Choose one of the 9 major Drug Cartels sited in the article below Find 2 sources other than the one below and answer the following questions: 1. Who are they and where are they

Mexico: Organized Crime and Drug

Trafficking Organizations

Updated June 7, 2022

Congressional Research Service

https://crsreports.congress.gov

R41576

Congressional Research Service

SUMMARY

Mexico: Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking Organizations Mexican transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) significantly influence drug

trafficking in the United States and pose the greatest drug trafficking threat, according to

the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA’s) annual National Drug Threat

Assessment. These organizations control the market and movement of a wide range of

illicit drugs destined for the United States; for this reason, they are commonly referred to

as drug cartels and drug trafficking organizations (DTOs). These poly-criminal organizations also participate in

extortion, human smuggling, arms trafficking, and oil theft, among other crimes. Homicide rate increases in

Mexico are widely attributed to heightened DTO-related violence, often tied to territorial control over drug routes

and criminal influence.

Congress has tracked how Mexican TCOs affect security on the U.S.-Mexico border, perpetrate violence, and

contribute to the U.S. opioid crisis. A major concern is the organizations’ trafficking of cocaine, heroin,

methamphetamine, marijuana, and synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl. Many analysts assess that Mexican TCOs’

role in the production and trafficking of synthetic opioids into the United States has significantly expanded since

2018. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 106,000 overdose deaths occurred

in the United States in 2021, more than 70% of which involved opioids, including fentanyl.

Evolution of Mexico’s Criminal Environment

The leadership and organizational structures of Mexican DTOs remain in flux. In 2006, four DTOs were

dominant: the Tijuana/Arellano Félix Organization (AFO), the Sinaloa Cartel, the Juárez/Vicente Carillo Fuentes

Organization (CFO), and the Gulf Cartel. Government operations to eliminate cartel leadership increased

instability among the groups and sparked greater violence. Over the next dozen years, Mexico’s larger and more

stable DTOs fragmented, creating at first seven and then nine major groups.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, elected in 2018, has advocated policies that focus on the root

causes of crime, but his government has not carried out counternarcotics operations consistently. Despite reform

promises, the president appears to rely on a policy of using the military and a military-led national guard to

address narcotics- and TCO-related concerns. He campaigned on addressing high levels of criminal impunity and

official corruption, long-standing problems in Mexico. However, more than halfway through López Obrador’s

six-year term, he arguably has achieved few of his anti-corruption and criminal justice aims.

Congressional Action

Many in the 117th Congress remain concerned about DTO-related violence in Mexico and its impact on border

security. Some Members have been evaluating the amounts and effectiveness of U.S. counternarcotics and

security assistance to Mexico and assessing the overall U.S.-Mexico security relationship. Additional concerns

focus on how DTO-related violence has imperiled some licit economic sectors, negatively affected U.S.-Mexico

trade, and contributed to the internal displacement and outmigration of Mexican citizens. Congress has engaged

regularly with these issues, holding hearings, appropriating funds to support Mexico’s anti-crime efforts, and

issuing directives and reporting requirements to U.S. agencies.

The Biden Administration and the government of President López Obrador are shaping a new bilateral security

program, the U.S.-Mexico Bicentennial Framework on Security, Public Health, and Safe Communities.

Introduced in fall 2021, the framework, as announced, seeks to address insecurity inside Mexico and the U.S.

opioid overdose crisis. Congress would play a role in overseeing the funding and effectiveness of this framework,

which would replace the Mérida Initiative as the primary bilateral partnership for U.S.-Mexico security

cooperation.

R41576

June 7, 2022

June S. Beittel Analyst in Latin American Affairs

Mexico: Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking Organizations

Congressional Research Service

Contents

Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 1

Congressional Concerns …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 4

Mexico’s Criminal Landscape: Extreme Violence, Corruption, and Impunity …………………………. 7

A Competition for Turf and the Geography of Violence ………………………………………………….. 9 The Administration of President López Obrador and Security ……………………………………….. 12 Crime Trends During the COVID-19 Pandemic …………………………………………………………… 17

Illicit Drugs in Mexico and Components of Its Drug Supply Market ……………………………………. 18

Categories of Illicit Drugs …………………………………………………………………………………………. 19

Evolution of the Crime Groups ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 22

Profiles of Nine Major Criminal Groups Operating in Mexico ………………………………………. 23 Tijuana/Arellano Félix Organization …………………………………………………………………….. 23 Sinaloa DTO ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 24 Juárez/Carrillo Fuentes Organization …………………………………………………………………….. 27 Gulf Cartel ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 28 Los Zetas and Cartel del Noreste ………………………………………………………………………….. 29 Beltrán Leyva Organization …………………………………………………………………………………. 30 La Familia Michoacana……………………………………………………………………………………….. 31 Los Rojos ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 32 Cártel Jalisco Nuevo Generación ………………………………………………………………………….. 32

Fragmentation, Competition, and Diversification …………………………………………………………. 34

Outlook ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 35

Figures

Figure 1. Map of Mexico ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3

Figure 2. 2021 Mexican Cartel Territory and Conflict Zones ………………………………………………. 10

Figure 3. Cartel Territory by Areas of Dominance and Presence in 2021 ……………………………….. 11

Figure 4. Top 10 Cities for Most Homicide Victims in Mexico in 2020 ………………………………… 17

Figure 5. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Seizures of Fentanyl and Methamphetamine …………. 21

Appendixes

Appendix. Government Efforts to Combat Drug Trafficking Organizations ………………………….. 37

Contacts

Author Information ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 39

Mexico: Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking Organizations

Congressional Research Service 1

Introduction This report analyzes Mexico’s criminal landscape, including pervasive violence and corruption. It

also discusses categories of illicit drugs in Mexico and profiles nine major criminal organizations

in Mexico, as well as the phenomena of fragmentation and competition among these major drug

trafficking organizations (DTOs).1 An Appendix to the report summarizes the evolution of

Mexican governmental efforts to combat DTOs.

Mexico shares a nearly 2,000-mile border with the United States, and the two countries have

long-standing and close trade, cultural, and demographic ties. Mexico’s transnational criminal

organizations (TCOs) supply illicit drugs to the United States and engage in a wide variety of

other lucrative transnational criminal activities. TCOs’ illicit activities have contributed to a spike

in U.S. drug overdoses, have provided a push factor for migration out of Mexico, and may have

driven internal displacement.2 Mexican TCOs also contribute to high levels of violence and

corruption in Mexico. TCO-related violence in Mexico affects U.S. individual and commercial

interests as well as the stability of Mexico’s governing institutions. Despite years of effort,

including substantial U.S. assistance, Mexican TCOs and their violence remain difficult to

suppress. The TCOs’ evolution and activities have therefore remained of sustained concern to

U.S. policymakers. Over the past decade, Congress has held numerous hearings on U.S.

counternarcotics assistance and border security issues, which often highlight TCO-perpetrated

violence.

Both the total number of reported murders (intentional homicides) each year and the homicide

rate (per 100,000 persons) in Mexico have risen and then stayed at or near record levels in the

past five years. Many analysts attribute the biggest factor in Mexico’s current homicide level rise

to organized crime-style killings.3 According to an annual assessment by one Mexican think tank,

five Mexican cities topped the list of the 50 most violent cities globally in 2019.4 (For the top 10

most violent Mexican cities in 2020 and their homicide rates, see Figure 4.) This increase in

violence and the Mexican government’s response are of interest to some Members of Congress.

The increasing DTO-related violence has had political implications in Mexico. Political violence

leading up to Mexico’s mid-term elections in 2021—when reportedly more than 100 politicians

1 This report uses the terms drug trafficking organizations (DTOs), transnational criminal organization (TCOs), and

drug cartels interchangeably to refer to Mexican crime groups (unless otherwise delineated). For example, some crime

organizations evolve from more localized cartel fragments into full-blown TCOs, which commit drug trafficking and

other illicit crimes across international borders.

2 Mary Beth Sheridan, “The War Next Door: Conflict in Mexico Is Displacing Thousands,” Washington Post, April 11,

2022.

3 The government data published have changed over time. The government of President Felipe Calderón (2006-2012)

published tallies of “organized-crime-related” homicides until September 2011. The administration of President

Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018) also issued such estimates but stopped in mid-2013 and switched to publishing data on

all intentional homicides. The Justice in Mexico project has identified an average (over many years) of homicides

linked to organized crime by assessing several sources. Of total homicides reported by the Mexican government,

between 25% and 50% of those killings likely were linked to organized crime. Laura Y. Calderón et al., Organized

Crime and Violence: 2021 Special Report, Justice in Mexico, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA, October 2021.

(Hereinafter, Calderón et al., Organized Crime and Violence, October 2021).

4 El Consejo Ciudadano para la Seguridad Pública y la Justicia Penal (Citizen’s Council for Public Safety and Criminal

Justice), “Boletín Ranking 2019 de las 50 Ciudades más Violentas del Mundo,” June 1, 2020. The council survey found

in 2019 that the five Mexican cities as the top of the list of the 50 most violent cities were Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez,

Uruapan, Irapuato, and Ciudad Obregon. In 2020, the council survey identified the top 6 of the 50 most violent cities in

the world in Mexico. Julian Resendiz, “Body Count from Drug Cartel Wars Earns Mexican Cities Label of ‘Most

Violent in the World,’” Border Report, April 21, 2021.

Mexico: Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking Organizations

Congressional Research Service 2

were killed and many more were threatened—led some analysts to assert that Mexican cartels

have taken direct electoral interference to new levels.5 DTOs’ intimidation of Mexican politicians,

candidates, and their families through threats of violence or actual homicides has raised alarm

among many victims’ groups and other human rights organizations in Mexico, among Mexico’s

political and trade partners, and others.

Assassinations of journalists and media personnel have made Mexico one of the world’s most

dangerous countries in which to practice journalism.6 Between 2017 and 2020, a journalist was

murdered in Mexico nearly once a month on average. In the first five months of 2022, 11

journalists were murdered in Mexico.7 By contrast, nine Mexican journalists were killed in 2021,

according to the watchdog group Committee to Protect Journalists.8 Most reporters and media

personnel who have been killed covered violent crime or public corruption in Mexico.9

Violence has spread from the border with the United States into Mexico’s interior. TCO-related

violence has flared in the Pacific states of Michoacán and Guerrero; in the central states of

Guanajuato, Zacatecas, Morelos, and Colima; and in the northern border states of Tamaulipas,

Chihuahua, and Baja California, where Mexico’s largest border cities are located (for map, see

Figure 1). Organized crime groups have splintered and diversified their criminal activities,

turning to extortion, kidnapping, oil theft, human smuggling, sex trafficking, retail drug sales, and

other illicit enterprises.

Flagrant violence in central Mexico, in the major Mexican cities along the U.S.-Mexico border,

and in the Pacific states in a region known as the Tierra Caliente (Hot Land) has remained high.

In April 2022, Mexico’s instability in the Tierra Caliente region was reported to be persistent and

worsening.10 In February 2022, after a crime group made a death threat to a U.S. inspector of

avocados in Michoacán (see Figure 1), the U.S. Department of Agriculture temporarily halted all

of Mexico’s U.S.-bound avocado exports to protect inspectors and reject attempted extortion by

Mexico’s criminal organizations.11 In March 2021, Head of U.S. Northern Command General

Glen VanHerck stated that 30%-35% of Mexico constitutes an “ungoverned space,” where TCOs

thrive.12

5 See, for instance, Eduardo Guerrero Gutiérrez, “La Operación Electoral del ‘Cártel de Sinaloa,’” El Financiero, June

21, 2021.

6 For background on Mexico, see CRS Report R42917, Mexico: Background and U.S. Relations, by Clare Ribando

Seelke. See also Juan Albarracín and Nicholas Barnes, “Criminal Violence in Latin America,” Latin American

Research Review, vol. 55, no. 2 (June 23, 2020), pp. 397-406.

7 Alejandra Ibarra Chaoul and Kevin Seiff, “Why Do Journalists in Mexico Keep Getting Killed?,” Washington Post,

May 10, 2022. The authors maintain more journalists have been killed in Mexico since the start of 2022 than in

Ukraine, a war zone.

8 Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), “45 Journalists Killed in 2021/Motive Confirmed or Unconfirmed,” accessed

on February 14, 2022. The CPJ considered the 2020 total to be nine journalists killed, with slightly over half of those

confirmed to be related to the journalist’s profession based upon an investigation.

9 Sandra Pellegrini and Adam Miller, “Journalists Under Attack in Mexico,” Armed Conflict Location and Event Data

Project, April 11, 2022, at https://acleddata.com/2022/04/11/journalists-under-attack-in-mexico/.

10 Falko Ernst, On the Front Lines in the Hot Land: Mexico’s Incessant Conflict, International Crisis Group (ICG),

April 26, 2022, at https://facesofconflict.crisisgroup.org/on-the-front-lines-of-the-hot-land-mexicos-incessant-conflict/.

11 Matt Rivers, “Why Avocado Shipments from Mexico to the U.S. were Stopped: A Death Threat to a Safety

Inspector,” CNN Business, February 16, 2022.

12 Glen VanHerck stated, “Counternarcotics, migration, human trafficking, they’re all symptoms of transnational

criminal organizations who are operating oftentimes in ungoverned areas—30 percent to 35 percent of Mexico—that is

creating some of the things we’re dealing with at the border.” General Glen VanHerck, Commander, NORAD and

USNORTHCOM, USNORTHCOM-USSOUTHCOM, Commander’s Joint Press Briefing Remarks, March 16, 2021.

Mexico: Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking Organizations

Congressional Research Service 3

This heightened violence inside Mexico coincides with a transition to synthetic drug production

and trafficking, including both the synthetic opioid fentanyl and methamphetamine. Mexican

authorities reportedly seized nearly six times the amount of synthetic drugs in 2019 and 2020 than

were seized from 2016 to 2018. This rise in seizures has stoked renewed concerns among U.S.

policymakers about the effectiveness of Mexico’s anti-cartel and anti-fentanyl strategies.13

In March 2022, a large weapons seizure convinced some analysts of an accelerating “internal”

war within the Sinaloa Cartel, Mexico’s oldest and most dominant TCO.14 Reportedly, police

found in safe houses in Sonora gear that included millions of rounds of high-powered

ammunition, what appeared to be fully automated machine guns, bulletproof vests, and other

weaponry. Police suspected this gear had been stashed for combat between cartel factions (see

below, “Sinaloa DTO” section), as well as for the ongoing power struggle with external

competitors.15

Figure 1. Map of Mexico

Source: Congressional Research Service (CRS).

13 Economist, “Latin America’s Drug Gangs Have Had a Good Pandemic: A Resilient Industry Shrugs Off Supply-

Chain Problems,” December 29, 2021. The State Department’s 2022 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report

(INCSR), Volume I, released on March 1, 2022, maintains that Mexican authorities seized some 1.3 metric tons of

fentanyl in 2020, a 596% increase over seizures made in 2019.

14 Parker Asmann, “What Does Massive Weapons Seizure Say About Sinaloa Cartel Feud in Mexico,” InSight Crime,

March 7, 2022.

15 Associated Press, “Mexico Finds 3 Million Rounds of Ammo in Biggest Bust So Far,” March 3, 2022.

Mexico: Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking Organizations

Congressional Research Service 4

The State Department’s March 16, 2022, U.S. travel advisory for Mexico, which cautioned

against travel to Mexico due to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic concerns, also

cautioned against travel to Mexico due to significant violent crime, such as homicide, kidnapping,

carjacking, and robbery. In an April 20, 2022, update, the State Department recommended that

U.S. citizens refrain from travel to Colima, Guerrero, Michoacán, Sinaloa, and Tamaulipas.16 The

State Department also added an advisory for U.S. government employees not to travel to

Zacatecas State due to the state’s homicide rate doubling between 2020 and 2021, reportedly

based on a cartel turf war.17

Congressional Concerns Over the past decade, Congress has held numerous oversight hearings to address TCO-

perpetrated crime and violence. Topics have included whether Mexican TCOs should be

designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), TCO control of the U.S.-bound illicit drug

supply, U.S.-Mexico security cooperation, including U.S. counternarcotics assistance for Mexico,

and related border security concerns.

Some Members of Congress are concerned about persistently high levels of violence in Mexico

and the ineffectiveness of several efforts to curb that violence or prosecute offenders. In 2012,

after U.S. consulate staff and security personnel working in Mexico came under attack,

congressional concern spiked.18 Occasional use of car bombs, grenades, and rocket-propelled

grenade launchers—such as the one used to bring down a Mexican army helicopter in 2015—

continues to spark alarm among security analysts and policymakers.

Incidents such as the late-2019 massacre of dual U.S.-Mexican citizens near the U.S.-Mexico

border have prompted some Members of Congress to consider whether Mexican drug traffickers

may be adopting insurgent or terrorist techniques.19 In October 2019, following the murder of an

extended family that included young children in the Mexican border state of Sonora, some

Members of Congress questioned whether the U.S. Secretary of State should declare the Mexican

organizations to be FTOs. For example, the Drug Cartel Terrorist Designation Act (H.R. 1700)

was introduced in the 116th Congress, as was the Identifying Drug Cartels as Terrorists Act of

2019 (H.R. 5509). The incident drew the attention of then-President Trump, who urged the

Mexican government to accept more U.S. assistance to vanquish the DTOs.20 In the 117th

16 U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs, “Mexico Travel Advisory,” April 20, 2022, at

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/mexico-travel-advisory.html. The advisory

concludes, “Violent crime—such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery—is widespread and common in

Mexico.” An added prohibition on U.S. government worker travel for Zacatecas is at https://mx.usembassy.gov/

security-alert-for-u-s-citizens-new-restrictions-on-u-s-government-employee-travel/.

17 Mexico Daily News, “U.S. Embassy Issues Security Alert for Zacatecas,” April 19, 2022.

18 In 2011, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was killed and another was wounded in a drug gang

shooting incident in San Luis Potosí, north of Mexico City. See BBC News, “U.S. Immigration Agent Shot Dead in

Mexico Attack,” February 16, 2011. In another incident, two U.S. officials traveling in an embassy vehicle were

wounded in an attack allegedly abetted by corrupt Mexican police. C. Archibold and Karla Zabludovsky, “Mexico

Detains 12 Officers in Attack on Americans in Embassy Vehicle,” New York Times, August 28, 2012.

19 See U.S. Congressman Chip Roy, “Reps. Chip Roy and Mark Green Request Drug Cartels Be Added to Terror List,”

press release, February 20, 2019, at https://roy.house.gov/media/press-releases/reps-chip-roy-and-mark-green-request-

drug-cartels-be-added-terror-list. See also U.S. Congressman Chip Roy, “Congressman Roy Introduces Legislation to

Designate Cartels as Terrorist Organizations,” press release, April 15, 2021, at https://roy.house.gov/media/press-

releases/congressman-roy-introduces-legislation-designate-cartels-terrorist.

20 David E. Sanger, Michael D. Shear, and Eric Schmitt, “Trump’s Pentagon Chief Quashed Idea to Send 250,000

Troops to the Border,” New York Times, updated November 9, 2021. In the memoir of former Secretary of Defense

Mark Esper, published in May 2022, Esper alleged that President Trump proposed firing missiles into Mexico to

Mexico: Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking Organizations

Congressional Research Service 5

Congress, the Security First Act (H.R. 812) was introduced; it would, among its provisions,

require the U.S. Secretary of State to report to certain congressional committees on whether

certain Mexican cartels meet the criteria for designation as FTOs.21

When Congress has considered whether crime syndicates should be designated as FTOs, the

question arises whether the scale, purpose, and types of violence attributed to Mexican TCOs

have morphed into terrorism.22 The criminal groups do not appear to be politically or

ideologically motivated, which is one element of a widely recognized definition of terrorism. In

December 2021, the State Department’s annual Country Reports on Terrorism maintained there

was no credible evidence that international terrorist groups had bases in Mexico or “worked

directly with Mexican drug cartels, or sent operatives via Mexico into the United States in

2020.”23

The primary harm to the United States identified by several security analysts and policymakers

caused by the TCOs is the organizations’ control of movement of illicit drugs. Since the early

1990s, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has worked closely with Mexican

authorities to investigate and prosecute Mexican trafficking organizations. DEA now identifies

the TCOs’ expanded production and shipment of heroin, synthetic opioids, and methamphetamine

as the major criminal threat to the United States. In May 2022, in what was perceived as a blow to

U.S.-Mexico antidrug cooperation, Mexico denied DEA the landing rights for its aircraft to

conduct anti-narcotics opera

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