Cocaine, corruption and carnage: the world’s deadliest narcotics gangs
Sometimes referred to as a “Supergang”, “the Gulf Clan” – also known as the Urabeños – has arguably become the most powerful criminal force in Colombia, and one of the largest distributors of cocaine in the world. Its members often wear army uniforms and employ military tactics, including road blockades, curfews and allegedly imposing “taxes” on drug-related activity in its territory.
In October 2021, the future of CDG looked in doubt when its leader, Dairo Antonio Úsuga David, right, was arrested. Seven months later he was extradited to the United States and charged in New York. The next day, CDG forces chose to remind Colombia of their power, forcing highway closures and village shutdowns in 180 municipalities. They have since appeared willing to engage with the government in a peace deal, but with some 6,000 members and various factions, it seems unlikely the entire cartel would be in agreement. Or keep the peace.
Originally founded by deserters from the Mexican special forces (some of whom, therefore, had US army training, which they would deploy in demonic fashion), the Zetas started as heavies for the Gulf Cartel before breaking away in the mid-2000s and forming networks across the Americas, Africa and Europe. Their background makes the Zetas especially savvy, sophisticated and violent, but after once being the most feared of all Mexican cartels, they are considered an increasingly diminished force, splintering into smaller cells and focusing on local crime over international drug trafficking.
Anybody hoping the 2016 capture of Mexican kingpin “El Chapo”, right, would end the activities of his Sinaloa cartel must be sorely disappointed. One thing his arrest has done, though, is reveal how much influence the organisation had – or has. Just this week, Genaro García Luna, who headed Mexico’s equivalent of MI6 from 2001 to 2006, and was public security minister from 2006 to 2012, has been on trial in New York accused of conspiring with the cartel.
The Sinaloa remains a force – even with El Chapo behind bars, and despite its great rival, the Jalisco Cartel New Generation, gaining ground in Mexico. To get some idea of how bold Brazilian former prison gang Primeiro Comando da Capital (meaning First Capital Command, or PCC) is, consider the killing of Paraguayan anticorruption prosecutor Marcelo Pecci last year. Pecci was on his honeymoon with his pregnant wife, Claudia Aguilera, on the Colombian island of Barú in May. He was approached on the beach by two men, who were allegedly paid £410,000 by the PCC, and shot dead.
Despite its existence having long been denied by the authorities in Brazil, the PCC was recognised in 2019 as a gargantuan operation that had emerged from prisons to become the dominant player in Brazilian drug trafficking, with potentially tens of thousands of members. Relentlessly eliminating rival gangs as it goes, the PCC has now spread across South America, not least into Paraguay – which, according to some reports, it “threatens to turn into a narcostate”.