Mexico's War On Drugs

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In mid-2005, President Fox deployed small groups of the military in a non-offensive support role to the contested border states with little success. Drug cartels increasingly began recruiting teenagers to perform their killings for as cheap as $300 or less a kill since they cannot be held for long prison sentences. If the $50 billion a year drug exporting business wasn’t enough, gangs expanded their business ventures into kidnapping and extorting businessmen. By the time President Felipe Calderón assumed office it was estimated that over half of all local and state authorities were on the drug cartel’s payroll with corruption spreading into federal agents and across the border into the United States’ police departments.

The Gulf Cartel

Founded by Juan Nepomuceno Guerra, the Gulf Cartel began developing its political connections and its narcotic smuggling operations in the 1970’s. Guerra was also a bootlegger smuggling whiskey into the United States during the prohibition era of the 1930’s. The Gulf Cartels base their operations in the Mexican border states of Matamoros and Tamaulipas where their smuggling operations tax local dealers, businessmen and illegal border-crossers in their territories.

By the 1990’s the cartel had been taken over by Guerra’s nephew Juan García Abrego who had expanded it into the cocaine business. Abrego was captured and extradited to the United States in 1996 and Salvador “El Chava” Gómez stepped up to assume control of operations. Later that same year Gómez was assassinated by Osiel Cárdenas who took over until his arrest in 2003. Cárdenas continues to play an active role in heading the Gulf Cartel from his prison cell even after his extradition to the United States in 2007. With the limited capacities of the symbolic Gulf Cartel leader the business has been split between Los Zetas leader Hector Heriberto Lazcano, top lieutenant of Cárdenas Jorge Eduardo Sánchez and Hector Manuel Sauceda Gamboa.

The Tijuana Cartel

Also known as the Arellano Félix Organization, the Tijuana Cartel was originally started by Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo as the Guadalajara Cartel in the 1980’s. He handed the business over to the Arellano Félix family upon his arrest in 1989. The Arellano Félix family consists of seven brothers and four sisters. Based in Baja California and Sonora, the Tijuana cartel has been in competition with the Sinaloa Cartel for the rest of the northwest Mexican border states. The Tijuana cartel’s business ventures include the importation and distribution of cocaine as well as the production and distribution of marijuana, heroin and methamphetamines. Since its beginnings, five of the seven Arellano Félix brothers have been captured and one has been killed by police or the military.

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