Clash of the cartels: a guide

Beltran Leyva Organization

(Soldiers escort drug kingpin Hector Huerta Rios of the Beltran Leyva cartel on March 24, 2009. Tomas Bravo/Reuters)

City Base: Culiacan

Leader: Arturo Beltran Leyva, alias “The Beard"

States in sphere of influence: Sinaloa, Sonora, Nuevo Leon, Morelos

History: The Beltran Leyva brothers were long-standing members of the Sinaloa Cartel. But in 2008 they broke with the other bosses, unleashing a bloody civil war in the state capital Culiacan. Since then they have become a powerful independent organization with a vast network of corrupt officials on their payroll and foot soldiers fighting in paramilitary units known as FEDA, a Spanish acronym for the Special Forces of Arturo.

Of note:

• Hector Huerta Rios — a top cartel lieutenant who ran Beltran Leyva's operations in northeastern Mexico — was arrested and presented to the press March 25, 2009, the day U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Mexico.
• Brother Alfredo Beltran Leyva, known as the “Giant Ant,” was arrested in January 2008, in the most high-profile arrest of Mexican President Felipe Calderon's administration.
• Arturo Beltran Leyva was alleged to be behind the killing of acting federal Police Chief Edgar Millan in his own home in May 2008.
• A Mexican Interpol agent was arrested in 2008 for passing information about DEA agents to Beltran Leyva.

La Familia Michoacana

(Mexican soldiers talk with a child during a raid on a poor neighborhood in the drug-violence plagued town of Apatzingan May 9, 2007. Daniel Aguilar/Reuters)

City base: Apatzingan (Central Mexico)

States in sphere of influence: Michoacan, Guerrero, Mexico State, Morelos, Nuevo Leon

Leaders: Unknown

History: The shadowy Familia Michoacana appeared in 2006, unleashing violence in central Mexico in alliance with Los Zetas. They have since broken away to form a separate cartel that has expanded rapidly into surrounding states. They are notorious for trafficking crystal meth, but have also moved into kidnapping and extortion rackets.

Of note:

• Assassins for La Familia threw five human heads onto a disco dance floor in 2006.
• The owner of third division soccer club “Los Mapaches” was arrested for being linked to La Familia.
• La Familia are alleged to have been behind the high-profile kidnapping and killing of wealthy teenager Fernando Marti in Mexico City in 2008.

View Larger Map

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/mexico/090326/clash-the-cartels-guide