El Chapo Guzman prison DEA cartel
© Daily MailGuzman (pictured) is currently being held at a maximum security prison in New York, where he is awaiting trial after his extradition to the United States last month
A series of photos appear to show drug cartel members preparing to fight in the absence of their recently arrested leader, Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman.

The pictures, published Monday by Mexican website Blog Del Narco, which often breaks cartel-related news, show people brandishing machine guns and setting them up inside vehicles. The author published them next to an account of the ongoing 'war' in Sinaloa, home to the cartel once led by Guzman.

Since Mexico's top drug kingpin was extradited, gunfights in broad daylight have rocked Sinaloa in a power struggle that is a reminder of how hard it is to crush the country's drug cartels.

The release of the photos comes after nine people died before the weekend in the border city of Reynosa in shootouts between gunmen and authorities.

Two confrontations occurred Friday in Reynosa, killing respectively two and three suspected cartel members as well as their taxi driver, the San Antonio Express-News reported.

Three other people died late the previous day during other confrontations, Tamaulipas state officials said. Reynosa is located in the state.
El Chapo Mexico cartel Sinaloa
© Daily MailThe image's release comes as broad daylight gunfights have rocked Sinaloa in a power struggle after El Chapo's extradition
Guzman is currently being held at a maximum security prison in New York, where he is awaiting trial after his extradition to the United States last month.

When leaders such as Guzman are taken out, others replace them or the cartels splinter. Either way, the flow of drugs to lucrative US markets is rarely interrupted for long.

As boss of the Sinaloa cartel, Guzman escaped from prison twice before Mexico's navy arrested him last year after a chase through city sewers.

In his absence, violence has flared. The Sinaloans, long the world's largest drug gang with a footprint across most of the US, appear to be facing both an internal power struggle and challenges from upstart rivals.

Last month, there were 116 homicides in Sinaloa, 50 per cent more than the same month in 2016, an official at the state attorney general's office told Reuters.

Shootouts in the state capital Culiacan resulted in 12 deaths over three days over last week alone, the office said in a statement. The state education ministry suspended classes in 148 schools on Wednesday last week, citing security issues.

A video obtained by Reuters from a Federal Police official showed a pick-up truck fitted with a mounted machine gun circling a gas station during a two-minute exchange of gunfire.
El Chapo
The Sinaloans, long the world's largest drug gang with a footprint across most of the US, appear to be facing both an internal power struggle and challenges from upstart rivals
The official said the footage was taken in Culiacan. Reuters could not independently verify that. Earlier, a Mexican marine and five other people were killed in clashes with a drug gang's armed convoy that was roaming the city.

Tomas Guevara, who studies crime at Sinaloa State University, attributed the outburst of violence to the breakdown of an alliance between factions, with Guzman's sons Alfredo and Ivan Archivaldo on one side and another leader, Damaso 'El Licenciado' Lopez, on the other.

Scott Stewart, vice president of tactical analysis at security consultancy Stratfor, said Chapo was out of touch now he was in a US jail.

'That seems to have emboldened "El Licenciado",' Stewart said.

After Guzman was extradited the night before Donald Trump's inauguration, former and current US Drug Enforcement Administration officials told Reuters they expected an imminent move on Chapo's sons by their rivals. A letter this week to a top Mexican journalist claimed they were injured in the latest violence.