The US has identified Isel Súñiga, daughter of the former mayor of Ayutla, as the leader of the criminal organization involved in cocaine trafficking.
In order to traffic drugs from Central America to the United States (US), the Sinaloa Cartel has forged links with criminal groups in other countries that help them operate internationally. Among their foreign collaborators are “Los Pochos,” a criminal group from Guatemala that has received support from local authorities.
Los Pochos is identified as an organization dedicated to trafficking cocaine from Guatemala to the US, which uses Mexico as a staging ground. Its name derives from the alias of its leader: Erik Salvador Súñiga Rodríguez, better known as “Pocho.
Erik served as mayor of Ayutla from 2008 to 2019, during which time he formed ties with the Sinaloa Cartel. Thanks to his political position, he used corrupt judicial officials to carry out his criminal operations. As a result, in 2018 the Eastern District of Texas filed charges against ‘Pocho’.
Erik decided to turn himself in to Guatemalan authorities and in December 2019 he was extradited to the US, where he died of cancer in April 2020. After his death, the leadership of Los Pochos passed into the hands of his daughter Isel Anel Súñiga Morfín, who represented Guatemala in the Miss Universe pageant in 2017, when she was 23 years old, before assuming the mayoralty of Ayutla.
Initially, Isel shared the leadership of Los Pochos with her partner Juan José Morales Cifuentes, alias ‘Pancho’. However, he was arrested in December 2023 on the main boulevard of Ciudad San Cristobal, zone 8 of Mixco. On May 16, he was extradited to the US, as he is also wanted by the Eastern District of Texas.
Links between Los Pochos and the Sinaloa Cartel
Reports from the US Department of Justice indicate the relationship between Los Pochos and the so-called Pacific Cartel. Their connection has to do with cocaine arriving in the United States.
Los Pochos are in charge of controlling the passage of drugs through the department of San Marcos, in addition to controlling the routes that connect that area with the border between Guatemala and Mexico, through the state of Chiapas. Their operations include Ayutla and the city of Tecún Umán.
Its links to the Sinaloa Cartel are mainly through drug storage and supply. According to the US justice system, Mexican drug traffickers pay a kind of “tax” to Los Pochos to store cocaine in the border cities of San Marcos and Tecún Umán.
“The organization purchases approximately 4,000 kilograms of cocaine per month, totaling approximately 48,000 kilograms per year, and is responsible for supplying multiple high-level Guatemalan and Mexican drug traffickers, including leaders of Mexican-based cartels,” reads one of the Justice Department reports.
The Sinaloa Cartel leaders who receive cocaine from Los Pochos enjoy a transportation infrastructure to get the drug shipments to consumers in the US, such as in the state of Texas.
Although the two main leaders of Los Pochos (Salvador Súñiga and Juan José Morales) no longer operate for the organization, Isel is allegedly using his political influence to continue his illicit business, in collusion with Guatemalan officials, police, military and prosecutors.