THE CARTELS
SINALOA
According to the US Central Intelligence Agency, the Sinaloa Cartel – also known as “The Federation” and the “Blood Alliance” – is the most powerful drug trafficking organisation in the western hemisphere, and operates primarily in the northwest of the country. Founded in the late 1980s, it has forged a reputation for brutality and is currently engaged in a bloody turf war with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) in Mexico and Colombia. Most experts believe Sinaloa is now more powerful than the Medellin Cartel from Colombia.
GULF
One of the oldest of the drug gangs, the Gulf Cartel has been active since the 1930s, and as well as recruiting a private mercenary army to protect its interests, is heavily implicated in political corruption and bribery. Its leader from the 1970s, Juan Garcia Abrego, was the first Mexican drug lord to feature on the FBI’S Ten Most Wanted List before his arrest in 1996. Recent years have seen the cartel weakened by internal fighting, but it has survived, and is also involved in protection rackets, extortion and kidnapping.
LOS ZETAS
Originally a group of more than 30 corrupt Mexico special forces soldiers deployed as hired muscle by the Gulf Cartel, Los Zetas went independent in 2010. The group is notorious for decapitating rivals and was behind the infamous San Fernando Massacre of 2011, in which they brutally murdered 193 people and buried the victims in unmarked graves. Their criminal network extends from Mexico to Central America, the US and Europe, and as well as narcotics, they are connected with human trafficking and oil pipeline theft.
JUAREZ
Based in the northern state of Chihuahua, the cartel controls the routes into the US via Texas. Its armed wing is known as “La Linea”, a mix of street gangs and corrupt state police officers, who are notorious for dumping the bodies of their victims in public places to intimidate rivals. It was reported in 2019 that El Chapo had put a bounty on Juarez leader
Juan Pablo Ledezma after he ended the alliance with the Sinaloa Cartel.
TIJUANA
Many rival cartels have attempted to oust Tijuana from its lucrative city stronghold on the northwest border with the US, just south of San Diego, but it remains entrenched. It has strong relationships with cartels in Colombia, from where it sources its arsenal of weapons. Because of the strategic importance of Tijuana and its routes into southern California, it is able to charge its rivals “piso” (tax) to allow them to operate in their territory.