
A federal policeman stands guard during an operation at a night club in downtown Ciudad Juarez March 7, 2009. Mexico's bloodiest drug war city is Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. (Tomas Bravo/Reuters)
Clash of the cartels: a guide
Mexico's ruthless drug lords protect themselves, their territories, and their criminal and drug trades, with horrifying brutality.
MEXICO CITY — As Mexico suffers from an onslaught of massacres, decapitations and execution-style hits, six major drug cartels have carved up the country into fiefdoms. Like the armies of authentic warlords, the cartels attempt to completely dominate their territories, controlling trafficking routes, local drug sales and other criminal enterprises. Clashing over disputed turf, the cartels all have carried out murders on an epic scale.
Sinaloa Cartel

(Nails decorated with marijuana and images of narco patron saint Jesus Malverde. Drug murders are common in Sinaloa, the home turf of one of Mexico's main drug gangs and where traffickers worship a bandit as their own patron saint. Mica Rosenberg/Reuters)
City base: Culiacan (northwestern Mexico)
Kingpins: Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, Juan Jose Esparragoza (El Azul)
States in sphere of influence: Sinaloa, Sonora, Durango, Morelos, Chihuahua, Baja California, Mexico City, Quintana Roo, Yucatan
History: The Pacific state of Sinaloa gave birth to the Mexican narcotics trade when peasant farmers used its arid mountains to grow opium in the first part of the 20th century. The Sinaloa Cartel is said to have its roots in the early organizations that used houses in the state capital Culiacan to convert these opium poppies into heroin for the U.S. market. The cartel was quick to dominate the subsequent trades in marijuana and Colombian cocaine, and grew to be the size of Colombia’s notorious Medellin cartel by the mid-1990s. It is believed to be the Mexican cartel that has trafficked the greatest amount of narcotics throughout the first decade of the 21st century.
Of note:
- Kingpin Guzman was arrested in 1993 in Guatemala and extradited to Mexico, where he served in the high-security Puente Grande prison in Jalisco. In 2001, he escaped from the prison in a laundry truck.
- The crime family has its own musical group named after it called Grupo Cartel de Sinaloa.
- Cartel leaders are alleged to visit expensive Sinaloan restaurants with entourages of gunmen and to pick up the tab for all the clientele.
- Kingpin Guzman was listed on the 2009 Forbes billionaire list at number 701, with a supposed net worth of $1 billion.
The Gulf Cartel/The Zetas

(Alleged members of the Zetas are escorted after attending a hearing at a courthouse in Cancun April 10, 2006. Victor Ruiz/Reuters)
City base: Matamoros (northeastern Mexico)
Kingpins: Osiel Cardenas (in prison in the United States), Ezequel Cardenas, Heriberto “The Executioner” Lazcano
States in sphere of influence: Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, Veracruz, Tabasco, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Yucatan
History: The Gulf Cartel has its roots in a gang of bootleggers who smuggled liquor into Texas in the 1930s and then expanded into other forms of contraband. In the 1970s, gang leader Juan Garcia Abrego, the nephew of one of the founders, established the cartel as one of the major traffickers of marijuana and cocaine. In the 1990s, a unit of elite Mexican soldiers defected to the Gulf Cartel and became its band of enforcers. Known as the Zetas, they used paramilitary tactics and extreme violence to control a large chunk of eastern Mexico.
Of note:
- Kingpin Osiel Cardenas was arrested in 2003 but continued to run his operations from prison until he was extradited to the United States in 2007.
- Cardenas allegedly threatened two DEA agents in 1999 with the line, “You gringos, this is my territory. You can't control it, so get the hell out of here.''
- The Zetas are believed to be behind the biggest mass beheading in recent history, dumping 12 heads at two ranches in the southern Yucatan state in 2008.
- The Zetas have operated full-fledged training camps near the U.S. border.
All you see on tv, and read, in newspapers and on-line, is how violent Mexico is today. I just got back from the Bays of Huatulco, Mexico, a resort destination on the southern Pacific Coast. People there live and survive from the tourist industry. Huatulco is getting a bad deal. I was safer there than walking down Michigan Ave., here in Chicago. Can you do a piece on how Huatulco and other vacation spots in Mexico are still safe to visit. Respectfully, Tony P. from Chicago.
Tony ... muchacho:
Sounds like you're a victim of what passes for third-level education in the US today. "Every story has two sides, one is black, one is white, let's choose GRAY and all will be well". Guess what! Some things ARE black & white. Mexico is a dangerously teetering, unstable and very populous state undergoing an explosion of crime and violence. What part of "Heads thrown on the disco floor ..." don't you understand?
Do you honestly expect Globalpost to write a "Counterbalancing" piece on some backwater tourist resort where you had the good fortune to enjoy a quiet time? Go to Durango and strike up a conversation at a bar about the coke business, then tell us how safe you felt ... !
Recent on Mexico :
Journalist murders in Mexico hit new record
Ioan Grillo - Mexico - November 14, 2009 09:46 ET
Censorship increases as killings become routine. "I don’t want to die young," says one reporter.
Mural makeover
John Enders - Mexico - November 12, 2009 16:50 ET
Mexico is restoring the murals of Diego Rivera — admirer of Lenin, friend of Trotsky and lover of Frida Kahlo.
On Location: Mexico City — Gangster chic
Ioan Grillo - Mexico - November 9, 2009 09:22 ET
Vigilante justice spreads across Mexico
Ioan Grillo - Mexico - October 28, 2009 05:39 ET
More Mexicans turn to the lynch mob as crime spirals out of control.
“Legalize it” lobby gains strength across Americas
Ioan Grillo - Mexico - October 20, 2009 05:26 ET
Mexico and other Latin American countries are moving toward drug decriminalization — and Washington isn't complaining.
Mexico’s "business class" refugees
Todd Bensman - Mexico - October 18, 2009 17:14 ET
Violence is pushing Mexican elites to buy their way to safety using a special class of U.S. visas available only to the rich.
Full Frame: Worshipping Saint Death
Brian L Frank - Full Frame - October 15, 2009 14:45 ET
A photographer visits Mexico's most notorious barrios, where death is the only truth in life.
Full Frame: Born behind bars
Caroline Bennett - Full Frame - October 15, 2009 14:44 ET
A photographic journey inside a prison where babies live with their incarcerated mothers.
A World of Trouble: Is the nightmare over?
Thomas Mucha - Commerce - October 14, 2009 13:35 ET
With signs of economic recovery finally emerging, here's where things stand in 20 countries around the world.
Stanford scam bilked Jews out of millions
Todd Bensman - Commerce - September 24, 2009 13:50 ET
A GlobalPost Passport investigation finds that the $8 billion Stanford Ponzi scheme decimated the savings of Jews in Mexico City and Caracas. Were they explicitly targeted?
Cities of sisterly love
John Enders - Mexico - September 19, 2009 08:15 ET
A sister-city relationship between a Mexican town and an Oregonian one has led to 79 marriages.
Full Frame: Unusual cultures, uncommon places
Tewfic El-Sawy - Worldview - September 15, 2009 08:06 ET
A photographer documents endangered cultures and traditional ways of life in Asia, Latin America and Africa.
Mexico's growing obesity problem
Ioan Grillo - Mexico - August 30, 2009 14:50 ET
With fattier diets and changing lifestyles, Mexico is packing on the pounds.
A new stage for drug deals and turf wars
Nadja Drost - The Americas - August 29, 2009 17:00 ET
Panama, once one of Latin America's safest countries, is now home to gangs and drug violence.
So long, Beckham. You won't be missed.
Mark Starr - Sports - August 13, 2009 15:23 ET
Why soccer in America will survive a failed experiment.
Meet the economic gangsters
Mark Scheffler - Commerce - August 12, 2009 09:03 ET
Economic gangsters come in all shapes and sizes — they're Asian dictators and Somali pirates.
Full Frame: Growing up in jail
Caroline Bennett - Worldview - August 11, 2009 11:02 ET
'Three Amigos Summit' highlights split on trade
Ioan Grillo - Commerce - August 10, 2009 18:10 ET
Post photo-op smiles, North American leaders resume tough stance on trade.
Why Mexican crystal meth is America's problem
Ioan Grillo - Mexico - August 1, 2009 12:08 ET
Once the hobby of bikers with bath tubs, meth production has gone international and industrial.
Watch GlobalPost videos:
Reporter's Notebook
Assistant Editor Stephanie S. Garlow pitched in recently to cover the story of a New Englander who was taken hostage on the high seas by Somali...Read more >
Angelica Marin, a Californian, and Fulvio Paolocci, an Italian, recently moved to Rome and file regular dispatches and multimedia for...Read more >
Gavin Blair lives in Japan and writes regular dispatches for GlobalPost: Land of rising communism The curse of the colonel Analysis: Japan looks...Read more >
Featured: Special Projects
After the Fall:
20 years since the Berlin Wall came down
Life, Death and the Taliban:
Videos and stories
Study Abroad:
Students report from the road
Living in the Shadows:
An intimate look at China's migrant workers
A World of Trouble:
The global economy in 20 hotspots
Global Blogs:










Comments:
2 Comments.
Login or Register to post comments