Among other Mexican cartels, the Zetas and the Sinaloa Cartel are now fighting over territories in Central America.
At the time, officials described him as a key figure in the Sinaloa cartel.
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Mr Salas was detained on Saturday near the town of Costa Rica in Sinaloa state.
The Sinaloa cartel commits unspeakable violence in Mexico and for years banked at HSBC.
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Manuel Clouthier died a year later in a car crash in his home state of Sinaloa.
He rejected suggestions that the authorities were losing control of security in Sinaloa, Efe news agency reported.
In July Ignacio Coronel, who was third in command of the Sinaloa mob, suffered a similar fate.
Security forces seized vehicles and weapons, including a high-powered rifle capable of penetrating armoured vehicles, Sinaloa state prosecutors said.
Traditional crime groups like Sinaloa were family-based, often deeply tied to a region.
The governor of Sinaloa state, Mario Lopez Valdez, said he believed the killings were "a message between rival drug gangs".
Patricia Gonzalez Rodriguez, who has denied the charges, asserted that her brother had been kidnapped by members of the Sinaloa cartel.
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Mexican prosecutors accuse Mr Salas of being the man tasked with guarding Joaquin Guzman, the fugitive leader of the Sinaloa cartel.
It is unclear if the informant who tipped the police off in February and the Sinaloa Cartel informant are the same person.
Local joke: How can you tell when times are tough in Sinaloa?
It is estimated that El Chapo controls at least 60, 000 square km (23, 000 square miles) of rugged mountains in Sinaloa and Durango.
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Sinaloa Governor Mario Lopez Valdez has not commented yet on the arrest.
The same, it seems, cannot be said of the inhabitants of Sinaloa.
Mexico's interior ministry, which put the number of dead at 17, condemned the violence and offered all assistance to the authorities in Sinaloa.
But since about 2008, the rival Sinaloa Cartel has been challenging the Juarez Cartel, including for control of Puerto Palomas, the records said.
Sinaloa, with its base in the eponymous Pacific Coast state and operations throughout Mexico and beyond, is the largest and probably the most stable.
The clash happened in Guasave in the north-western state of Sinaloa.
He is thought to be hiding in the Mexican Pacific coastal state of Sinaloa or the Sierra Madre mountains in the neighboring state of Durango.
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But when Alberto Beltran Leyva was arrested in January 2008, the alliance ended since it was revealed that the arrest happened because of a Sinaloa betrayal.
Earlier this month, an alleged senior figure in the Sinaloa cartel, Ovidio Limon Sanchez, was arrested in what authorities said was a major blow to the gang.
Friday's warning also specifies dangers and advises against nonessential travel in parts of the states of Durango, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Jalisco, San Luis Potosi, Sinaloa, Sonora and Zacatecas.
Last year, the governor of Sinaloa mistakenly announced that Mr Salas, who is also known as The Ghost, had been killed in a clash with the Navy.
Sergio Vega, known as El Shaka, was shot dead in 2010 in Sinaloa state, in western Mexico, just hours after he had denied reports of his own murder.
His influence, even his popularity, runs especially deep in Sinaloa.
Dr Aguilar, though, is less concerned with the details of the rules of the game, but with its social implications, both in Sinaloa today, and in Mesoamerica generally over the course of ulama's history.
The Mexican government recognizes seven cartels, but the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels are the major players along the U.S. border, according to the DEA agents, local police officials and security analysts who spoke with CNN.
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