Al Jazeera Podcasts.

Today, a cartel war in northern Mexico.

It's the worst violence in 15 years in a city known as the cartels epicenter.

The arrest of a top drug lord has resulted in bodies dumped on the street and hundreds dead.

With a new president in charge, what can be done to save lives?

I'm Malika Bilal and this is The Take.

I'm John Holman.

I'm a correspondent for Al-Dazir English, and I'm based in Mexico.

Well, John, welcome back.

I've talked to you many times over the years for this podcast, and you often report on people in pretty

precarious situations and dangerous conditions. And this story out of Northwest Mexico is no different,

except it also adds betrayal, questions of loyalty, and bodies on the street.

The attacks between the two fighting factions are taking place mostly at night, and so every

morning right now, the city is waking up to scenes like this one, bodies dumped in the street.

So take us to Kuliyakan, the capital of Senaloa State. What is it like usually and what does it look and feel like now?

It's the epicenter, really, of what's often referred to as a Sinolawa cartel. This is really a collection of different organized crime outfits, usually family-orientated, that together form a sort of loose

coalition, a federation. And Kulikand, the city itself, it's the capital of the state, but it's also

the capital of the Sinolaura cartel. It's a place that I've been to quite a lot of times,

and I usually look forward to the trips.

It's got great seafood tacos of prawns, of octopus, good savici, lots of cold beer,

a real sort of party town in its way, with a lot going on in there, some of it legal and some of it not.

This time round was very different.

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