Essay Sample on Mexican Drug Cartels and Organizations

Introduction

Mexico is famously known for drug cartels dealing in drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping. These drug cartels are also involved in other criminal activities such as enforcing Mexican law units it is believed that drug organizations have been active in Mexico for than a hundred years. The founder of a Mexican drug cartel is believed to be Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo. He is also referred to as "The Godfather"

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The drug trafficking organizations in Mexico brought their products in the market with the most efficient way and they were they sold drugs in wholesale to the united states so that they could maximize their profits gain and this gained them a lot of control in the United States since other retail drug distributors were formed in the United States with the help of U.S drug gangs. With his co-founder, Rafael Caro Quintero they became partners with a major drug cartel from Colombia known as Pablo Escobar who was known for cocaine trafficking and this made the Mexican drug cartel empire to grow bigger and stronger.

The cartel had to be divided into smaller regions all over the country known as "plazas" or regions and they were controlled by different trafficking organizations each with its own leader. Although there was an introduction of regions, they were all under their leader who had the highest position in the drug organizations and his job was to manage the other drug industries, to plan cold blood murders, making of new allies with other drug cartels from other countries and appointing new territorial leaders to lead the empires. There was a rise of political killings because the drug lords have become so powerful and Gallardo had to stay underground after the agent of drug enforcement administrator Enrique Camarena was murdered in 1985 and his co-founder Rafael was arrested.

The agreement of creating the plazas united the Sinaloa Federation and the Tijuana Arellano brothers who played a major role in the trade a former police officer from Sinaloa in partnership with Arellano Felix family found Tijuana Arellano drug organization. There was a rise of war after Arellano Felix organization divided into two groups and both wanted to take control of the drug empire corridor and this led to Tijuana becoming one of the most violent cities in Mexico. Sanchez Arellano was identified as one of the most influential drug traffickers in Mexico. He was arrested in 2014 and his brother who was a trained accountant took over the organization with the help of their mother.

The Sinaloa cartel was founded in the 1980s by their leader called Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. It was considered one of the powerful and feared organizations in the western hemisphere because it conquered its rival groups and it was comprised of other smaller drug trafficking organizations. Sinaloa cartel took over north-west of Mexico and it made lots of profits trafficking drugs and narcotics in Europe, Asia, and the United States Sinaloa easily smuggled drugs into the United States because public officials were corrupted by the Sinaloa leaders.

Sinaloa drug trade became so popular by 2012 and they made profits estimated as high as three billion dollars. A federation that included the Beltran organization and the Juarez drug trafficking organization broke apart in 2008 and this caused violence in Mexico. These two drug trafficking organizations under the management of Sinaloa cartel. Guzman was arrested and tried to escape twice from the Mexican prisons.

The first attempt was in 2001 and the second one was in 2015. The second attempt embarrassed the Pena Nieto administration that would have convinced the Mexican government to move him to another country for trial rather than in Mexico. Guzman was recaptured the third time after his second escape and he has been moved to New York where he is waiting for his trial while his lawyers are trying to appeal to the court that Guzman was not the leader of Sinaloa organization but he instead he was following orders from his commander.

When Guzman was arrested, his deputy "El Azul" Esparragozza Moreno took over but he was reported to have passed away in 2014 and Guzman's partner Ismael Zambada Garcia is assumed to be the one who took over the leadership. Sinaloa is receiving a lot of pressure and its future is seen falling apart because of the effect of bilateral cooperation on counternarcotics and security that has increased tension between Mexico and the United States due to trade and migration.

The Juarez organization that was located in Ciudad Juarez city was assigned to control smuggling between Juarez and El Paso. Juarez organization was allied with the Sinaloa organization since 2002 but in 2008 it separated itself from the Federation of Sinaloa. The split led to war rising, the war was known as "turf war". Due to great violence that was being experienced in Ciudad, around 15% or more was displaced and there was a lot of kidnapping, extortion, theft and increased criminal activities that rose due to the drug-related war. Juarez mostly dealt with cocaine from South America and marijuana. The cultivation of opium and production of heroin has become so active in Juarez cartel. The actions of Calderon's socioeconomic president and the police attributed to the falling of violence between 2012 and 2013.

Around 2010, another cartel was found known as The Jalisco New Generation. The Jalisco generation became one of the most competitive drug cartels against the Sinaloa group and they started to take over the places that were controlled by the Sinaloa group. They took over places like the port of Manzanillo and Tijuana. After many accusations of attacking security forces, bombing an army helicopter and public officials, Jalisco cartel was the largest criminal cartel organization in 2017.

Gulf drug trafficking organization that was located in the city of Matamoros that was along the border and Tamaulipas, Gulf had its operations of smuggling drugs in central and southern America. The leader of the Gulf organization is called Jan Garcia. The Gulf competed against the Sinaloa organization and it challenged it greatly over the routes used for trafficking. Now the gulf competes against the Los Zetas organization which was its former wing in the business.

Juan Garcia then formed an ally with the columbium cartels and the federal police of Mexico in the 1980s and this strengthened the Gulf organization. In 1996 Juan Garcia was captured near Monterrey, Mexico. Later Osiel Cardenas succeeded in the position of Garcia and he hired Mexican military forces as his assassins by corrupting them and they formed a name called Los Zetas. This combination made the Gulf organization to be one of the most powerful cartels in Mexico in 2002. In 2003 Mexican authorities arrested Cardenas and put him prison where he continued to run his business and until 2007 when he was moved to the United States.

The Gulf and Los Zetas split up in 2010 although the very cause of their split is not well known it is said that there was increased tension between them. Osiel's brother Antonio took leadership of the Gulf organization in 2007 after his brother was transferred to the United States prison. Antonio was executed in 2010 and Jorge Eduardo took over the leadership of Gulf organization until he was arrested in 2012.

After the Gulf and Los Zetas groups split up, Los Zetas formed its organizations which are believed to be former Mexican army special forces. The zetas objective was different from other organizations because they did not smuggle drugs mostly but caused violence against civilians. One of the Zetas leader and founder Heriberto Lazcano was killed by the Mexican marines in 2012. Los Zetas increased the rate of crime in Mexico they stole fuel, kidnapping and human smuggling. Zetas became famous and they control around 40% of stolen oil. This led to a loss of 1.5 billion dollars of a certain oil company in Mexico in 2014.

Due to these drug trafficking organizations, Mexico has experienced negatives in economic growth and opportunities. The government of Mexico main goal is to try to diminish the drug trafficking organizations in Mexico. The government is also facing a major problem in dealing with corruption. The drug cartels are bribing the local authorities and the Mexican forces and this is making it hard for the Mexican government to identify the drug lords in the country. Analysts say that Mexico and the United States have to strengthen their cooperation so as to be able to reduce violence and drug smuggling between the two countries.

References

(Michael, June 10, 2015, insight crime)

(Grant, October 2013, BBC news)

(Christopher Woody, March 2017, Mexico is settling into a violent status Houston chronicle)

(John, 2014, politics of organized crime in Mexico drug trafficking organizations and democratic Governance)

(Steven, May 2012, "who controls Tijuana?" insight crime.)