The War in México: The Cartels

Part 3: The Cartels

The rise of the Mexican drug cartels began December 2, 1993 in the city of Medellín, Colombia when Pablo Escobar, the leader of the powerful Medellín drug cartel was gunned down by an elite unit of the Colombian police. Starting in the 1970s, Colombian drug traffickers had introduced cocaine to the United States and reaped the benefits: by 1989, Escobar was estimated to be the seventh wealthiest man in the world. When a joint effort by the United States and Colombia finally took down Colombia's biggest cartels in the early 1990s, it was the Mexican cartels who took over their distribution routes.

There are at least seven criminal organizations involved in the drug trade in Mexico: the Gulf, Sinaloa, Juárez, Tijuana, Valencia, Colima and Oaxaca cartels. In recent years, the once-powerful Tijuana (Arellano Félix) and Juárez cartels have declined due to in-fighting and a U.S.-led crackdown, prompting the the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels to vie for dominance.

For muscle, the Gulf Cartel relies on Los Zetas, a paramilitary group composed of elite ex-soldiers, many of whom once served in anti-narcotics forces while the Sinaloa Cartel draws on Los Negros, a smaller but no less ruthless death squad. The Sinaloa Cartel supplements their paramilitary forces by bribing law enforcement officials and politicians who in turn use their power to target the Gulf Cartel in the name of public safety.

The Mexican cartels have also adopted the Colombian cartels use of terrorism to break down its enemies and clear the way for their illegal trafficking. By murdering high profile victims such as the head of the national anti-drug force and by dumping decapitated and tortured bodies in front of schools, the Mexican cartels hope to paralyze any potential opposition, whether from officials or ordinary citizens.

Next: The Consumers