Mexico's War On Drugs

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The Sinaloa Cartel

Headed by Joaquin “El Chapo (Shorty)” Guzman, the Sinaloa Cartel has been one of the biggest cartels since the 1980’s. They base operations out of the Mexican states of Sinaloa, Baja California, Durango, Sonora, Chihuahua and Michoacán. The Sinaloa Cartel deals in Columbian cocaine, marijuana and heroin. Guzman was captured in 1993 and held in a Mexican maximum security prison until he bribed his way in 2001. Despite being Mexico’s top wanted man with a $5 million reward on information leading to his arrest and prosecution, Guzman still makes public appearances, often managing to stay a step ahead of the authorities.
To counter the rival Gulf Cartel’s Los Zetas military group, the Sinaloa Cartel formed the Los Negros military group. Los Negros is headed by American Edgar “La Barbie” Valdez from Laredo Texas. Though not comprised of former military personnel like Los Zetas, Los Negros goes toe-to-toe with Los Zetas with heavily armed mafia and street-gang members. Much of the bloodshed in Mexico’s war on drugs has been the result of the battling Sinaloa and Gulf Cartels and their allies.

The Juarez Cartel

The Juarez Cartel was started in the late 1980’s by brothers Amado and Vicente Carrillo Fuentes and they led together until Amado’s death in 1997 from plastic surgery complications intended to evade capture. Before Amado’s death, he had grown the Juarez Cartel to be four times more profitable than any other in Mexico and it is estimated that he had acquired a fortune of $25 billion making him one of the world’s richest men. After Amado’s death Vicente assumed full control of the cartel’s operations in Columbian cocaine, marijuana and heroin. To counter the Gulf-Tijuana cartel alliance the Juarez Cartel joined forces with the Sinaloa Cartel. Eventually after an unpaid debt the alliance broke in 2007 and now the Sinaloa and Juarez Cartels are at war against each other. After the break up, the Juarez Cartel joined forces with their former enemy Gulf Cartel.

A Global Market

The war on drugs in Mexico has struck many major blows against the major Mexican drug cartels. Alliances have been forged and broken, and the captures of major drug kingpins have put the cartels at war with each other and themselves. In addition to the massive military offensive, President Filipe Calderón has made much progress in cleaning up the corruption among local law enforcement. He first took away their guns to prevent them from attacking the troops then launched massive internal investigations and firings followed by pay raises to help reward honest cops (and keep them honest).

The war wages on and with the capture of one kingpin comes the rise of two more. Calderón allocated over $7 billion to be used for fighting the war on drugs over the next three years. The drug cartels keep on finding enough resources to fight the government, the military and each other. Demand from the United States has fueled a stable $50 billion a year business. Recently there have been reports of the Sinaloa Cartel expanding their business to ship through Africa into the lucrative European market where cocaine can be sold for as much as four times more what its sold for in the United States.

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