Mexican Drug Cartel Research Paper

Plata O Plomo

With the fall of the notorious kingpin, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, the future of Mexican drug cartels is questioned by many. However, El Chapo was only one figure in the global operations of the Sinaloa Cartel. For this reason, this paper will explore Mexican drug cartels to gain knowledge of how vast their power is. This will be accomplished by discussing Mexico’s past efforts to stop cartels, which cartels are currently active, how they operate, and what measures are being taken by the governments to stop cartels.

First, the history of the war against cartels in Mexico will be discussed to understand the impact and power they pose in their country. Geographically, Ciudad Juarez in Mexico, with a population of 1.3 million,

Vigilante groups have formed to combat the violence these drug organizations have created in Mexico. A well-known vigilante group in Mexico is the Autodefensas formerly led by José Manuel Mireles Valverde. Valverde was kidnapped by a cartel and has lost several family members to their violence. This urged Valverde to create his own movement and fight the gangs themselves, rather than wait for the government to act. Vigilante groups are viewed as heroic public citizens, but over time their desire to defeat drugs is blurred. Autodefensas law is “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” The groups view cartels as an evil, but with a corrupt government the public’s desire for protection leaves many to murder and work for cartels. Cartels have almost complete control of civic life in Mexico, including the local judicial system, local police, and corporations. This makes it no surprise that Mexico is a danger zone because it is turning their own citizens into violent offenders. The documentary Cartel Land, follows these vigilante groups in Mexico and it sheds a light to the corruption, greed, and violence the country is facing. The director of the film, Matthew Heinman states, “By the end of the film I could be on an operativo, on a mission, and look to my left and look to my right and not know if I was with the cartel or the people fighting against the cartels.” (Cartel Land,

Chicago has become an important city for drug trafficking. It contains six major highways that would allow 70% of the US populations to access drugs within a day’s drive. Chicago’s easy access allows individuals such as Pedro and Margarito Flores to distribute drugs. These brothers were close to the Sinaloa Cartel and used friends from the neighborhood, with no gang connection, to distribute the drugs in the city. Chicago has one of the country’s largest Latino populations, which has allowed cartel to supply Latino gangs to make it a profitable market. It is also believed that the Mexican cartels are setting up operations in the US to grow their supply. For example, in areas like Northern California and Wisconsin, a marijuana farm with 10,000 plants and armed guards was discovered. The farm was said to be run by the Sinaloa cartel when it was found in 2012. Lastly, experts explain that since cartels operate transnationally and on both sides of the border there still is not a certain image of how drug trafficking and distribution operates. Hence, we may understand trafficking routes and what some methods of transporting include, but the details of structure and business will never be fully clear (Woody, 2017). Since this paper has discussed how cartels bring drugs into the US and who they contract to distribute the drugs, we must understand how they get the money back into Mexico. It is estimated that