Mexican Drug Cartels: Part 1 of 5 Part Series

UPDATED 11/4/2010 - Thank you to one of our readers for pointing out some issues regarding the New Federation. We were working off of an old document. Much appreciated.
Much has been talked about in the news over the last several months in regards to the Mexican Drug Cartels. What sits in most peoples minds is the astronomical murder rate that is attributed to these organizations, inside Mexico and her in the United States.

The Mexican Drug Cartels are broken down into 6 distinct groups, bound currently into two loose alliances.

New Federation Alliance

1. Sinaloa Cartel has operations in 17 states, and is lead by Joaquin Guzman Loera “El Chapo”. This Cartel created the two enforcer gangs Negros and Pelonies in direct response to the Gulf Cartel’s Los Zetas.
2. La Familia Michoacana Cartel - based in the state of Michoacan. the current leader of the Cartel is Nazario Moreno Gonzalez "The Craziest One".
3. Gulf Cartel based in Tamaulipas has operations in 13 states. The leader Osiel Ordenas Guillien who is incarcerated is rumored to still control the Cartel. The Gulf Cartel used to use Los Zetas as an enforcement arm, but no longer do as Los Zetas have branched out into their own organization.

 Rival Alliance

1. Juarez Cartel, , based in Chihuahua has operations in 21 states and is the Largest of all the Cartels.  
2. Tijuana Cartel, based in Baja California is led by the Arellana Felix family and has operations in 15 states. This cartel is considered one of the strongest and deadliest.
3. Los Zetas, now considered its own cartel, their paramilitary training and ruthlessness is beyond compare.
4. Beltran Leyva Cartel - a organization founded by four brothers: Marcos Arturo, Carlos, Alfredo and Hector. Formerly allied with eh Sinaloa Cartel they are now allied with Los Zetas.

Of particular interest is that these groups will work together in certain areas of Mexico and the United States and they have created an organization called the New Federation. The New Federation is made up of the Sinaloa, Gulf and La Familia Michoacana Cartels.

In direct response to the New Federation the Juarez, Tijuana, Los Zetas and Beltran Leyva have formed an alliance.

Although the Cartels have agreed to work together on specific things they remain independent organizations.

Mexico is a major drug producing and transit country and is the main foreign supplier of marijuana as well as a major supplier of methamphetamine to the United States.

Although the Mexican Cartels have existed for many years, they have become more powerful as the Medellin and Cali Cartels in Colombia began to fall apart. The Mexican Cartels realized the immense profits they could make by cutting out the Colombian cartels.

According to the National Drug Intelligence Center they now consider the Mexican drug cartels as dominating the U.S. illicit drug market. The Mexican drug cartels use well established overland transportation networks to transport cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine and heroin to drug markets throughout the United States.

Although the Colombians still control South American cocaine and heroin smuggling to the eastern United States their role has diminished rapidly as the Mexican Cartels expand.

The DEA believes that the Mexican cartels now have command and control over the drug trade and are starting to show the hallmarks of organized crime, such as organizing into distinct cells with subordinate cells that operate throughout the U.S. Because the Mexican cartels dominate the U.S. illicit drug market they are the leading wholesale launderers of drug money from the U.S.

Mexican cartels produced methamphetamine and marijuana in the United States and have long grown marijuana in the U.S. often on federal land in California. Many of these operations are increasingly being found to have linked up running very large grow operations across the country.

As they groups continue to expand they are found to be involved with prison and street gangs in the United States. This was in an effort to facilitate their drug trafficking as well as dominate wholesale drug distribution. In 2006 the National Drug Intelligence Center reported that gangs such as the Latin Kings and Mara Salvatrucha buy methamphetamine from Mexican drug cartels for distribution in the southwestern United Sates. The FBI says the Mexican cartels focus on the wholesale distribution, leaving retail sales of illicit drugs to the street gangs. They cartels also work with multiple gangs, not picking sides in the U.S. gang conflicts.

In addition to drug trafficking, the Mexican Cartels have connections to both human trafficking and arms trafficking as well as auto theft and kidnapping. The Mexican drug traffickers smuggle money back into Mexico in cars and trucks, likely due to the effectiveness of the U.S. efforts at monitoring electronic money transfers.

The Mexican drug cartels are now operating in over 200 cities in the United States. Currently from January 2007 to the printing of this series there have been 9, 728 murders attributed to the Mexican Drug Cartel drug war.

Coming 11/5/2010 NEXT: Part 2: The Enforcer Gangs