The most dangerous drug cartels in Mexico 2021

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Eight criminal organizations have become the most powerful, feared, and fastest-growing in Mexico.

The scars of 15 years of violence in Mexico can be summed up in a number: eight, the total number of priority drug cartels for the Mexican and US authorities.

On December 15, the US Department of the Treasury confirmed through an Executive order the eight main criminal organizations for their level of danger.

In the first place, it has placed the Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) and Sinaloa cartels . The first, led by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, El Mencho, is classified as one of the five most dangerous organizations in the world. According to the report, the rapid expansion of the CJNG took place because of its willingness to engage in violent confrontations with security forces and rival cartels.

The CJNG has specialized mainly in the trafficking of synthetic drugs, such as fentanyl, which it produces with precursors that it receives from Asia to the ports of Manzanillo (Colima) and Lázaro Cardenas (Michoacán) and then distributes to the United States.

Recently, the CJNG has been launched by the states operated by the Sinaloa Cartel, which has triggered violence. The US authorities offer USD 10 million for whom to arrest Mencho.

(Graphic: Infobae Mexico)(Graphic: Infobae Mexico)

The Sinaloa Cartel has been at the top of the United States’ list of top targets for decades. Its founder, Joaquín el Chapo Guzmán was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2019, but the war against the Sinaloan organization did not end. In mid-December, the US Treasury Department announced the rewards for Chapo’s children, Ovidio Guzmán López , Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar , Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar and Joaquín Guzmán López.

On November 30, Guzmán Loera’s last wife, Emma Coronel, was sentenced to three years in prison, for the crimes of drug trafficking and money laundering.

The so-called Pacific Cartel was founded in the 1980s, initially, it operated as a coalition of the most powerful drug traffickers in Mexico, but in 2000 the capos Ismael el Mayo Zambada and Joaquín el Chapo Guzmán consolidated their power, which led to the promotion to the Sinaloa Cartel.

The organization traffics large quantities of illicit drugs such as fentanyl and heroin into the United States.

(Graphic: Infobae Mexico)(Graphic: Infobae Mexico)

The Gulf Cartel is one of the oldest organizations in Mexico. The United States Department of Justice and the DEA identified it as one of the eight most dangerous cartels in Mexico. It is engaged in the manufacture, distribution, and importation of cocaine and marijuana into the United States.

The cartel primarily traffics heroin and cocaine and transports its cargoes to the United States near McAllen and Brownsville, Texas. In 2007, it was included in the Kingpin Act.

(Graphic: Infobae Mexico)(Graphic: Infobae Mexico)

Cárteles Unidos operates mainly in the states of Michoacán and Guanajuato. It is a union of cartels from Michoacán— Familia Michoacana, Caballeros Templarios, and Los Blancos de Troya—. The US authorities have identified them as a threat, because they produce heroin in the territories they control.

(Graphic: Infobae Mexico)(Graphic: Infobae Mexico)

Despite not having the same power as in the 1980s, the Juarez Cartel and its armed wing La Línea continue to pose a significant threat to the United States through their drug trafficking activities along with the southwestern United States border.

The organization and its leaders have been the subject of multiple indictments in the United States. In 2010, the justice of this country sentenced the founder of the cartel, Osiel Cárdenas Guillen, to 25 years in prison; however, since 2004, the organization was in the crosshairs of the US government, and the same as a major foreign drug trafficker under the Kingpin Act.

Los Zetas were the first cartel to use extreme violence, often displayed through social media, to exert control over territory and intimidate and terrorize local citizens, Mexican security forces, and rival organizations.

Also called the Last Letter Cartel, it smuggles most of its illicit drugs across the northern border of Mexico, which borders the US regions of Laredo and Eagle Pass, Texas.

Los Rojos is a split from the Beltrán Leyva Organization, which in recent years has become one of the most powerful criminal organizations in Mexico.

In addition to generating violence in Mexico, Los Rojos are responsible for the trafficking of numerous illicit drugs, including heroin, to the United States.

Source: infobae.com

Mexico Daily Post