Mexican Cartel Case Study

In the 1980’s the Guadalajara cartel emerged as the premier Mexican drug trafficking organization (DTO). Since that time the Mexican Transnational Criminal Organizations (MTCO) have expanded their drug trafficking networks internationally. Throughout the 1980’s and early 1990’s several organizations, such as the Gulf Cartel, began to emerge however, the majority of the Mexican drug trade was controlled by Juan Garcia Abrego and several other “Capos”. The vertical hierarchy facilitated law enforcement in disrupting the flow of narcotics with a single arrest. The highly centralized leadership structures ultimately proved unsustainable under pressure by military and law enforcement (Reed 2015). Thus, as Mexican Cartels have expanded their networks over the past nearly four decades, so to have they become increasingly decentralized through a continued process of balkanization. Balkanization describes the Cartels trend to fracture into more geographically compact, regional crime networks.

border and the dry arid climate in the northern region reduced nearly all control by the Columbian Cartel. Additionally, maritime law enforcement interdiction forced the force the Columbians to use the Mexican Cartels drug transportation, allowing them to become the cornerstone for narcotics traffic throughout the 2,000 mile long U.S. border (Reed 20015). As narcotics shipments became larger and profits more lucrative, the former members of the Guadalajara Cartel began forming smaller criminal organizations such as the Juarez Cartel, the Tijuana Cartel and eventually the Sinaloa Federation, which was ultimately led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera. These