Deadly Sinaloa Cartel turf war forces schools to shut as national day festivities axed
El Chapo’s son ‘duped alleged cartel boss into flying to US before their arrests’

“That’s right, we know about this, we know this is happening and it is a shame, things should not be like this, but things happen for a reason, these are things that have to happen,” he replied.

“You need to take care of yourself, know the person you’re with and whose side you are on.”

An expert on the activities of the Sinaloa cartel is author and journalist, Miguel Angel Vega, who is from Culiacan. I have known him for a decade, and we have worked closely on many occasions.

We talked about recent developments in his home city.

“This will not end because this is a ferocious market, and a lot of money is involved, and people keep coming,” he said.

“If someone is arrested or killed, someone else will step in, and they will take power, and I don’t think this will end, this will continue, definitely.”

Members of the public look on as police survey the scene of a double murder in Culiacan. Pic: Sky News
Image:
Members of the public look on as police survey the scene of a double murder in Culiacan. Pic: Sky News

He told me he had never seen anything like the internal war that is developing here, and gave a stark warning that there could be unprecedented violence still to come.

“Under new leadership, new management, the whole thing, that means blood – people are going to die. Every time there is change people die,” Vega said.

“And I don’t mean just gunmen shooting each other, but also society, collateral damage, and that is the situation we fear here.”

Sometimes the security forces themselves get caught in the middle.

The morning we arrived, a military convoy had just been engaged by a convoy of cartel men travelling through town in four armoured vehicles. It’s unclear who fired first, but a firefight broke out between the two convoys.

The cartel gunmen abandoned one of their armoured vehicles – it’s windscreen and body riddled with bullets.

An investigator photographs a crime scene in Culiacan. Pic: Sky News
Image:
An investigator photographs a crime scene in Culiacan. Pic: Sky News

A soldier was killed in the battle. I watched on as investigators photographed his weapons, still visible on the road where he died.

Another murder scene.

Another forensic investigation.

Documenting a cycle of violence with no obvious end in sight.

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Meredith Kercher’s killer faces new trial over sexual assault allegations

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Meredith Kercher's killer faces new trial over sexual assault allegations

The man convicted of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher has been charged with sexual assault against an ex-girlfriend.

Rudy Guede, 38, was the only person who was definitively convicted of the murder of 21-year-old Ms Kercher in Perugia, Italy, back in 2007.

He will be standing trial again in November after an ex-girlfriend filed a police report in the summer of 2023 accusing Guede of mistreatment, personal injury and sexual violence.

Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was released from prison for the murder of Leeds University student Ms Kercher in 2021, after having served about 13 years of a 16-year sentence.

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Since last year – when this investigation was still ongoing – Guede has been under a “special surveillance” regime, Sky News understands, meaning he was banned from having any contact with the woman behind the sexual assault allegations, including via social media, and had to inform police any time he left his city of residence, Viterbo, as ruled by a Rome court.

Guede has been serving a restraining order and fitted with an electronic ankle tag.

The Kercher murder case, in the university city of Perugia, was the subject of international attention.

Ms Kercher, a 21-year-old British exchange student, was found murdered in the flat she shared with her American roommate, Amanda Knox.

The Briton’s throat had been cut and she had been stabbed 47 times.

(L-R) Raffaele Sollecito, Meredith Kercher and Amanda Knox. Pic: AP
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(L-R) Raffaele Sollecito, Meredith Kercher and Amanda Knox. File pic: AP

Ms Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were placed under suspicion.

Both were initially convicted of murder, but Italy’s highest court overturned their convictions, acquitting them in 2015.

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IDF blames ‘technical error’ after Gaza officials say children collecting water killed in strike

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IDF blames 'technical error' after Gaza officials say children collecting water killed in strike

The Israeli military says it missed its intended target after Gaza officials said 10 Palestinians – including six children – were killed in a strike at a water collection point.

Another 17 people were wounded in the strike on a water distribution point in Nuseirat refugee camp, said Ahmed Abu Saifan, an emergency physician at Al Awda Hospital.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it had intended to hit an Islamic Jihad militant but a “technical error with the munition” had caused the missile to fall “dozens of metres from the target”.

The IDF said the incident is under review, adding that it “works to mitigate harm to uninvolved civilians as much as possible” and “regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians”.

A wounded child is treated after the strike on the water collection point. Pic: Reuters
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A wounded child is treated after the strike on the water collection point. Pic: Reuters

Officials at Al Awda Hospital said it received 10 bodies after the Israeli strike on the water collection point and six children were among the dead.

Ramadan Nassar, who lives in the area, said around 20 children and 14 adults were lined up Sunday morning to fill up water.

When the strike occurred, everyone ran and some, including those who were severely injured, fell to the ground, he said.

Blood stains are seen on containers at the water collection point. Pic: Reuters
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Blood stains are seen on containers at the water collection point. Pic: Reuters

In total, 19 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, local health officials said.

Two women and three children were among nine killed after an Israeli strike on a home in the central town of Zawaida, officials at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said.

Israel has claimed it hit more than 150 targets in the besieged enclave in the past day.

The latest strikes come after the Israel military opened fire near an aid centre in Rafah on Saturday. The Red Cross said 31 people were killed.

The IDF has said it fired “warning shots” near the aid distribution site but it was “not aware of injured individuals” as a result.

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Palestinians shot while seeking aid, says paramedic

The war in Gaza started in response to Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 people and saw about 250 taken hostage.

More than 58,000 Palestinians have since been killed, with more than half being women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.

Read more:
Palestinians shot while seeking aid, says paramedic

Dozens of MPs call for UK to recognise Palestine as state

US President Donald Trump has said he is closing in on another ceasefire agreement that would see more hostages released and potentially wind down the war.

But after two days of talks this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there were no signs of a breakthrough, as a new sticking point emerged over the deployment of Israeli troops during the truce.

Hamas still holds 50 hostages, with fewer than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

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‘At least 59 killed’ in Gaza after Israeli military opens fire near aid centre and carries out strikes

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'At least 59 killed' in Gaza after Israeli military opens fire near aid centre and carries out strikes

At least 59 Palestinians have reportedly been killed after the Israeli military opened fire near an aid centre in Gaza and carried out strikes across the territory.

The Red Cross, which operates a field hospital in Rafah, said 25 people were “declared dead upon arrival” and “six more died after admittance” following gunfire near an aid distribution centre in the southern Gazan city.

The humanitarian organisation added that it also received 132 patients “suffering from weapon-related injuries” after the incident.

The Red Cross said: “The overwhelming majority of these patients sustained gunshot wounds, and all responsive individuals reported they were attempting to access food distribution sites.”

The organisation said the number of deaths marks the hospital’s “largest influx of fatalities” since it began operations in May last year.

The IDF has said it fired “warning shots” near the aid distribution site but it was “not aware of injured individuals” as a result.

It said in a statement: “Earlier today, several suspects were identified approaching IDF troops operating in the Rafah area, posing a threat to the troops, hundreds of metres from the aid distribution site.

“IDF troops operated in order to prevent the suspects from approaching them and fired warning shots.”

Palestinians mourn a loved one following the incident near the aid centre. Pic: Reuters
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Palestinians mourn a loved one following the incident near the aid centre. Pic: Reuters

Mother’s despair over shooting

Somia Alshaar told Sky News her 17-year-old son Nasir was shot dead while visiting the aid centre after she told him not to go.

She said: “He went to get us tahini so we could eat.

“He went to get flour. He told me ‘mama, we don’t have tahini. Today I’ll bring you flour. Even if it kills me, I will get you flour’.

“He left the house and didn’t return. They told me at the hospital: your son…’Oh God, oh Lord’.”

Asked where her son was shot, she replied: “In the chest. Yes, in the chest.”

Somia Alshaar, pictured with her daughter, says her son was shot dead. Pic: Reuters
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Somia Alshaar, pictured with her daughter, says her son was shot dead. Pic: Reuters

‘A policy of mass murder’

Hassan Omran, a paramedic with Gaza’s ministry of health, told Sky News after the incident that humanitarian aid centres in Gaza are now “centres of mass death”.

Speaking in Khan Younis, he said: “Today, there were more than 150 injuries and more than 20 martyrs at the aid distribution centres… the Israeli occupation deliberately kills and commits genocide. The Israeli occupation is carrying out a policy of mass murder.

“They call people to come get their daily food, and then, when citizens arrive at these centres, they are killed in cold blood.

“All the victims have gunshot wounds to the head and chest, meaning the enemy is committing these crimes deliberately.”

Israel has rejected genocide accusations and denies targeting civilians.

Boys cry following the incident near the Rafah aid centre. Pic: Reuters
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Two boys mourn their brother at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Pic: Reuters

‘Lies being peddled’

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the controversial US and Israeli-backed group which operates the distribution centre near Rafah, said: “Hamas is claiming there was violence at our aid distribution sites today. False.

“Once again, there were no incidents at or in the immediate vicinity of our sites.

“But that’s not stopping some from spreading the lies being peddled by ‘officials’ at the Hamas-controlled Nasser Hospital.”

The Red Cross said its field hospital in Rafah has recorded more than 250 fatalities and treated more than 3,400 “weapon-wounded patients” since new food distribution sites were set up in Gaza on 27 May.

Read more:
‘At least 798 killed’ at Gaza aid points
’10 children killed’ waiting for Gaza health clinic to open
Israel says permanent ceasefire ‘questionable’

Palestinians inspect the wreckage of a gas station destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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Palestinians inspect the wreckage after an Israeli airstrike in Deir al Balah. Pic: AP

It comes after four children and two women were among at least 13 people who died in Deir al Balah, in central Gaza, after Israeli strikes pounded the area starting late on Friday, officials in Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the territory said.

Fifteen others died in Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, according to Nasser Hospital.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not responded to a request for comment on the reported deaths.

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Israeli has been carrying out attacks in Gaza since Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages on 7 October 2023.

Hamas still holds 50 hostages, with fewer than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.

US President Donald Trump has said he is closing in on another ceasefire agreement that would see more hostages released and potentially wind down the war.

But after two days of talks this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there were no signs of a breakthrough.

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The latest fatalities in Gaza comes as a 20-year-old Palestinian-American man was beaten to death by settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Friday, the Palestinian Health ministry said.

Sayafollah Musallet, also known as Saif, was killed during a confrontation between Palestinians and settlers in Sinjil, north of Ramallah, the ministry said.

A second man, Hussein Al-Shalabi, 23, died after being shot in the chest.

Mr Musallet’s family, from Tampa Florida, has called on the US State Department to lead an “immediate investigation”.

A State Department spokesperson said it was aware of the incident but it had no further comment “out of respect for the privacy of the family and loved ones” of the reported victim.

The Israeli military said the confrontation broke out after Palestinians threw rocks at Israelis, lightly injuring them.

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