Gulf Cartel is now in the Philippines (Filipinas) and Worldwide
Founded 1970s
Founding location Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico
Years
active 1970s-present
Territory Mexico:
Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Nuevo
León
United States:
Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Illinois,
Florida
Ethnicity Mexican, Guatemalan
Criminal activities Drug
trafficking, people smuggling, money laundering, extortion, kidnapping,
racketeering, theft, murder, arms trafficking, bribery, prostitution,
counterfeiting, police impersonation.
Allies Sinaloa Cartel, Knights
Templar
Rivals Los Zetas, Juárez Cartel, Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, Tijuana
Cartel, Los Negros
The Gulf Cartel (Spanish: Cártel del Golfo, Golfos, or CDG) is a criminal
syndicate and drug trafficking organization in Mexico, and perhaps the oldest
organized crime group in the country. It is currently based in Matamoros,
Tamaulipas, directly across the border from Brownsville, Texas.
Their network is international, and are believed to have dealings with crime
groups in Europe, West Africa, Asia, Central America, South America, and the
United States. Besides drug trafficking, the Gulf Cartel operates through
protection rackets, assassinations, extortions, kidnappings, and other criminal
activities. The Gulf Cartel is known for intimidating the population and for
being “particularly violent.”
Although its founder Juan Nepomuceno Guerra smuggled alcohol in small
quantities to the United States during the epoch of Prohibition, it was not
until the 1970s that the cartel was formed and shifted to drug trafficking
—primarily cocaine— under the command of Juan Nepomuceno Guerra and Juan García
Ábrego.
History
Foundation: 1970s–1996
Juan Nepomuceno Guerra began
smuggling alcohol across the border into
the United States during the
Prohibition era; once it ended in 1933, he created a criminal syndicate (known
as el cártel de Matamoros) and controlled gambling houses, a car theft network,
prostitution rings, and other illegal smuggling. Nonetheless, it was not until
the 1970s when his nephew Juan García Ábrego founded the Gulf Cartel and started
to dedicate primarily to drug trafficking. The origins of the cartel are
accredited to the legendary contrabandist Juan Nepomuceno Guerra, who died on 12
July 2001 due to a cardiac arrest. Juan Nepomuceno Guerra was considered a
high-profile leader among several people in the community of Matamoros,
Tamaulipas because he would help the neediest and would punish those who
committed any abuse to the poor families. Poor people sometimes even made huge
lines in ‘Piedras Negras,’ a restaurant of Nepomuceno Guerra, to ask him for
favors.
Juan Nepomuceno Guerra, founder of the organization.Although it was
never proven that he smuggled liquor, arms, tobacco, and even drugs, Juan is
considered the “godfather” of the Gulf Cartel. Along with his two brothers
Arturo and Roberto, Juan Nepomuceno Guerra started smuggling alcohol into the
United States in the 1930s.Soon after the conclusion of the Prohibition, Don
Juan, as he was widely known, dedicated himself to another completely different
illicit occupation—drug trafficking. Nepomuceno Guerra also amplified his
ascendancy through the incorporation of gambling houses, prostitution, human
trafficking, and car theft. His nephew, Juan García Ábrego, worked along his
tutelage, and slowly began taking over the drug business in the 1970s.
By the 1980s, García Ábrego began incorporating cocaine into the drug
trafficking operations, and started to have the upper hand on what was now
considered the Gulf Cartel, the greatest criminal dynasty in the US-Mexico
border.By negotiating with the Cali Cartel, García Ábrego was able to secure 50%
of the shipment out of Colombia as payment for delivery, instead of the $1,500
USD per kilo they were previously receiving. This renegotiation, however, forced
Garcia Ábrego to guarantee the product’s arrival from Colombia to its
destination. Instead, he created warehouses along the Mexican’s northern border
to preserve hundreds of tons of cocaine; this allowed him to create a new
distribution network and increase his political influence. In addition to
trafficking drugs, García Ábrego would ship cash to be laundered, in the
millions. Around 1994, it was estimated that the Gulf Cartel handled as much as
“one-third of all cocaine shipments” into the United States from the Cali Cartel
suppliers. During the 1990s, the PGR, the Mexican attorney general’s office,
estimated that the Gulf Cartel was “worth over $10 billion US dollars.”
After the apprehension of García Ábrego in 1996, a power vacuum was left and
several top members fought for leadership until Osiel Cárdenas Guillén became
the undisputed leader. As confrontations with rival groups heated up, Osiel
Cárdenas sought and recruited over 30 deserters of the Mexican Army’s elite
Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales (GAFE) to form part of the cartel’s armed
wing. Los Zetas, as they are known, served as the hired private mercenary army
of the Gulf Cartel. Nevertheless, after the arrest and extradition of Osiel
Cárdenas, internal struggles led to a rupture between the two.
Osiel Cárdenas’ brother, Antonio Cárdenas Guillén, and Jorge Eduardo Costilla
Sánchez, a former policeman, filled in the vacuum and became the leaders of the
Gulf Cartel. The death of Tony Tormenta, the nickname given to Antonio Cárdenas
for his explosive behavior, allowed for Costilla Sánchez to become the co-leader
of the Gulf Cartel and head of the Metros, one of the two factions within the
Gulf Cartel. Mario Cárdenas Guillén, brother of Osiel and Antonio, is the other
leader of Gulf Cartel and head of the Rojos, the other faction within the Gulf
Cartel and the parallel version of the Metros.
Presence in the U.S.The Gulf Cartel has important cells operating inside the
United States—in Mission, Roma, and Rio Grande City—for example, and their
presence is expanding. Thomas A. Shannon, a U.S. diplomat and ambassador, stated
that criminal organizations like the Gulf Cartel have “substantially weakened”
the institutions in Mexico and Central America, and have generated a surge of
violence in the United States. The U.S. National Drug Threat Assessment
mentioned that the drug trafficking organizations like the Gulf Cartel tend to
be less structured in U.S. than in Mexico, and often rely on street gangs to
operate inside the United States. The arrest of several Gulf Cartel lieutenants,
along with the drug-related violence and kidnappings, have raised concerns among
Texan officials that the drug war in Mexico and the drug cartels are taking hold
in Texas. The strong ties the Gulf Cartel has with the prison gangs in the
United States have also raised concern to American officials.Reports mention
that Mexican drug cartels operate in more than 1,000 cities in the United
States.
Samuel Flores Borrego, former Gulf Cartel high-ranking member.The
debates over whether the violence in the McAllen metropolitan area should be
considered an actual “spillover” from Mexico’s drug war reignited when a sheriff
from Hidalgo County, Texas was wounded in a shooting with members of the Gulf
Cartel. According to the sheriff, after the death of Flores Borrego, drug
dealers traced a stolen load of narcotics from a circle of sellers in Elsa,
Texas, and sanctioned a prison gang known as Partido Revolucionario to pretend
to buy the drugs from the sellers in order to learn the location of the stash
house. The plan did not go as expected, and the hired gang members kidnapped the
drug dealers. Consequently, the sheriff received a anonymous call about a
alleged kidnapping and tracked down the criminals, who shot and wounded him.
After this incident, Todd Staples, a Republican party Commissioner of the Texas
Department of Agriculture, set up a website asking the federal government to
back state efforts to curb illegal activities along the Mexican border, and
especially drug trafficking. With the support of two retired U.S. generals,
Staples announced that Mexican drug cartels are seeking to create their own turf
in the United States, but especially on the South Texas, which they consider
“vulnerable.” Henry Cuellar, a Democratic party member and a U.S.
Representative, strongly disagreed with Staples’ assessment that the Texas
border is a war zone or an area overrun by the Mexican criminal groups, and
claimed that such claims simply create “confusion” and unnecessary alarmist
reactions.
On early November 2011, Greg Abbott, the Texas Attorney General, informed
media outlets of a letter he sent to President Barack Obama on his failure to
protect the border, and warned him that the drug violence from Mexico
isincreasingly “spilling over” the border, and urged Obama to “immediately
dedicate more manpower to border security.” In the letter, Abbott wrote about
the shootings and kidnappings that have been occurring in the Rio Grande Valley,
and how these incidents are a “threat to national security.” Lupe Treviño, the
sheriff that was wounded, disagreed with Abbott’s statements in a meeting at the
White House with several Department of Homeland Security agencies and Janet
Napolitano, and claimed that he has implemented a four-step program designed to
have all of his deputies undergo a special tactical training designed to apply
SWAT-style techniques to tackle any violence along the border. He explicitly
said that the “[U.S] border is not in chaos,” and that the claims by the
Republicans were “untrue and unfairly painted.”Nevertheless, Carlos Cascos, the
current Cameron County judge, questioned Treviño’s comments through Facebook,
and mentioned that if South Texas didn’t have drug violence issues (as Treviño
claimed in Washington), then Treviño’s travel to Washington D.C. was completely
unnecessary, which indicates that the sheriff’s actions contradicted his
statements.
Presence in Europe
The Gulf Cartel is believed to have ties with the
‘Ndrangheta, an organized crime group in
Italy that also has ties with Los
Zetas. Reports indicated that the Gulf Cartel was using the BlackBerry
smartphones to communicate with ‘Ndrangheta, since the texts are “normally
difficult to intercept.” In 2009, the Gulf organization concluded that expanding
their market opportunities in Europe, combined with the euro strength against
the U.S. dollar, justified establishing an extensive network in that continent.
The main areas of demand and drug consumption are in Eastern Europe, the
successor states of the Soviet Union. In Western Europe, the primarily increase
has been in the use of cocaine. Along with the market in the United States, the
drug market in Europe is among the most lucrative in the world, where the
Mexican drug cartels are believe to have deals with the mafia groups of
Europe.
Presence in Africa
The Gulf Cartel and other Mexican drug trafficking
groups are active in the northern and western parts of Africa.Although cocaine
is not grown in Africa, Mexican organizations, such as the Gulf Cartel, are
currently exploiting West Africa’s struggling rule-of-law caused by war, crime
and poverty, in order to stage and expand supply routes to the increasingly
lucrative European illegal drug market.
In 2003, the arrest of several high-profile cartel leaders, including the
heads of the Tijuana Cartel and Gulf Cartel, Benjamín Arellano Félix and Osiel
Cárdenas, turned the war on drugs into a trilateral war. While in prison,
Cárdenas and Arellano Félix formed an alliance to defend themselves from the
Sinaloa and Juarez Cartel, who had also formed an alliance with each other, and
were planning to take over the smuggling routes and territories of the Gulf and
Tijuana Cartel. After a dispute, however, Osiel Cardenas ordered Benjamin
Arellano Felix beaten, and the Gulf-Tijuana alliance ceased to exist at that
point. It was reported that after the fallout, Cárdenas ordered Los Zetas to
Baja California to wipe out the Tijuana Cartel.
The Sinaloa-Juarez alliance ceased to exist as well due to an unpaid debt in
2007, and now the Sinaloa and Juarez Cartel are at war against each other.Since
February 2010, the major cartels have aligned in two factions, one integrated by
the Juárez Cartel, Tijuana Cartel, Los Zetas and the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel; the
other faction integrated by the Gulf Cartel, Sinaloa Cartel, La Familia Cartel
(now extinct) and the Knights Templar Cartel.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Juárez Drug Cartel is now in the Philippines (Filipinas)
Juárez Drug Cartel is now in the Philippines (Filipinas)
Founding location Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico
Years active 1970–present
Territory Mexico:
Chihuahua.
United States:
Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico
Ethnicity Mexican
Criminal activities Drug trafficking, people smuggling, money laundering, extortion, kidnapping, racketeering,
murder, arms trafficking, bribery.
Allies La Linea (armed wing)
Rivals Sinaloa Cartel
The Juárez Cartel (Spanish: Cártel de Juárez), also known as the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Organization, is a Mexican drug cartel based in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, across the border from El Paso, Texas.
The cartel is one of several ruthless drug trafficking organization that has been known to decapitate their rivals,mutilate their corpses and dump them in public places to instill fear not only to the general public, but to locallaw enforcement and their rivals, the Sinaloa Cartel. The Juárez Cartel has an armed wing known as La Línea, a Juarez street gang that usually performs the executions.
The Juárez Cartel was the dominant player in the center of the country, controlling a large percentage of the cocaine traffic from Mexico into the United States. The death of Amado Carrillo Fuentes in 1997, however, was the beginning of the decline of the Juárez cartel, as Carrillo relied on ties to Mexico’s top-ranking drug interdiction officer, division general Jesús Gutiérrez Rebollo.
In September 2011, the Mexican Federal Police informed that the cartel is now known as “Nuevo Cartel de Juárez” (New Juárez Cartel). It is alleged that the ‘New Juárez Cartel’ is responsible of recent executions in Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua.
History
The cartel was founded in the 1970s by Rafael Aguilar Guajardo and handed down to Amado Carrillo Fuentes in 1993 under the tutelage of his uncle. Amado brought his brothers in and later his son into the business. After Amado died in 1997 following complications from plastic surgery, a brief turf war erupted over the control of the cartel, where Amado’s brother —Vicente Carrillo Fuentes— emerged as leader after defeating the Muñoz Talavera brothers.
Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, who remains in control of the cartel, then formed a partnership with Juan José Esparragoza Moreno, his brother Rodolfo Carrillo Fuentes, his nephew Vicente Carrillo Leyva,Ricardo Garcia Urquiza, and formed an alliance with other drug lords such as Ismael “Mayo” Zambada in Sinaloa and Baja California, the Beltrán Leyva brothers in Monterrey, and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán in Nayarit, Sinaloa and Tamaulipas.
When Vicente took control of the cartel, the organization was in flux. The death of Amado created a large power vacuum in the Mexican underworld. The Carrillo Fuentes brothers became the most powerful organization during the 1990s while Vicente was able to avoid direct conflict and increase the strength of the Juárez Cartel. The relationship between the Carrillo Fuentes clan and the other members of the organization grew unstable towards the end of the 1990s and into the 2000s. During the 1990s and early 2000s, drug lords from contiguous Mexican states forged an alliance that became known as ‘The Golden Triangle Alliance’ or ‘La Alianza Triángulo de Oro’ because of its three-state area of influence: Chihuahua, south of the U.S. state of Texas, Durango and Sinaloa. However, this alliance was broken[when?] after the Sinaloa Cartel drug lord, Joaquín Guzmán Loera (aka: Shorty), refused to pay to the Juarez Cartel for the right to use some smuggling routes into the U.S.
In 2001 after Joaquín Guzmán Loera ‘El Chapo’ escaped from prison, many Juárez Cartel members defected to Guzmán Loera’s Sinaloa Cartel. In 2004, Vicente’s brother was killed allegedly by order of Guzmán Loera. Carrillo Fuentes retaliated by assassinating Guzmán’s brother in prison. This ignited a turf war between the two cartels, which was more or less put on hold from 2005-2006 because of the Sinaloa Cartel’s war against the Gulf Cartel.
After the organization collapsed, some elements of it were absorbed into the Sinaloa Cartel, an aggressive organization that has gobbled up much of the Juárez Cartel’s former territory. The Juárez Cartel has been able to either corrupt or intimidate high ranking officials in order to obtain information on law enforcement operatives and acquire protection from the police and judicial systems.
The Juárez cartel has been found to operate in 21 Mexican states and its principal bases are Culiacán, Monterrey, Ciudad Juárez, Ojinaga, Mexico City, Guadalajara, Cuernavaca and Cancún. Vicente Carrillo Fuentes remains the leader of the cartel. Members of the cartel were implicated in the serial murder site in Ciudad Juárez that wasdiscovered in 2004 and has been dubbed the House of Death.[15] The Juárez Cartel was featured battling the rival Tijuana Cartel in the 2000 motion picture Traffic. The Australian ABC documentary La Frontera (2010) described social impact of the cartel in the region.
Since 2007, the Juárez Cartel has been locked in a vicious battle with its former partner, the Sinaloa Cartel, for control of Juárez. The fighting between them has left thousands dead in Chihuahua state. The Juárez Cartel relies on two enforcement gangs to exercise control over both sides of the border: La Linea, a group of corrupt (current and former) Chihuahua police officers, is prevalent on the Mexican side, while the Barrio Azteca street gang operates in Mexico and in Texan cities such as El Paso, Dallas and Austin, as well as in New Mexico and Arizona. On July 15, 2010, the Juarez Cartel escalated violence to a new level by using a car bomb to target federal police officers.
In September 2011 banners were displayed, publicing the return of the extinct cartel. They were signed by Cesar “El Gato” Carrillo Leyva, who appears to be the son or a close relative of the late drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes.
Prior to 2012, the Juárez Cartel controlled one of the primary transportation routes for billions of dollars worth of illegal drug shipments annually entering the United States from Mexico. Since then, however, control of these areas has shifted to the Sinaloa Cartel.
Current alliances
Since March 2010, the major cartels have aligned in two factions, one integrated by the Juárez Cartel, Tijuana Cartel, Los Zetas and the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel; the other faction integrated by the Gulf Cartel, Sinaloa Cartel and La Familia Cartel.
Founding location Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico
Years active 1970–present
Territory Mexico:
Chihuahua.
United States:
Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico
Ethnicity Mexican
Criminal activities Drug trafficking, people smuggling, money laundering, extortion, kidnapping, racketeering,
murder, arms trafficking, bribery.
Allies La Linea (armed wing)
Rivals Sinaloa Cartel
The Juárez Cartel (Spanish: Cártel de Juárez), also known as the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Organization, is a Mexican drug cartel based in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, across the border from El Paso, Texas.
The cartel is one of several ruthless drug trafficking organization that has been known to decapitate their rivals,mutilate their corpses and dump them in public places to instill fear not only to the general public, but to locallaw enforcement and their rivals, the Sinaloa Cartel. The Juárez Cartel has an armed wing known as La Línea, a Juarez street gang that usually performs the executions.
The Juárez Cartel was the dominant player in the center of the country, controlling a large percentage of the cocaine traffic from Mexico into the United States. The death of Amado Carrillo Fuentes in 1997, however, was the beginning of the decline of the Juárez cartel, as Carrillo relied on ties to Mexico’s top-ranking drug interdiction officer, division general Jesús Gutiérrez Rebollo.
In September 2011, the Mexican Federal Police informed that the cartel is now known as “Nuevo Cartel de Juárez” (New Juárez Cartel). It is alleged that the ‘New Juárez Cartel’ is responsible of recent executions in Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua.
History
The cartel was founded in the 1970s by Rafael Aguilar Guajardo and handed down to Amado Carrillo Fuentes in 1993 under the tutelage of his uncle. Amado brought his brothers in and later his son into the business. After Amado died in 1997 following complications from plastic surgery, a brief turf war erupted over the control of the cartel, where Amado’s brother —Vicente Carrillo Fuentes— emerged as leader after defeating the Muñoz Talavera brothers.
Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, who remains in control of the cartel, then formed a partnership with Juan José Esparragoza Moreno, his brother Rodolfo Carrillo Fuentes, his nephew Vicente Carrillo Leyva,Ricardo Garcia Urquiza, and formed an alliance with other drug lords such as Ismael “Mayo” Zambada in Sinaloa and Baja California, the Beltrán Leyva brothers in Monterrey, and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán in Nayarit, Sinaloa and Tamaulipas.
When Vicente took control of the cartel, the organization was in flux. The death of Amado created a large power vacuum in the Mexican underworld. The Carrillo Fuentes brothers became the most powerful organization during the 1990s while Vicente was able to avoid direct conflict and increase the strength of the Juárez Cartel. The relationship between the Carrillo Fuentes clan and the other members of the organization grew unstable towards the end of the 1990s and into the 2000s. During the 1990s and early 2000s, drug lords from contiguous Mexican states forged an alliance that became known as ‘The Golden Triangle Alliance’ or ‘La Alianza Triángulo de Oro’ because of its three-state area of influence: Chihuahua, south of the U.S. state of Texas, Durango and Sinaloa. However, this alliance was broken[when?] after the Sinaloa Cartel drug lord, Joaquín Guzmán Loera (aka: Shorty), refused to pay to the Juarez Cartel for the right to use some smuggling routes into the U.S.
In 2001 after Joaquín Guzmán Loera ‘El Chapo’ escaped from prison, many Juárez Cartel members defected to Guzmán Loera’s Sinaloa Cartel. In 2004, Vicente’s brother was killed allegedly by order of Guzmán Loera. Carrillo Fuentes retaliated by assassinating Guzmán’s brother in prison. This ignited a turf war between the two cartels, which was more or less put on hold from 2005-2006 because of the Sinaloa Cartel’s war against the Gulf Cartel.
After the organization collapsed, some elements of it were absorbed into the Sinaloa Cartel, an aggressive organization that has gobbled up much of the Juárez Cartel’s former territory. The Juárez Cartel has been able to either corrupt or intimidate high ranking officials in order to obtain information on law enforcement operatives and acquire protection from the police and judicial systems.
The Juárez cartel has been found to operate in 21 Mexican states and its principal bases are Culiacán, Monterrey, Ciudad Juárez, Ojinaga, Mexico City, Guadalajara, Cuernavaca and Cancún. Vicente Carrillo Fuentes remains the leader of the cartel. Members of the cartel were implicated in the serial murder site in Ciudad Juárez that wasdiscovered in 2004 and has been dubbed the House of Death.[15] The Juárez Cartel was featured battling the rival Tijuana Cartel in the 2000 motion picture Traffic. The Australian ABC documentary La Frontera (2010) described social impact of the cartel in the region.
Since 2007, the Juárez Cartel has been locked in a vicious battle with its former partner, the Sinaloa Cartel, for control of Juárez. The fighting between them has left thousands dead in Chihuahua state. The Juárez Cartel relies on two enforcement gangs to exercise control over both sides of the border: La Linea, a group of corrupt (current and former) Chihuahua police officers, is prevalent on the Mexican side, while the Barrio Azteca street gang operates in Mexico and in Texan cities such as El Paso, Dallas and Austin, as well as in New Mexico and Arizona. On July 15, 2010, the Juarez Cartel escalated violence to a new level by using a car bomb to target federal police officers.
In September 2011 banners were displayed, publicing the return of the extinct cartel. They were signed by Cesar “El Gato” Carrillo Leyva, who appears to be the son or a close relative of the late drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes.
Prior to 2012, the Juárez Cartel controlled one of the primary transportation routes for billions of dollars worth of illegal drug shipments annually entering the United States from Mexico. Since then, however, control of these areas has shifted to the Sinaloa Cartel.
Current alliances
Since March 2010, the major cartels have aligned in two factions, one integrated by the Juárez Cartel, Tijuana Cartel, Los Zetas and the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel; the other faction integrated by the Gulf Cartel, Sinaloa Cartel and La Familia Cartel.
Sinaloa Drug Cartel is now in the Philippines (Filipinas) and Worldwide
Sinaloa Drug Cartel is now in the Philippines (Filipinas) and Worldwide
(Pacific Cartel,
Guzmán-Loera Cartel) Founded 1989
Founding location Culiacan, Sinaloa
Years active 1989–present
Territory Mexico:
Sinaloa, Sonora, Nayarit, Chihuahua, Durango, Jalisco, Colima, Chiapas,TamaulipasGuerrero,
Zacatecas, Baja California, Baja California Sur, Oaxaca, Guanajuato, Querétaro, Tlaxcala,
Puebla, Morelos, Mexico City
United States,
Central America
South America
Ethnicity Mexican
Criminal activities Drug trafficking
Allies Gulf Cartel, Knights Templar,
Rivals Los Zetas, Juárez Cartel, Tijuana Cartel
The Sinaloa Cartel (Spanish: Cártel de Sinaloa or CDS) is a drug-trafficking and organized crime organization based in the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa, with operations in the Mexican states of Baja California, Durango, Sonora and Chihuahua. The cartel is also known as the Guzmán-Loera Organization and the Pacific Cartel, the latter due to the coast of Mexico from which it originated. The cartel has also been called the Federation and the Blood Alliance. The ‘Federation’ was partially splintered when the Beltrán-Leyva brothers broke apart from the Sinaloa Cartel.
The United States Intelligence Community considers the Sinaloa Cartel “the most powerful drug trafficking organization in the world” and in 2011, the Los Angeles Times called it as “Mexico’s most powerful organized crime group.”
The Sinaloa Cartel is associated with the label “Golden Triangle”, which refers to the states of Sinaloa, Durango, and Chihuahua. The region is a major producer of Mexican opium and marijuana. According to the U.S. Attorney General, the Sinaloa Cartel is responsible for importing into the United States and distributing nearly 200 tons of cocaine and large amounts of heroin between 1990 and 2008.
Background
Pedro Avilés Pérez was a pioneer drug lord in the Mexican state of Sinaloa in the late 1960s. He is considered to be the first generation of major Mexican drug smugglers of marijuana who marked the birth of large-scale Mexican drug trafficking. He also pioneered the use of aircraft to smuggle drugs to the United States.
Second generation Sinaloan traffickers such as Rafael Caro Quintero, Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo and Avilés Pérez’ nephew Joaquín ‘El Chapo’or “Shorty” Guzmán would claim they learned all they knew about narcotrafficking while serving in the Avilés organization. Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, who eventually founded the Guadalajara Cartel, was arrested in 1989. While incarcerated, he remained one of Mexico’s major traffickers, maintaining his organization via mobile phone until he was transferred to a new maximum security prison in the 1990s. At that point, his old organization broke up into three factions: the Tijuana Cartel led by his nephews, the Arellano Félix brothers Cartel, and the Sinaloa Cartel, run by former lieutenants Héctor Luis Palma Salazar, Adrián Gómez González and Joaquín Guzmán Loera (El Chapo).
Leadership
Sinaloa Cartel hierarchy in early 2008The Sinaloa Cartel used to be known as La Alianza de Sangre (“Blood Alliance”). When Héctor Luis Palma Salazar (a.k.a. El Güero) was arrested on 23 June 1995, by elements of the Mexican Army, his partner Joaquín Guzmán Loera took leadership of the cartel. Guzmán was captured in Guatemala on 9 June 1993, and extradited to Mexico, where he was jailed in a maximum security prison, but on 19 January 2001, Guzmán escaped and resumed his command of the Sinaloa Cartel. Guzmán has two close associates, Ismael Zambada García and Ignacio Coronel Villareal.[20][21] Guzman and Zambada became Mexico’s top drug kingpins in 2003, after the arrest of their rival Osiel Cardenas of the Gulf Cartel. Another close associate, Javier Torres Felix, was arrested and extradited to the U.S. in December 2006;[22] so far, Guzmán and Zambada have evaded operations to capture them.
On 29 July 2010 Ignacio Coronel was killed in a shootout with the Mexican military in Zapopan, Jalisco.
OperationsThe Sinaloa Cartel has a presence in 17 Mexican states, with important centers in Mexico City, Tepic, Toluca, Zacatecas, Guadalajara, and most of the state of Sinaloa. The cartel is primarily involved in the smuggling and distribution of Colombian cocaine, Mexican marijuana, methamphetamine and Mexican and Southeast Asian heroin into the United States. It is believed that a group known as the Herrera Organization would transport multi-ton quantities of cocaine from South America to Guatemala on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel. From there it is smuggled north to Mexico and later into the U.S. Other shipments of cocaine are believed to originate in Colombia from Cali and Medellín drug-trafficking groups from which the Sinaloa Cartel handle transportation across the U.S.border to distribution cells in Arizona, California, Texas, Chicago and New York.
Prior to his arrest, Vicente Zambada Niebla (“El Vicentillo”), son of Ismael Zambada García (“El Mayo”), played a key role in the Sinaloa Cartel. Vicente Zambada was responsible for coordinating multi-ton cocaine shipments from Central and South American countries, through Mexico, and into the United States for the Sinaloa Cartel. To accomplish this task he used every means available: Boeing 747 cargo aircraft, narco submarines, container ships, go-fast boats, fishing vessels, buses, rail cars, tractor trailers and automobiles. He was arrested by the Mexican Army on 18 March 2009 and extradited on 18 February 2010 to Chicago to face federal charges.
In the late 1980s, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration believed the Sinaloa Cartel was the largest drug trafficking organization operating in Mexico. By the mid-1990s, according to one court opinion, it was believed to be the size of the Medellín Cartel during its prime. The Sinaloa Cartel was believed to be linked to the Juárez Cartel in a strategic alliance following the partnership of their rivals, the Gulf Cartel and TijuanaCartel. Following the discovery of a tunnel system used to smuggle drugs across the Mexican/US border, the group has been associated with such means of trafficking.
By 2005, the Beltrán-Leyva brothers, who were formerly aligned with the Sinaloa Cartel, had come to dominate drug trafficking across the border with Arizona. By 2006, the Sinaloa Cartel had eliminated all competition across the 528 km of Arizona border. The Milenio (Michoacan), Jalisco (Guadalajara), Sonora (Sonora), and Colima (Colima) cartels are now branches of the Sinaloa Cartel.
In January 2008 the cartel allegedly split into a number of warring factions, which is a major cause of the epidemic of drug violence Mexico has seen in the last year.[33] Murders by the cartel often involve beheadings or bodies dissolved in vats of acid and are sometimes filmed and posted on the Internet as a warning to rival gangs.
Atlanta has been used as a major U.S. distribution center and accounting hub, and the presence of the Sinaloa Cartel there has brought ruthless violence to that area.
Arrest and seizuresOn 11 May 2008, Alfonso Gutiérrez Loera, cousin of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera and 5 other drug traffickers were arrested after a shootout with Federal Police officers in Culiacan, Sinaloa. Along with the captured suspects, 16 assault rifles, 3 grenades, 102 magazines and 3,543 ammunition rounds were seized.
On 25 February 2009, the U.S. government announced the arrest of 750 members of the Sinaloa Cartel across the U.S. in Operation Xcellerator. They also announced the seizure of more than $59 million in cash and numerous vehicles, planes, and boats.
In March 2009, the Mexican Government announced the deployment of 1,000 Federal Police officers and 5,000 Mexican Army soldiers to restore order in Ciudad Juárez, which has suffered the highest number of casualties in the country.
On 20 August 2009, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) dismembered a large Mexican drug operation in Chicago, and uncovered a major distribution network operated by the Flores crew led by twin brothers Margarito and Pedro Flores that operated out of that city. The drug operation allegedly brought 1.5 to 2 tons of cocaine every month to Chicago from Mexico and shipped millions of dollars south of the border. The shipments were mostly bought from the Sinaloa Cartel and at times from the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, and it is assumed that both cartels threatened the Flores crew with violence if they bought from other rival drug organizations.
The Sinaloa cartel’s loss of partners in Mexico does not appear to have affected its ability to smuggle drugs from South America to the USA. On the contrary, based on seizure reports, the Sinaloa cartel appears to be the most active smuggler of cocaine. The reports also demonstrated the cartels possess the ability to establish operations in previously unknown areas, such as Central America and South America, even as far south as Perú, Paraguay and Argentina. It also appears to be most active in diversifying its export markets; rather than relying solely on U.S. drug consumption, it has made an effort to supply distributors of drugs in Latin Americanand European countries.
Current alliancesSince February 2010, the major cartels have aligned in two factions: one integrated by the Juárez Cartel, Tijuana Cartel and Los Zetas; the other faction integrated by the Gulf Cartel and Sinaloa Cartel.In addition to maintaining its anti-Zetas alliance with the Gulf cartel, Sinaloa in 2011 affiliated itself with the Knights Templar in Michoacan, and to counter Los Zetas in Jalisco state, Sinaloa affiliated itself with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
(Pacific Cartel,
Guzmán-Loera Cartel) Founded 1989
Founding location Culiacan, Sinaloa
Years active 1989–present
Territory Mexico:
Sinaloa, Sonora, Nayarit, Chihuahua, Durango, Jalisco, Colima, Chiapas,TamaulipasGuerrero,
Zacatecas, Baja California, Baja California Sur, Oaxaca, Guanajuato, Querétaro, Tlaxcala,
Puebla, Morelos, Mexico City
United States,
Central America
South America
Ethnicity Mexican
Criminal activities Drug trafficking
Allies Gulf Cartel, Knights Templar,
Rivals Los Zetas, Juárez Cartel, Tijuana Cartel
The Sinaloa Cartel (Spanish: Cártel de Sinaloa or CDS) is a drug-trafficking and organized crime organization based in the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa, with operations in the Mexican states of Baja California, Durango, Sonora and Chihuahua. The cartel is also known as the Guzmán-Loera Organization and the Pacific Cartel, the latter due to the coast of Mexico from which it originated. The cartel has also been called the Federation and the Blood Alliance. The ‘Federation’ was partially splintered when the Beltrán-Leyva brothers broke apart from the Sinaloa Cartel.
The United States Intelligence Community considers the Sinaloa Cartel “the most powerful drug trafficking organization in the world” and in 2011, the Los Angeles Times called it as “Mexico’s most powerful organized crime group.”
The Sinaloa Cartel is associated with the label “Golden Triangle”, which refers to the states of Sinaloa, Durango, and Chihuahua. The region is a major producer of Mexican opium and marijuana. According to the U.S. Attorney General, the Sinaloa Cartel is responsible for importing into the United States and distributing nearly 200 tons of cocaine and large amounts of heroin between 1990 and 2008.
Background
Pedro Avilés Pérez was a pioneer drug lord in the Mexican state of Sinaloa in the late 1960s. He is considered to be the first generation of major Mexican drug smugglers of marijuana who marked the birth of large-scale Mexican drug trafficking. He also pioneered the use of aircraft to smuggle drugs to the United States.
Second generation Sinaloan traffickers such as Rafael Caro Quintero, Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo and Avilés Pérez’ nephew Joaquín ‘El Chapo’or “Shorty” Guzmán would claim they learned all they knew about narcotrafficking while serving in the Avilés organization. Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, who eventually founded the Guadalajara Cartel, was arrested in 1989. While incarcerated, he remained one of Mexico’s major traffickers, maintaining his organization via mobile phone until he was transferred to a new maximum security prison in the 1990s. At that point, his old organization broke up into three factions: the Tijuana Cartel led by his nephews, the Arellano Félix brothers Cartel, and the Sinaloa Cartel, run by former lieutenants Héctor Luis Palma Salazar, Adrián Gómez González and Joaquín Guzmán Loera (El Chapo).
Leadership
Sinaloa Cartel hierarchy in early 2008The Sinaloa Cartel used to be known as La Alianza de Sangre (“Blood Alliance”). When Héctor Luis Palma Salazar (a.k.a. El Güero) was arrested on 23 June 1995, by elements of the Mexican Army, his partner Joaquín Guzmán Loera took leadership of the cartel. Guzmán was captured in Guatemala on 9 June 1993, and extradited to Mexico, where he was jailed in a maximum security prison, but on 19 January 2001, Guzmán escaped and resumed his command of the Sinaloa Cartel. Guzmán has two close associates, Ismael Zambada García and Ignacio Coronel Villareal.[20][21] Guzman and Zambada became Mexico’s top drug kingpins in 2003, after the arrest of their rival Osiel Cardenas of the Gulf Cartel. Another close associate, Javier Torres Felix, was arrested and extradited to the U.S. in December 2006;[22] so far, Guzmán and Zambada have evaded operations to capture them.
On 29 July 2010 Ignacio Coronel was killed in a shootout with the Mexican military in Zapopan, Jalisco.
OperationsThe Sinaloa Cartel has a presence in 17 Mexican states, with important centers in Mexico City, Tepic, Toluca, Zacatecas, Guadalajara, and most of the state of Sinaloa. The cartel is primarily involved in the smuggling and distribution of Colombian cocaine, Mexican marijuana, methamphetamine and Mexican and Southeast Asian heroin into the United States. It is believed that a group known as the Herrera Organization would transport multi-ton quantities of cocaine from South America to Guatemala on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel. From there it is smuggled north to Mexico and later into the U.S. Other shipments of cocaine are believed to originate in Colombia from Cali and Medellín drug-trafficking groups from which the Sinaloa Cartel handle transportation across the U.S.border to distribution cells in Arizona, California, Texas, Chicago and New York.
Prior to his arrest, Vicente Zambada Niebla (“El Vicentillo”), son of Ismael Zambada García (“El Mayo”), played a key role in the Sinaloa Cartel. Vicente Zambada was responsible for coordinating multi-ton cocaine shipments from Central and South American countries, through Mexico, and into the United States for the Sinaloa Cartel. To accomplish this task he used every means available: Boeing 747 cargo aircraft, narco submarines, container ships, go-fast boats, fishing vessels, buses, rail cars, tractor trailers and automobiles. He was arrested by the Mexican Army on 18 March 2009 and extradited on 18 February 2010 to Chicago to face federal charges.
In the late 1980s, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration believed the Sinaloa Cartel was the largest drug trafficking organization operating in Mexico. By the mid-1990s, according to one court opinion, it was believed to be the size of the Medellín Cartel during its prime. The Sinaloa Cartel was believed to be linked to the Juárez Cartel in a strategic alliance following the partnership of their rivals, the Gulf Cartel and TijuanaCartel. Following the discovery of a tunnel system used to smuggle drugs across the Mexican/US border, the group has been associated with such means of trafficking.
By 2005, the Beltrán-Leyva brothers, who were formerly aligned with the Sinaloa Cartel, had come to dominate drug trafficking across the border with Arizona. By 2006, the Sinaloa Cartel had eliminated all competition across the 528 km of Arizona border. The Milenio (Michoacan), Jalisco (Guadalajara), Sonora (Sonora), and Colima (Colima) cartels are now branches of the Sinaloa Cartel.
In January 2008 the cartel allegedly split into a number of warring factions, which is a major cause of the epidemic of drug violence Mexico has seen in the last year.[33] Murders by the cartel often involve beheadings or bodies dissolved in vats of acid and are sometimes filmed and posted on the Internet as a warning to rival gangs.
Atlanta has been used as a major U.S. distribution center and accounting hub, and the presence of the Sinaloa Cartel there has brought ruthless violence to that area.
Arrest and seizuresOn 11 May 2008, Alfonso Gutiérrez Loera, cousin of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera and 5 other drug traffickers were arrested after a shootout with Federal Police officers in Culiacan, Sinaloa. Along with the captured suspects, 16 assault rifles, 3 grenades, 102 magazines and 3,543 ammunition rounds were seized.
On 25 February 2009, the U.S. government announced the arrest of 750 members of the Sinaloa Cartel across the U.S. in Operation Xcellerator. They also announced the seizure of more than $59 million in cash and numerous vehicles, planes, and boats.
In March 2009, the Mexican Government announced the deployment of 1,000 Federal Police officers and 5,000 Mexican Army soldiers to restore order in Ciudad Juárez, which has suffered the highest number of casualties in the country.
On 20 August 2009, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) dismembered a large Mexican drug operation in Chicago, and uncovered a major distribution network operated by the Flores crew led by twin brothers Margarito and Pedro Flores that operated out of that city. The drug operation allegedly brought 1.5 to 2 tons of cocaine every month to Chicago from Mexico and shipped millions of dollars south of the border. The shipments were mostly bought from the Sinaloa Cartel and at times from the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, and it is assumed that both cartels threatened the Flores crew with violence if they bought from other rival drug organizations.
The Sinaloa cartel’s loss of partners in Mexico does not appear to have affected its ability to smuggle drugs from South America to the USA. On the contrary, based on seizure reports, the Sinaloa cartel appears to be the most active smuggler of cocaine. The reports also demonstrated the cartels possess the ability to establish operations in previously unknown areas, such as Central America and South America, even as far south as Perú, Paraguay and Argentina. It also appears to be most active in diversifying its export markets; rather than relying solely on U.S. drug consumption, it has made an effort to supply distributors of drugs in Latin Americanand European countries.
Current alliancesSince February 2010, the major cartels have aligned in two factions: one integrated by the Juárez Cartel, Tijuana Cartel and Los Zetas; the other faction integrated by the Gulf Cartel and Sinaloa Cartel.In addition to maintaining its anti-Zetas alliance with the Gulf cartel, Sinaloa in 2011 affiliated itself with the Knights Templar in Michoacan, and to counter Los Zetas in Jalisco state, Sinaloa affiliated itself with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
Tijuana Drug Cartel is now in the Philippines (Filipinas)
Tijuana Drug Cartel is now in the Philippines (Filipinas)
Founding location Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico
Years active 1989–present
Territory Mexico:
Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sinaloa, Jalisco.
United States:
California, Nevada, Arizona, Washington
Ethnicity Mexican
Criminal activities Drug trafficking, money laundering, People smuggling, murder, arms trafficking, bribery
Allies Los Zetas, Juárez Cartel,Oaxaca Cartel
Rivals Sinaloa Cartel, Gulf Cartel
The Tijuana Cartel (Spanish: Cártel de Tijuana or Arellano-Félix Organization or Cártel Arellano Félix – CAF) is a Mexican drug cartel based in Tijuana. The cartel was described as “one of the biggest and most violent criminal groups in Mexico”.The Tijuana Cartel was featured battling the rival Juárez Cartel in the 2000 motion picture Traffic.
History
Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, the founder of the Guadalajara Cartel was arrested in 1989. While incarcerated, he remained one of Mexico’s major traffickers, maintaining his organization via mobile phone until he was transferred to a new maximum security prison in the 1990s. At that point, his old organization broke up into two factions: the Tijuana Cartel led by his nephews, the Arellano Félix brothers, and the Sinaloa Cartel, run by former lieutenants Héctor Luis Palma Salazar and Joaquín Guzmán Loera, a.k.a. El Chapo.
Currently, the majority of Mexico’s smuggling routes are controlled by three key cartels: Gulf, Sinaloa and Tijuana —though Tijuana is the least powerful. The Tijuana cartel was further weakened in August 2006 when its chief, Javier Arellano Félix, was arrested by the U.S. Coast Guard on a boat off the coast of Baja California. Mexican army troops also were sent to Tijuana in January 2007 in an operation to restore order to the border city and root out corrupt police officers, who mostly were cooperating with the Tijuana cartel. As a result of these efforts, the Tijuana cartel is unable to project much power outside of its base in Tijuana.Much of the violence that emerged in 2008 in Tijuana was a result of conflicts within the Tijuana cartel; on one side, the faction led by Teodoro García Simental (a.k.a. El Teo) favored kidnappings. The other faction, led by Luis Fernando Sánchez Arellano (a.k.a. El Ingeniero), focused primarily on drug trafficking. The faction led by Sánchez Arellano demanded the reduction of the kidnappings in Tijuana, but his demands were rejected by García Simental, resulting in high levels of violence. Nonetheless, most of the victims in Tijuana were white-collar entrepreneurs, and the kidnappings were bringing “too much heat on organized crime” and disrupting the criminal enterprises and interests of the cartel. The Mexican federal government responded by implementing “Operation Tijuana,” a coordination carried out between the Mexican military and the municipal police forces in the area. To put down the violence, InSight Crime states that a pact was probably created between military officials and members of the Sánchez Arellano faction to eliminate Simental’s group.The U.S. authorities speculated through WikiLeaks in 2009 that Tijuana’s former police boss, Julián Leyzaola, had made agreements with Sánchez Arellano to bring relative peace in Tijuana.With the arrest of El Teo in January 2010, much of his faction was eliminated from the city of Tijuana; some of its remains went off and joined with the Sinaloa Cartel. But much of the efforts done between 2008 and 2010 in Tijuana would not have been possible without the coordination of local police forces and the Mexican military – and possibly with a cartel truce – to put down the violence.
The relative peace in the city of Tijuana in 2010–2012 has raised speculations of a possible agreement between the Tijuana Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel to maintain peace in the area. According to Mexican and U.S. authorities, most of Tijuana is under the dominance of the Sinaloa cartel, while Luis Fernando Sánchez Arellano of the Tijuana cartel remains the “head of that puppet empire.” To be exact, experts told InSight Crime that the peace exists because Joaquín Guzmán Loera wants it that way, and argued that his organization—the Sinaloa Cartel—has spread too thin with its wars with Los Zetas and the Juárez Cartel that opening a third war would be inconvenient. The Tijuana cartel, however, has something their rivals do not have: a long-time family with business and political connections throughout the city. InSight Crime believes that this could explain why the Sinaloa cartel has left Sánchez Arellano as the figurehead, since it might be too costly for El Chapo financially and politically to make a final push. Moreover, the Tijuana cartel charges a toll (“piso”) on the Sinaloa cartel for trafficking drugs in their territory, which serves as an illustration of the Tijuana cartel’s continued hegemony as a local group. Despite the series of high-ranking arrests the cartel suffered throughout 2011–2012, its ability to maintain a highly centralized criminal infrastructure shows how difficult it is to uproot mafias who have long-established their presence in a community.
Founding location Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico
Years active 1989–present
Territory Mexico:
Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sinaloa, Jalisco.
United States:
California, Nevada, Arizona, Washington
Ethnicity Mexican
Criminal activities Drug trafficking, money laundering, People smuggling, murder, arms trafficking, bribery
Allies Los Zetas, Juárez Cartel,Oaxaca Cartel
Rivals Sinaloa Cartel, Gulf Cartel
The Tijuana Cartel (Spanish: Cártel de Tijuana or Arellano-Félix Organization or Cártel Arellano Félix – CAF) is a Mexican drug cartel based in Tijuana. The cartel was described as “one of the biggest and most violent criminal groups in Mexico”.The Tijuana Cartel was featured battling the rival Juárez Cartel in the 2000 motion picture Traffic.
History
Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, the founder of the Guadalajara Cartel was arrested in 1989. While incarcerated, he remained one of Mexico’s major traffickers, maintaining his organization via mobile phone until he was transferred to a new maximum security prison in the 1990s. At that point, his old organization broke up into two factions: the Tijuana Cartel led by his nephews, the Arellano Félix brothers, and the Sinaloa Cartel, run by former lieutenants Héctor Luis Palma Salazar and Joaquín Guzmán Loera, a.k.a. El Chapo.
Currently, the majority of Mexico’s smuggling routes are controlled by three key cartels: Gulf, Sinaloa and Tijuana —though Tijuana is the least powerful. The Tijuana cartel was further weakened in August 2006 when its chief, Javier Arellano Félix, was arrested by the U.S. Coast Guard on a boat off the coast of Baja California. Mexican army troops also were sent to Tijuana in January 2007 in an operation to restore order to the border city and root out corrupt police officers, who mostly were cooperating with the Tijuana cartel. As a result of these efforts, the Tijuana cartel is unable to project much power outside of its base in Tijuana.Much of the violence that emerged in 2008 in Tijuana was a result of conflicts within the Tijuana cartel; on one side, the faction led by Teodoro García Simental (a.k.a. El Teo) favored kidnappings. The other faction, led by Luis Fernando Sánchez Arellano (a.k.a. El Ingeniero), focused primarily on drug trafficking. The faction led by Sánchez Arellano demanded the reduction of the kidnappings in Tijuana, but his demands were rejected by García Simental, resulting in high levels of violence. Nonetheless, most of the victims in Tijuana were white-collar entrepreneurs, and the kidnappings were bringing “too much heat on organized crime” and disrupting the criminal enterprises and interests of the cartel. The Mexican federal government responded by implementing “Operation Tijuana,” a coordination carried out between the Mexican military and the municipal police forces in the area. To put down the violence, InSight Crime states that a pact was probably created between military officials and members of the Sánchez Arellano faction to eliminate Simental’s group.The U.S. authorities speculated through WikiLeaks in 2009 that Tijuana’s former police boss, Julián Leyzaola, had made agreements with Sánchez Arellano to bring relative peace in Tijuana.With the arrest of El Teo in January 2010, much of his faction was eliminated from the city of Tijuana; some of its remains went off and joined with the Sinaloa Cartel. But much of the efforts done between 2008 and 2010 in Tijuana would not have been possible without the coordination of local police forces and the Mexican military – and possibly with a cartel truce – to put down the violence.
The relative peace in the city of Tijuana in 2010–2012 has raised speculations of a possible agreement between the Tijuana Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel to maintain peace in the area. According to Mexican and U.S. authorities, most of Tijuana is under the dominance of the Sinaloa cartel, while Luis Fernando Sánchez Arellano of the Tijuana cartel remains the “head of that puppet empire.” To be exact, experts told InSight Crime that the peace exists because Joaquín Guzmán Loera wants it that way, and argued that his organization—the Sinaloa Cartel—has spread too thin with its wars with Los Zetas and the Juárez Cartel that opening a third war would be inconvenient. The Tijuana cartel, however, has something their rivals do not have: a long-time family with business and political connections throughout the city. InSight Crime believes that this could explain why the Sinaloa cartel has left Sánchez Arellano as the figurehead, since it might be too costly for El Chapo financially and politically to make a final push. Moreover, the Tijuana cartel charges a toll (“piso”) on the Sinaloa cartel for trafficking drugs in their territory, which serves as an illustration of the Tijuana cartel’s continued hegemony as a local group. Despite the series of high-ranking arrests the cartel suffered throughout 2011–2012, its ability to maintain a highly centralized criminal infrastructure shows how difficult it is to uproot mafias who have long-established their presence in a community.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Los Zetas Drug Cartel is now in the Philippines (Filipinas)and Worldwide
Los Zetas Drug Cartel is now in the Philippines (Filipinas)and Worldwide
Founded 1999 (independent cartel since February 2010)
Founding location Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico
Years active 1999-present
Territory Mexico: Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, Veracruz, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, Quintana Roo,
San Luis Potosí, Chiapas, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Hidalgo, Querétaro, Zacatecas, Durango, Chihuahua, Guerrero,
Oaxaca, Guanajuato, Aguascalientes, State of México, Michoacán
United States: Texas, California, New Jersey, Detroit, Colorado, Illinois
Central America: Guatemala
Europe: Italy
Asia: Philippines
Ethnicity Predominantly Mexican, with some Guatemalan members
Criminal activities Drug trafficking, people smuggling, kidnapping, racketeering, murder, arms trafficking,
terrorism, extortion, assault, rape
Allies Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, Juárez Cartel, Tijuana Cartel, 'Ndrangheta.
Rivals Gulf Cartel, Sinaloa Cartel, La Familia Michoacana, Knights Templar Cartel
Los Zetas (Zetas, Zs) is a powerful and violent criminal syndicate in Mexico, and is considered by the U.S.
government to be the "most technologically advanced, sophisticated, and dangerous cartel operating in Mexico."
The origins of Los Zetas date back to 1999, when commandos of the Mexican Army's elite forces deserted their
ranks and decided to work as the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel, a powerful drug trafficking organization. In
February 2010, Los Zetas broke away from their former employer and formed their own criminal organization.
Due to their military background, Los Zetas are well armed, highly organized and equipped;their brutal tactics,
which include beheadings, torture and indiscriminate slaughter, show that they often prefer brutality over bribery.
Los Zetas are also Mexico's largest drug cartel in terms of geographical presence, overtaking its bitter rival,
the Sinaloa Cartel. Besides drug trafficking, Los Zetas operate through protection rackets, assassinations,
extortion, kidnappings, and other criminal activities. The organization is based in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas,
directly across the border from Laredo, Texas.
History
Etymology
The group's name Los Zetas is given after its first commander, Arturo Guzmán Decena, whose Federal Judicial Police radio code was "Z1", a code given to high-ranking officers. The radio code for Commanding Federal Judicial Police Officers in México was "Y" and are nicknamed Yankees, for Federal Judicial Police in charge of a city the radio code was "Z," and thus they were nicknamed as the letter in Spanish, "Zetas."
FoundationAfter Osiel Cárdenas Guillén took full control of the Gulf Cartel in 1999, he found himself in a violent turf war. In order to keep his organization and leadership, Cárdenas sought out Arturo Guzmán Decena, a retired Army lieutenant who lured more than 30 army deserters of the Mexican Army's elite Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales (GAFE) to become his personal bodyguards, and later, as his mercenary wing. These Army deserters were enticed with salaries much higher than those of the Mexican Army. Cárdenas' goal was to protect himself from rival drug cartels and from the Mexican military.
Once Osiel Cárdenas Guillen consolidated his position and supremacy, he expanded the responsibilities of Los Zetas, and as years passed, they became much more important for the Gulf Cartel. The Zetas began to organize kidnappings, protection rackets, extortion, securing cocaine supply and trafficking routes known as plazas (zones) and executing its foes, often with barbaric savagery.
Guzmán Decena (Z1) was killed by a rival cartel member on November 2002 in a restaurant in Matamoros, Tamaulipas,allowing Heriberto Lazcano (Z3) to ascend to the apex of the paramilitary group. In response to the rising power of the Gulf Cartel, the rival Sinaloa Cartel established a heavily armed, well-trained enforcer group known as Los Negros. The group operated similar to Los Zetas, but with less complexity and success. Upon the arrest of the Gulf Cartel boss Osiel Cárdenas Guillen in March 2003 and his extradition in 2007, the Zetas took a more active leadership role within the Gulf Cartel and their influence grew greater within the organization.
In 2010, however, Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel broke apart.
Their operatives now include corrupt former federal, state, and local police officers, as well as ex-Kaibiles, the Special Forces of the Guatemalan militaryLos Zetas have set up camps to train recruits as well as corrupt ex-federal, state, and local police officers. In
September 2005 testimony to the Mexican Congress from the then-Defense Secretary Clemente Vega, indicated that the Zetas had also hired at least 30 former Kaibiles from Guatemala to train new recruits because the number of former Mexican special forces men in their ranks had shrunk. Los Zetas' training locations have been identified as having a similar setup as military GAFE training facilities.
Territory
Analysts indicate that the Zetas are the largest organized crime group in Mexico in terms of geographical presence.
Los Zetas are primarily based in the border region of Nuevo Laredo, with hundreds more throughout the country. They have placed lookouts at arrival destinations such as airports, bus stations and main roads. In addition to conducting criminal activities along the border, they operate throughout the Gulf of Mexico, in the southern states of Tabasco, Yucatán, Quintana Roo, and Chiapas, and in the Pacific Coast states of Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Michoacán, as well as in Mexico City.They are also active in several states in the United States. The cartel also has important areas of operation in the country of Guatemala, they are active in Texas, other U.S. states and in Italy with the 'Ndrangheta.
Early in 2012 it has been reported that 'Los Zetas' are operating in the northern Venezuela–Colombia border, and have teamed up with the Colombian outfit called Los Rastrojos. Together they control the drug trafficking routes in the Colombian La Guajira and the Venezuelan state of Zulia, Colombia as the producing country and Venezuela as the main port route toward the U.S. and Europe.
Alliances and rivalries
Indications of the broken alliance between the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas began in September 2009. On 24 February 2010, gunmen onboard hundreds of trucks marked C.D.G, XXX, and M3 (the insignias of the Gulf Cartel), clashed against Zetas gunmen on the northern cities of Tamaulipas state. The clash between these two groups started in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, and then expanded to Nuevo Laredo and Matamoros. The war then spread out through 11 municipalities of Tamaulipas, 9 of them bordering the state of Texas. Soon, the violence between these two cartels spread to Tamaulipas' neighboring states of Nuevo León and Veracruz. Their conflict also spread to U.S. soil, where Gulf Cartel hit men killed two Zeta members in Brownsville, Texas on 5 October 2010.Confrontations between these two groups temporarily paralyzed entire cities in broad daylight. Several witnesses claimed that many of the municipalities throughout Tamaulipas were "war zones," and that many businesses and houses were burned down, leaving areas in "total destruction." In the midst of violence and panic, Mexican local
authorities and mass media tried to minimize the situation and claimed that "nothing was occurring," but the facts were impossible to cover up.The complexity and territorial advantage of Los Zetas forced the Gulf Cartel to seek an alliance with the Sinaloa Cartel and, the now disbanded, La Familia Cartel. Consequently, Los Zetas joined forces with the Beltrán Leyva Cartel and the Tijuana Cartel to counteract the opposing cartels.Since February 2010, the major cartels have aligned in two factions, one integrated by the Juárez Cartel, Tijuana Cartel, Los Zetas and the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel??; the other faction integrated by the Gulf Cartel, Sinaloa Cartel and La Familia Cartel.
Anonymous' Operation Cartel
On 6 October 2011 a man identified himself as a member of Anonymous posted a video on YouTube under the account MrAnonymousguyfawkes stating that Los Zetas had kidnapped one of their group members and demanded Los Zetas Cartel release the individual. If he was not freed, the man in the video threatened to expose photos and the names of several people who collaborate with the cartel, such as police officers and taxi drivers. The man in the video stated that they were "fed up" with the situation in Mexico where people are getting kidnapped and experiencing violence.The operation to expose information of people who work with Los Zetas, dubbed "Operation Cartel", was reportedly
started as a result of an Anonymous member being kidnapped during Operation Paperstorm in Veracruz, a once peaceful city. On 29 October 2011 the Global Intelligence group Stratfor released a report stating that if Anonymous did go through with OpCartel, most certainly it would lead to more deaths and could leave bloggers and others open to
reprisal attacks by the cartels. Meanwhile, a retired head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Puerto Rico, Mike Vigil, warned that "Los Zetas should take Anonymous seriously."
OpCartel also raised the concern that Los Zetas have experts in computer intelligence who are believed to track down the "anti-cartel" campaigns online, which helps experts understand the high rate of journalist
executions. Additionally, the Mexican drug cartels generally have people monitor forums, news websites, and blogs to help them be in touch with what is being published and with what could affect their interests. The New York Times mentioned that Los Zetas has access to sophisticated tracking software due to the fact that they have infiltrated Mexican law enforcement agencies, and that online anonymity might not be enough protection for Internet users.On 4 November 2011, Anonymous posted on the Iberoamerican Blog that the kidnapped member had been released and that they had confirmed his identity. They also stated that they would not be moving forward with releasing the information they had of several cartel members
Founded 1999 (independent cartel since February 2010)
Founding location Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico
Years active 1999-present
Territory Mexico: Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, Veracruz, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, Quintana Roo,
San Luis Potosí, Chiapas, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Hidalgo, Querétaro, Zacatecas, Durango, Chihuahua, Guerrero,
Oaxaca, Guanajuato, Aguascalientes, State of México, Michoacán
United States: Texas, California, New Jersey, Detroit, Colorado, Illinois
Central America: Guatemala
Europe: Italy
Asia: Philippines
Ethnicity Predominantly Mexican, with some Guatemalan members
Criminal activities Drug trafficking, people smuggling, kidnapping, racketeering, murder, arms trafficking,
terrorism, extortion, assault, rape
Allies Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, Juárez Cartel, Tijuana Cartel, 'Ndrangheta.
Rivals Gulf Cartel, Sinaloa Cartel, La Familia Michoacana, Knights Templar Cartel
Los Zetas (Zetas, Zs) is a powerful and violent criminal syndicate in Mexico, and is considered by the U.S.
government to be the "most technologically advanced, sophisticated, and dangerous cartel operating in Mexico."
The origins of Los Zetas date back to 1999, when commandos of the Mexican Army's elite forces deserted their
ranks and decided to work as the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel, a powerful drug trafficking organization. In
February 2010, Los Zetas broke away from their former employer and formed their own criminal organization.
Due to their military background, Los Zetas are well armed, highly organized and equipped;their brutal tactics,
which include beheadings, torture and indiscriminate slaughter, show that they often prefer brutality over bribery.
Los Zetas are also Mexico's largest drug cartel in terms of geographical presence, overtaking its bitter rival,
the Sinaloa Cartel. Besides drug trafficking, Los Zetas operate through protection rackets, assassinations,
extortion, kidnappings, and other criminal activities. The organization is based in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas,
directly across the border from Laredo, Texas.
History
Etymology
The group's name Los Zetas is given after its first commander, Arturo Guzmán Decena, whose Federal Judicial Police radio code was "Z1", a code given to high-ranking officers. The radio code for Commanding Federal Judicial Police Officers in México was "Y" and are nicknamed Yankees, for Federal Judicial Police in charge of a city the radio code was "Z," and thus they were nicknamed as the letter in Spanish, "Zetas."
FoundationAfter Osiel Cárdenas Guillén took full control of the Gulf Cartel in 1999, he found himself in a violent turf war. In order to keep his organization and leadership, Cárdenas sought out Arturo Guzmán Decena, a retired Army lieutenant who lured more than 30 army deserters of the Mexican Army's elite Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales (GAFE) to become his personal bodyguards, and later, as his mercenary wing. These Army deserters were enticed with salaries much higher than those of the Mexican Army. Cárdenas' goal was to protect himself from rival drug cartels and from the Mexican military.
Once Osiel Cárdenas Guillen consolidated his position and supremacy, he expanded the responsibilities of Los Zetas, and as years passed, they became much more important for the Gulf Cartel. The Zetas began to organize kidnappings, protection rackets, extortion, securing cocaine supply and trafficking routes known as plazas (zones) and executing its foes, often with barbaric savagery.
Guzmán Decena (Z1) was killed by a rival cartel member on November 2002 in a restaurant in Matamoros, Tamaulipas,allowing Heriberto Lazcano (Z3) to ascend to the apex of the paramilitary group. In response to the rising power of the Gulf Cartel, the rival Sinaloa Cartel established a heavily armed, well-trained enforcer group known as Los Negros. The group operated similar to Los Zetas, but with less complexity and success. Upon the arrest of the Gulf Cartel boss Osiel Cárdenas Guillen in March 2003 and his extradition in 2007, the Zetas took a more active leadership role within the Gulf Cartel and their influence grew greater within the organization.
In 2010, however, Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel broke apart.
Their operatives now include corrupt former federal, state, and local police officers, as well as ex-Kaibiles, the Special Forces of the Guatemalan militaryLos Zetas have set up camps to train recruits as well as corrupt ex-federal, state, and local police officers. In
September 2005 testimony to the Mexican Congress from the then-Defense Secretary Clemente Vega, indicated that the Zetas had also hired at least 30 former Kaibiles from Guatemala to train new recruits because the number of former Mexican special forces men in their ranks had shrunk. Los Zetas' training locations have been identified as having a similar setup as military GAFE training facilities.
Territory
Analysts indicate that the Zetas are the largest organized crime group in Mexico in terms of geographical presence.
Los Zetas are primarily based in the border region of Nuevo Laredo, with hundreds more throughout the country. They have placed lookouts at arrival destinations such as airports, bus stations and main roads. In addition to conducting criminal activities along the border, they operate throughout the Gulf of Mexico, in the southern states of Tabasco, Yucatán, Quintana Roo, and Chiapas, and in the Pacific Coast states of Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Michoacán, as well as in Mexico City.They are also active in several states in the United States. The cartel also has important areas of operation in the country of Guatemala, they are active in Texas, other U.S. states and in Italy with the 'Ndrangheta.
Early in 2012 it has been reported that 'Los Zetas' are operating in the northern Venezuela–Colombia border, and have teamed up with the Colombian outfit called Los Rastrojos. Together they control the drug trafficking routes in the Colombian La Guajira and the Venezuelan state of Zulia, Colombia as the producing country and Venezuela as the main port route toward the U.S. and Europe.
Alliances and rivalries
Indications of the broken alliance between the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas began in September 2009. On 24 February 2010, gunmen onboard hundreds of trucks marked C.D.G, XXX, and M3 (the insignias of the Gulf Cartel), clashed against Zetas gunmen on the northern cities of Tamaulipas state. The clash between these two groups started in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, and then expanded to Nuevo Laredo and Matamoros. The war then spread out through 11 municipalities of Tamaulipas, 9 of them bordering the state of Texas. Soon, the violence between these two cartels spread to Tamaulipas' neighboring states of Nuevo León and Veracruz. Their conflict also spread to U.S. soil, where Gulf Cartel hit men killed two Zeta members in Brownsville, Texas on 5 October 2010.Confrontations between these two groups temporarily paralyzed entire cities in broad daylight. Several witnesses claimed that many of the municipalities throughout Tamaulipas were "war zones," and that many businesses and houses were burned down, leaving areas in "total destruction." In the midst of violence and panic, Mexican local
authorities and mass media tried to minimize the situation and claimed that "nothing was occurring," but the facts were impossible to cover up.The complexity and territorial advantage of Los Zetas forced the Gulf Cartel to seek an alliance with the Sinaloa Cartel and, the now disbanded, La Familia Cartel. Consequently, Los Zetas joined forces with the Beltrán Leyva Cartel and the Tijuana Cartel to counteract the opposing cartels.Since February 2010, the major cartels have aligned in two factions, one integrated by the Juárez Cartel, Tijuana Cartel, Los Zetas and the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel??; the other faction integrated by the Gulf Cartel, Sinaloa Cartel and La Familia Cartel.
Anonymous' Operation Cartel
On 6 October 2011 a man identified himself as a member of Anonymous posted a video on YouTube under the account MrAnonymousguyfawkes stating that Los Zetas had kidnapped one of their group members and demanded Los Zetas Cartel release the individual. If he was not freed, the man in the video threatened to expose photos and the names of several people who collaborate with the cartel, such as police officers and taxi drivers. The man in the video stated that they were "fed up" with the situation in Mexico where people are getting kidnapped and experiencing violence.The operation to expose information of people who work with Los Zetas, dubbed "Operation Cartel", was reportedly
started as a result of an Anonymous member being kidnapped during Operation Paperstorm in Veracruz, a once peaceful city. On 29 October 2011 the Global Intelligence group Stratfor released a report stating that if Anonymous did go through with OpCartel, most certainly it would lead to more deaths and could leave bloggers and others open to
reprisal attacks by the cartels. Meanwhile, a retired head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Puerto Rico, Mike Vigil, warned that "Los Zetas should take Anonymous seriously."
OpCartel also raised the concern that Los Zetas have experts in computer intelligence who are believed to track down the "anti-cartel" campaigns online, which helps experts understand the high rate of journalist
executions. Additionally, the Mexican drug cartels generally have people monitor forums, news websites, and blogs to help them be in touch with what is being published and with what could affect their interests. The New York Times mentioned that Los Zetas has access to sophisticated tracking software due to the fact that they have infiltrated Mexican law enforcement agencies, and that online anonymity might not be enough protection for Internet users.On 4 November 2011, Anonymous posted on the Iberoamerican Blog that the kidnapped member had been released and that they had confirmed his identity. They also stated that they would not be moving forward with releasing the information they had of several cartel members
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Mexican and Colombian Drug Cartels are now in the Philippines (Filipinas)
Mexican and Colombian Drug Cartels are now in the Philippines (Filipinas)
from Mexico and Colombia due to pacific .
Americas and Asia
Watch Youtube. they are:
Sinaloa Drug Cartel due to access to the pacific Coast
Los Zetas
Gulf Cartel
Tijuana Drug Cartel
Juarez Drug Cartel
Medellin Drug Cartel with FARC help
Cali Drug Cartel
La Familia Michoacan
Mexican Mafia or La Eme
Sureno 13
from Mexico and Colombia due to pacific .
Americas and Asia
Watch Youtube. they are:
Sinaloa Drug Cartel due to access to the pacific Coast
Los Zetas
Gulf Cartel
Tijuana Drug Cartel
Juarez Drug Cartel
Medellin Drug Cartel with FARC help
Cali Drug Cartel
La Familia Michoacan
Mexican Mafia or La Eme
Sureno 13
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