In the past, Columbian drug cartels garnered the majority of media attention. There were three rival drug cartels responsible for the narco-trafficking in Colombia. Drug cartels have dominated the drug trafficking trade to the United States and have become increasingly violent.
By the s, the Gulf Cartel's drug trafficking operation was reportedly bringing in billions of dollars every year. It maintained this network by engaging in political corruption and bribery as a means to keep officials on side. He was captured in and jailed for life in the US. His heir, Osiel Cardenas Guillen, built up the cartel's military wing. He recruited a number of corrupt special forces soldiers and pushed an even more violent approach.
Those soldiers would eventually go rogue and form a rival cartel of their own more on this later. Cardenas was arrested in and is currently serving 25 years in jail in the US. His brother and top leader of the cartel, Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen, was killed in a shootout with Mexican troops in The cartel then split into multiple factions with different leaders. It has been weakened as a result, and is engaged in a vicious turf war with the Territory: Also the north-east. This group was founded by corrupt members of an elite unit of Mexico's special forces.
More than 30 ex-soldiers were hired by the leader of the Gulf Cartel in the s but, as mentioned above, they broke away and formed their own operation in The two cartels then clashed violently, particularly in Mexico's north-east.
The Zetas became particularly well-known for their brutality, often torturing and decapitating their victims. By , the Zetas had reached the peak of their powers. The were named as the country's biggest drug gang, overtaking their bitter rivals the Sinaloa, and were thought to operate in more than half of the Mexican states. They moved beyond drugs and turned their hand to any crime that brought them money, from cigarette smuggling to human trafficking.
But, later in , one of their leaders was killed in a shootout with the Mexican Navy. This marked the beginning of the cartel's decline. A lack of leadership caused the Zetas to splinter and allowed rival groups to assert dominance, according to analysis from Insight Crime, which monitors organised crime in the Americas. The Zetas lost ground as others, notably the Jalisco cartel, expanded to take their east coast territory.
Internal divisions have also served to weaken the group, but it remains a dangerous force. Mexico police kill 19 gunmen in Sinaloa.
The story and map have been updated to reflect this. Smoke from burning cars in Caliacun as cartel members attempt to force the government to free a drug lord.
If you'd like some expert background on an issue or a news event, drop us a line at explainers smh. Read more explainers here. Who are the Mexican drug cartels and why are they so deadly? Please try again later. The Sydney Morning Herald. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size.
Credit: AP Where did cartels come from? Credit: AP What do they sell? How big are they? How deadly are they? Credit: Reuters What are the police doing?
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Chris Zappone is Digital Foreign Editor.
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