Mexican passions: drug cartel wars; shootings, robberies and violence against civilians; chainsaw executions. Latin American drug war

Mexicans have never been known for being law-abiding. Their national hero is a mixture of an American cowboy and a Caucasian horseman. A stern, dark macho in a sombrero and with a luxurious mustache launches a hurricane of lead at his enemies and disappears into the sunset. And on occasion, he goes into mortal combat for the happiness of the people against oppressors of all stripes, simultaneously robbing government caravans and the haciendas of respectable lords bristling with trunks.

Even before the appearance of the Spanish conquistadors, the Mexican soil was thickly saturated with blood. Now stronger, now weaker, it did not stop pouring here even for a day. In December 2006, a new round of violence and chaos began in Mexico, the end of which is not visible even through the most rose-colored glasses.

With good intentions

Drug cartels emerged in Mexico decades ago. Their ancestors began by supplying alcohol to their northern neighbor, exhausted by Prohibition, in the 20s.

The noir days of bottled moonlight, jazz, Tommy guns, hats and coats in the United States gave way to disco rhythms, afro hairstyles, distressed jeans, speedboats and packets of white Colombian powder marked “999”.

In the 70s and 80s, Mexicans lived modestly in the shadow of the powerful and prosperous Colombian cartels, engaged in transit for a small percentage. But one day, the US drug control department flew out from behind the hills with a cheerful roar and punished Escobar and other Colombians in the name of goodness and justice. And also for the sake of the sympathy of American voters, concerned about suspicious behavior and the persistent white coating under the noses of most show business stars.

“Yes, it’s just some kind of holiday!” - the Mexicans exclaimed. And they took matters into their own hands.

By the mid-2000s, Mexican drug mafias had come to dominate the underworld south of the Rio Grande. They more or less divided their spheres of influence, had strong mutually beneficial relations with the authorities and security forces, practically did not touch the civilian population and sometimes even drove out petty punks so as not to interfere with serious lords and dons doing serious business.

The flow of substances to the north steadily and confidently grew by leaps and bounds. The population was saddened by the extreme corruption and the merging of the authorities with the bandits. But the Mexicans were no strangers to this. Traditional, so to speak, values. Centuries old.

American alcohol producers began to sound the alarm: the target audience is smoking and sniffing! Washington decided to force the Mexican authorities and police to break away from the fascinating process of counting the drug lords' dollars and do something about this disgrace.

Otherwise it could turn out to be a bloody undemocratic regime. With all the consequences.

The Mexicans irritably answered the damn gringos: “Well, OK.” And from time to time they would arrange lazy shootouts with some cartel just for the sake of formality.

Meanwhile, in Mexico, the ambitious Felipe Calderon won the presidential election. He longed for loud and quick fame, as well as people's love. There were two ways: fight poverty and fight drug cartels.

It seemed to Alderon that the second was much simpler. You send troops, they shoot and put everyone in prison. The masses rejoice, the Americans rejoice and send tons of investment.

And so on December 11, 2006, Senor Felipe sent federal troops to the state of Michoacan to defeat the drug cartels. He had the best intentions, but the effect was like hitting a hornets’ nest with a brick.

Pandora's Box

Special operations, arrests and murders of cartel leaders destabilized a gigantic criminal system that was firmly ingrained into the body of Mexican society. The system of balancing interests that had been built over the years collapsed. Authoritative dons lost control, and in their place came desperate and frostbitten leaders who sought to rule and conquer while their neighbors were in chaos.

There were two main troubles.

First: drug cartels by that time numbered tens of thousands of active members. And hundreds of thousands - if not millions - profited from them: from beggars in the slums to representatives of the social elite.

As long as the cold war between drug lords continued, this was quite tolerable. But when decapitated, destabilized and turned into a conglomerate of violent factions of the mafia, they began unlimited feudal wars over lands, cities, plantations and drug smuggling routes, countless people and entire states were affected.

Loyalty to one group or another has become more important for millions of Mexicans than nationality or religious affiliation. They kill and die for this.

Poems and songs are written and films are made for the glory of the cartels, their leaders and militants. And mafia coats of arms and symbols are worn with no less pride than the coats of arms and symbols of powerful dukes or counts in the Middle Ages.

Cartel battles take the form of small wars, often urban, but they involve hundreds of thousands of people. And even for an innocent person, a careless word is enough to disappear forever, sometimes along with family and friends.

The second problem: the quality of cartel fighters. Even before the start of the big war, their leaders began to attract professionals from law enforcement agencies to create their own private intelligence services and special forces. The Mexican budget, with its eternal shortage of money and prohibitive corruption, pays ridiculous and sad salaries to the defenders of the state. But drug lords are ready to shower professionals useful to them with gold. The result is obvious.

heart of Darkness

It all started when the leaders of the El Golfo cartel, which traditionally owned the Gulf Coast, began to recruit the best specialists from police and military special forces into their service. From them gradually formed one of the most powerful, formidable and terrible private intelligence services in the world, known as Los Zetas.

Their fighters knew and were able to do everything that the Mexican special forces, who were diligently trained by American instructors to fight the cartels, can do. But at the same time they did not have any legal or moral restrictions - except for naked efficiency.

Soon Los Zetas became so strong that they declared war on El Golfo and turned into a new cartel.

In addition to the highest professionalism, which was head and shoulders above any other criminal organization and most units of the police and army, they relied on extreme cruelty.

What Los Zetas are doing to prisoners will make most terrorists in Syria and Iraq sick.

Their executions are comparable only to the methods of the dark elves from Warhammer - only, unfortunately, they are completely real. Being dismembered alive with a chainsaw is, so to speak, a special mercy.

The Los Zetas pros swept through Mexico like a legion of Night Lords.

La Resistance lives on!

In 2010, opponents of Los Zetas realized that they needed to unite against this threat.

The ancient and powerful drug mafia "Sinaloa" has joined forces with the barely holding enclaves on the coast of "El Golfo" and the recently emerged cartel in the southwestern state of Michoacan with the wonderful name "Templars".

The story of the Templars is typical, sad and instructive. Initially, they arose as a beautiful cartel idea with high moral values. They say, of course, we push coke, weed, heroin and methamphetamine - but we help the poor, fight street crime, keep order... and most importantly, we protect peaceful cities from the horror of “Los Zetas”, which has already crossed the state border.

At first, residents of the state supported the Templars. This was a terrible mistake. The cartel leaders were unable (or perhaps unwilling) to maintain any semblance of the high ethical standards they claimed.

The failed “Robin Hoods” turned out to be perhaps the most frostbitten gang in Mexico.

They did not practice the terrifying and sophisticated execution methods of Los Zetas, but their numerous militants perceived the residents of the state as legitimate prey. Michoacán has been gripped by the most unbridled Mad Max-style violence. Civilians were killed, robbed, raped in hundreds and thousands for the slightest disobedience or simply because they wanted to.

As a result, entire cities in the state rebelled. Desperate to wait for help from the thoroughly corrupt police and army, their residents armed themselves, created powerful self-defense units and began to exterminate Templar cells.

Those trying to “restore order” (or rather, “drive the rebels into a stall”), the police were formally expelled from the cities along with their helicopters and armored cars. Anarchist self-government began to form in Michoacán, and it was noticeably more decent than in Father Makhno’s Wild Field or among the Spanish anarchists during the Civil War.

It didn't last long. The government was more afraid of the anarchist communes than of any drug cartel. The leaders of the movement were imprisoned. Some of the detachments reconciled with the police and received semi-official status. Some continued the fight, which required money, and they themselves did not notice how they turned into small drug mafias.

The taste for power led to the fact that more and more often self-defense units used force not against the Templar militants, but by dividing power, drugs and money, or oppressing their own neighbors. However, the Templars could not withstand the external and internal war and after a few years they finally collapsed.

Tradition, innovation and victorious humanism

More than a decade after the Mexican drug war began, the fight continues with no end in sight. But some trends are quite noticeable.

The fearsome Los Zetas have lost much of their once vast territory and now control relatively small tracts of land along the Gulf of Mexico. The bet on terror did not pay off: after the first victories, cartels, civilians, and the authorities and security forces rebelled against them.

War is war, money is money, but even by Mexican standards, the cruelty of Los Zetas turned out to be excessive.

And their once unsurpassed elite units have lost most of their experienced operators and commanders over the years of endless battles.

In turn, other drug mafias also recruited many professionals and created their own special services and special forces. The gap between the capabilities of Los Zetas and their enemies has narrowed.

This whole story is very reminiscent of Syria and Iraq a few years later. And the situation with certain lovers of black banners and high-quality video, banned throughout the civilized world: professionals died, and the atrocities not so much intimidated as enraged enemies near and far. The ending is a bit predictable. In addition, Los Zetas is now split into several warring factions, which does not increase their chances of revenge.

Now most of Mexico is controlled by an alliance: the old, venerable Sinaloa cartel and the young, ambitious Jalisco New Generation. They countered the Los Zetas terror with a combination of competent strategic planning and emphasized moderation in violence. Which, unlike the arrogant Templars, they managed to implement. To avoid competition, Sinaloa has focused on exports to the United States, while Jalisco is expanding drug smuggling into Europe.

"I am a cucaracha, I am a cucaracha..."

And the war continues. The cartels are at war with each other, and there is intense fighting between factions within them.

The government does not abandon attempts to defeat the groups, they respond with machine gun fire and explosives. In 2017 alone, and according to official data alone, more than 23,000 people died in this war.

In recent years, more and more women have become militants and cartel killers - there is little work, no money. And in their desperation and ferocity, the Mexican senoritas will give odds to many notorious machos. Mountains of corpses and wads of dollars are growing in the estates of drug lords, millions of destinies are broken due to drug use. And all this - to the cheerful tunes of “drug ballads”, glorifying “their” cartels and ridiculing the enemy’s.

The anthems of the terrifying Los Zetas could easily be mistaken for children's songs, comic ballads about frivolous lords and their branch-horned husbands, or rhythmic dance music to turn off the brain and turn on hormones.

No surprise, this is what Mexico is all about.

Here, bloody Aztec ferocity has long been inextricably fused with not even Spanish, but Italian frivolity.

Suffice it to recall the text of the once famous “Cucarachi”. In one traditional version of the text, the poor cockroach can no longer run because his legs have been torn to hell. In another version - because he smoked all the grass, but nothing else.

A bloody chainsaw massacre to the fiery rhythm of “Cucarachi” is perhaps the most accurate image of what is happening in Mexico. And there is no end in sight.

The drug mafia in Mexico is becoming more powerful. Although the overall murder rate in the country has been steadily declining over the past two decades, drug dealers are committing heinous crimes. They have undermined legal norms so much that ordinary Mexicans now and then publicly wonder: did the mafias actually win the war against the state?

The history of modern Mexican drug traffickers dates back to the 1940s, when farmers from the mountain villages of the Mexican state of Sinaloa began to grow marijuana. The first Mexican drug traffickers were a group of villagers connected by family ties. They were mostly from the small northern Mexican state of Sinaloa. This poor agricultural state, sandwiched between the Gulf of California and the Sierra Madre Mountains, about five hundred kilometers from the US border, has become an ideal location for smuggling. At first, marijuana was grown here or bought from other “gardeners” on the Pacific coast, and then the drug was transported to the United States. For decades it remained a stable and not too risky small business, and the violence did not spill out beyond the narrow world of drug traffickers. Later, cocaine was added to the smuggling of marijuana, which became fashionable in the 60s. However, for a long time, the Mexicans were just “donkeys” serving one of the channels for supplying Colombian cocaine to North America. And they didn’t even dare to compete with the powerful Colombians.

The rise of Mexican drug gangs began after the defeat of the Colombian drug cartels of Cali and Medellin by the US and Colombian governments. One after another, El Mehicano and Pablo Emilio Escabar were killed, brothers Ochoa and Carlos Leder (El Aleman) from the Medellin cartel were sent to Colombian and US prisons. Following them, came the turn of the Cali cartel, led by the Orihuela brothers.

Also, after the Americans closed the Colombian drug supply channel through Florida, the Mexican delivery route became virtually no alternative. The weakened Colombians could no longer dictate their will to the Mexicans and now only sell them large quantities of drugs at wholesale prices.
As a result, Mexican gangs gained control over the entire drug trade chain - from raw material plantations in the Andes region to points of sale on American streets. They managed to significantly expand the scale of their business: from 2000 to 2005, the supply of cocaine from South America to Mexico more than doubled, and the volume of amphetamine intercepted at the US-Mexico border fivefold.

The United States, largely due to the entrepreneurial spirit of the Mexican drug cartels, ranks first in the world in terms of cocaine and marijuana consumption. And the drug cartels themselves began to earn from 25 to 40 billion dollars a year on the American market. In general, Mexico produces about 10 thousand tons of marijuana and 8 thousand tons of heroin annually. Almost 30% of the country's cultivable farmland is planted with marijuana. In addition, almost 90% of the cocaine consumed in the States comes through Mexico. Mexican laboratories produce the majority of the methamphetamine consumed in the States (although a lot of meth used to be produced - four times more pseudoephedrine was imported into the country than was required for the pharmaceutical industry, and now the focus is on marijuana, which provides almost 70% of the cartels' income). All this is sold through controlled distribution points that Mexican drug cartels have in at least 230 major American cities.

However, this expansion of business also affected the relations between the leading Mexican cartels. The multiple increase in the possibility of supplying cocaine and marijuana with a fixed number of plazas (transshipment points on the border) and the number of drug addicts in the States led to a sharp increase in inter-cartel competition for the American market. It's time for big money. And big money, as we know, brings big problems. This is how drug wars began in Mexico, because “if in legal business there are standard legal methods of competition, then in illegal business, the most effective way to get around a competitor is to kill him.”

At first, families who had fled Sinaloa began vying for control of the main border transit points. Accordingly, the structure of the cartels itself has undergone changes. If in the old days, a drug mafioso was a guy with a gold tooth and a Colt 45 caliber, now everything is completely different. Now there are entire groups of militants trained in a military manner. To fight each other, cartels began to create private armies consisting of mercenaries - sicarios. These mercenaries are armed with the latest technology and often surpass even parts of the Mexican army in technical equipment and level of training. The most famous and violent of these groups, Los Zetas. Its core is former Mexican special forces from the GAFE (Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales) unit. In the model and likeness of Los Zetas, their competitor, the Sinaloa cartel, created its own army called Los Negros. There was no shortage of recruits: the cartels openly posted advertisements in towns bordering the United States, inviting former and current military personnel to join their organizations. Cartel vacancies became one of the reasons for mass desertion and dismissals from the Mexican army (from 2000 to 2006 - 100 thousand people).

The first major war between rival drug cartels began with the arrest in 1989 of Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, the founding father of the cocaine business in Mexico, a friend of Jose Rodriguez Gacha (El Mexicano). This contributed to the fragmentation of his group and the founding of the first two major drug cartels - Sinaloa and Tijuana. Then the unexpected appearance of a group with no connection to Sinaloa added fuel to the fire. They were drug traffickers calling themselves the Cartel del Golfo, from the Gulf Coast state of Tamaulipas. People from Sinaloa were divided: some were for the new players, some were against. When the cartel formation in Mexico was completed, they split into two parts: one group consists of the Juárez Cartel, Los Zetas, Tijuana Cartel and Beltrán Leyva Cartel, and the second group from the Cartel del Golfol, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Cartel La Familial. . Later, two more were formed - the Oaxaca Cartel and Los Negros.

And ordinary Mexicans were clearly shown a new way of waging drug wars when a group of men in black walked into a roadside disco in the state of Michoacán and shook out the contents of a garbage bag - five severed heads. A new era of Mexican drug trafficking has begun, when violence has become the means of communication. Today, members of the drug mafia monstrously disfigure the bodies of their victims and put them on public display - so that everyone realizes the power of the drug lords and fears them. The You Tube site has become a propaganda platform for the drug war, where anonymous companies upload videos and drug ballads praising the advantages of one cartel leader over another.

The United States, as you know, is not only the main drug market, but also a source of weapons used in drug cartel fights in Mexico. Almost anyone with a driver's license and no criminal record can buy a weapon here. 110 thousand sellers have sales licenses, 6600 of which are located between Texas and San Diego. Therefore, for the purchase itself, Mexicans usually use fake Americans - “straw people” (mostly single mothers who do not arouse suspicion), who receive $50–100 for the service. These fake people buy guns individually either from stores or at “gun shows” that are held every weekend in Arizona, Texas or California. Then the barrels are handed over to dealers, who, collecting a batch of several dozen, transport it across the border. And they make good money from it. For example, a used AK-47 can be bought in the States for $400, but south of the Rio Grande it will cost $1,500. Armed in this way, drug cartel armies have mortars, heavy machine guns, anti-tank missiles, grenade launchers, and fragmentation grenades.

Mexican border guards themselves cannot stop weapons traffic. Or rather, they don’t want to. Mexicans are not particularly active in searching cars entering their territory from the north, this passivity is explained by the fact that border guards are faced with the choice of “plata o plomo” (silver or lead). Many people prefer to take bribes and turn a blind eye to smuggling. Those who refuse "silver" usually do not live long. For example, in February 2007, an honest Mexican border guard detained a truck full of weapons. As a result, the Gulf Cartel was missing 18 rifles, 17 pistols, 17 grenades, and more than 8 thousand rounds of ammunition. The next day the border guard was shot dead.
Until 2006, periodic mafia clashes had virtually no effect on ordinary Mexicans. The cartels were big business, and big business requires a quiet environment. Drug gangs have even become an everyday part of citizens' lives. Ordinary people, seeing the success of drug dealers (especially against the backdrop of total poverty in the country), began to compose “drug ballads” about them. Since Mexico is a very religious country, the cartels even have their own “drug saint” - Jesus Malverde, whose central temple is installed in the capital of the state of Sinaloa, the city of Cualican, and the “drug saint” - Doña Santa Muerte.

There was no large-scale violence in the country. The cartels interacted with Mexican President Vicente Fox according to the formula “Live yourself and don’t interfere with others’ lives.” Everyone controlled their own territory and did not interfere with others. Everything changed with the victory of Felipe Calderon in the 2006 presidential elections. Immediately after his election, the new head of state declared war on the drug cartels. The president took such a radical step for two reasons. First, he needed to launch some kind of popular campaign to strengthen his position after the controversial election results (Calderon's lead over his closest rival, Andreas Manuel Lopez Obrador, was less than 0.6%). Of the two potential popular directions - the war on crime and the beginning of deep economic reforms - he chose the first as, in his opinion, the easiest. Secondly, the new president realized the danger of coexistence between cartels and the state. Calderon realized that continued “See No, Hear No” tactics against drug cartels would inevitably lead to a weakening of the government. Every year the bandits penetrated deeper into government institutions, primarily the police.

By the time Calderon arrived, the entire police force in the northern states of Mexico had been bought by the cartels. At the same time, law enforcement officers did not fear for their future if their connections with bandits were revealed. If a local policeman is fired for corruption, he simply goes across the street and is hired to serve by the cartel (for example, in Rio Bravo, the Los Zetas recruiting office was located directly across from the police station). Former police officers know the principles of police work from the inside, and they were gladly hired. That is why the authority of the police in the country was very low.

As a result of an active campaign, Calderon managed to inflict some damage on the drug mafia. During 2007–2008, 70 tons of cocaine, 370 tons of marijuana, 28 thousand guns, 2000 grenades, 3 million cartridges and $304 million were seized from the cartels. In the USA, this resulted in its own indicators: cocaine prices soared by one and a half times, while the average purity decreased from 67.8 to 56.7%, and the cost of amphetamine on American streets increased by 73%.

After the new president violated the unspoken truce, the drug cartels declared a vendetta on the government and security forces and are waging it with their characteristic cruelty and intransigence (for this reason, two sworn enemies, the Gulf and Sinaloa Cartels, even reconciled for some time). Those who did not run away and sell out are mercilessly shot. Briefly, the chronicle of the most significant victories and losses looks like this:

In January 2008, in the city of Culiacan, one of the leaders of the cartel of the same name, Alfredo Beltran Leyva (nickname El Mochomo), was arrested. His brothers, in revenge for his arrest, organized the murder of Federal Police Commissioner Edgar Eusebio Millano Gomez and other high-ranking officials in the Mexican capital itself.
Also in January, members of the Juarez cartel pinned to the door of Juarez City Hall a list of 17 police officers who had been sentenced to death. By September, ten of them were killed.

On October 25, in the prestigious Fracionamiento Pedregal district of Tijuana, troops and police stormed a villa located here, arresting the leader of the Tijuana cartel, Eduardo Arellano Felix (nickname “Doctor”), after which leadership of the cartel passed to his nephew, Luis Fernando Sánchez Arellano.
However, after the arrest of Eduardo Arellano Felix, one of the leaders of the drug cartel, Teodoro Garcia Simental (nickname “El Teo”) left the group and started a war against its new leader, as a result of which Tijuana was swept by a wave of violence that, according to various sources, killed from 300 to almost 700 people . Within a year, rivals fought for control of the road running through Nogales, Sonora, and the number of murders in that city tripled.

In November, under strange circumstances, the plane of Juan Camilo Mourino, the presidential national security adviser, crashed.

And in early February 2009, one of the most popular Mexican military officers, retired General Mauro Enrique Tello Quinones, was kidnapped, tortured and killed. Less than 24 hours before his abduction, he took up the post of security adviser to the mayor's office of Cancun, a resort town and one of the drug lords' recreation centers.

On December 16 of the same year, in a shootout with soldiers of the Mexican Navy, one of the leaders of the Beltran Leyva drug cartel, Arturo Beltran Leyva, died, and on December 30, in the city of Culiacan, law enforcement agencies detained his brother and one of the leaders of the drug cartel, Carlos Beltran Leyva.

On January 12, 2010, one of the most wanted Mexican drug lords and leaders of the Tijuana drug cartel, Teodoro Garcia Simental (nickname “El Teo”), was caught in the state of Baja California.
In February, the Los Zetas cartel and its ally the Beltran Leyva cartel began a war against the Golfo cartel in the border city of Reynosa, turning some border towns into ghost towns. It was reported that a member of the Golfo cartel killed the Zetas' top lieutenant, Victor Mendoza. The group demanded that the cartel find the killer, but he refused. Thus, a new war broke out between the 2 gangs.

On June 14, members of the rival Zetas and Sinaloa cartels carried out a massacre in a prison in the city of Mazatlan. A group of prisoners, having seized the guards' pistols and assault rifles through deception, broke into a nearby prison block, committing reprisals against members of a rival cartel. During this and at the same time, in other parts of the prison, 29 people died from riots.

On June 19, in the city of Ciudad Juarez, the mayor of the city of Guadalupe Distros Bravos, Manuel Lara Rodriguez, who was hiding there after receiving threats against himself, was shot dead, and ten days later, the criminals killed the candidate for governor of the northwestern state of Tamaulipas, Rodolfo Torre Cantu.

On July 29, the military discovered in the suburbs of Guadalajara the location of one of the leaders of the Sinaloa drug cartel, Ignacio Coronel, and during the ensuing shootout he died. That same month, in the municipal area of ​​Tamaulipas, the military raided a ranch where suspected drug cartel members were located and four people were killed in a shootout. While searching the area around the ranch, the Mexican military discovered a mass grave (the bodies of 72 people, including 14 women).

On August 30, the authorities managed to arrest the influential drug lord Edgar Valdez (nicknames Barbie, Comandante and Guero), and in early September, following operational intelligence information, a special unit of the naval forces in Pueblo arrested one of the leaders of the drug cartel "Beltran Leyva" Sergio Villarreal (nickname "El Grande").

The next major success of Mexican law enforcement agencies was the arrest of the head of the Los Zetas drug cartel, Jose Angel Fernandez, at the Cancun resort.
A few days earlier, on November 6, during a shootout with the military in the city of Matamoros, one of the leaders of the Gulf Cartel, Ezequiel Gardenas Guillen (nickname of Tony Tormenta), was killed.

On December 7, they managed to detain one of the high-ranking members of the La Familia drug cartel, Jose Antonio Arcos. And the next day, hundreds of police and military personnel entered the city of Apatzingan, where La Familia is based. And with the support of helicopters, for two days they fought with armed members of the drug cartel, during which several people died (civilians, militants and police), including the head of the La Familia drug cartel, Nazario Moreno Gonzalez (nickname “Mad”).

On December 28, in the city of Guadalupe Distrito Bravos, unknown persons kidnapped the last policeman remaining here, after which the city was left without police, and in order to ensure law and order, the authorities sent troops to the city.
On January 18, 2011, near the city of Oaxaca, one of the founders of the Los Zetas cartel, Flavio Mendez Santiago (nickname Yellow), was arrested.

On June 21, during a raid near the city of Aguascalientes, in the state of the same name in central Mexico, police detained the drug lord of the La Familia drug cartel, Jose de Jesus Mendez Vargas. The following month, in the state of Mexico, police arrested another of the founders of the Los Zetas cartel, Jesus Enrique Rejon Aguilar.
In total, since 2006, 26 thousand people have become victims of this conflict. For comparison, the number of Soviet military deaths during the 10 years of the war in Afghanistan was 13,833. Twice smaller!!!

Currently, there are nine main drug cartels operating in Mexico: the Sinaloa Cartel, the Tijuana Cartel, the Juarez Cartel, the Golfo Cartel, the La Familia Cartel or La Familia Michiocana, the Beltran Leyva Cartel, the Los Zetas Cartel, the Los Negros Cartel and the Oaxaca Cartel. You can read more about each of them by clicking on the links with the names of the cartels.

And a little about Russians, in this interesting topic:

Mexican drug cartels use members of Russian organized crime groups, as well as former KGB officers, to smuggle drugs into the United States and also to increase their influence in the region.

Luis Vasconcelos, head of the Mexican Attorney General's Office of Organized Crime, claims that "the Russians are highly professional and extremely dangerous."

Russian mafiosi help Mexican drug traffickers launder money. This was stated by the head of the intelligence department of the American Federal Drug Enforcement Administration, Stephen Casteel. For their services, the Russians take 30% of the money laundered.

Casteel argues that the rise of Russians in Mexico is linked to the globalization of organized crime. For the first time, fighters from Russian “brigades” appeared in Colombia and Mexico in the early 90s, but their finest hour came a little later. After the arrest of the head of one of the largest drug cartels in Mexico, Benjamin Arellano Felix, as well as several dozen of his assistants, the cartel began to rapidly disintegrate. University of Miami specialist Bruce Beigley claims that it was then that Russian mafiosi gradually began to infiltrate the fragments of the once powerful organization.

"Russian militants are much cooler than the Mexicans. They are much more brutal. They do their job silently and try not to show off unnecessarily. They don't wear gold chains, don't cut people with chainsaws and don't throw them into rivers," says Bagley. "Don't underestimate them. These guys are the cruelest people you can imagine."

Bagley claims that the latest Mexican police operations, which have effectively "decapitated the Mexican drug cartels," provide the Russian mafia with a "golden opportunity to operate in Mexico." A large cartel is breaking up into small armed groups that operate at the state and city level in Mexico. There they are more difficult to identify, and it is easier for drug traffickers to bribe local officials. Small groups of Mexican drug traffickers welcome the Russians with open arms.
The Russians carry out most of their money laundering operations in various offshore zones - Haiti, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. The Russians escort large cargoes of drugs that are transported to the United States. In April 2001, American coastal police seized a ship with a cargo of 13 tons of cocaine and a mixed Russian-Ukrainian crew.

The number of victims is no less striking than the sight of the bodies of murdered people hanging from highway overpasses. According to BBC News between 2006 and 2012, more than 77,000 people died in Mexico due to drug-related violence. An article published by the Stanford Review entitled "A Brewing Storm: Mexican Drug Cartels and the Growing Violence on Our Border" states that, according to statistics, the number of murders drug-related crimes increased by 300 percent between 2007 and 2008. The Mexican drug cartels are terrible and use any means to achieve their goals, from beheadings and torture to human trafficking and mass murder. Rival cartels fight for control of territory and drug supply routes. Allegiances change, people pay bribes, former enemies form alliances to fight new groups and wage war on each other.

Mexico's former president, Felipe Calderon, declared a Reagan-style war on drugs and drug cartels, ordering the army to capture drug cartel leaders. Mexico's current president, Enrique Pena Nieto, is taking a different approach by tackling violence at the local level. Nieto also said local and state authorities will no longer work directly with the FBI and DEA when it comes to releasing classified information. Corruption has long been a problem within Mexico's law and military, further complicating the country's efforts to stop cartel violence. One thing is certain: until the demand for drugs disappears, the cartels will fight to control the supply. Below are the seven deadliest drug cartels in Mexico:

7. Tijuana Cartel

In the 1990s and early 2000s, the Tijuana Cartel, run by the Arellano Felix brothers, was one of the largest and most feared groups in Mexico. At the height of its power, the cartel infiltrated Mexican law enforcement and the judicial system. He controlled the transportation and distribution of multi-ton shipments of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine. The cartel had a reputation for excessive violence. In 1998, Ramon Arellano ordered an attack that killed 18 people in Baja, California. However, since 2006, the Sinaloa Cartel has taken control of most of the territory that was once under the control of the Tijuana group. Although the Tijuana Cartel still exists, due to several deaths, arrests, internal conflicts and the growing power of Sinaloa, it has been reduced to a small group of scattered cells.

6. “New” Juarez Cartel


The Juarez Cartel, located near the Mexico-US border near El Paso, Texas, has long been a major player in cocaine trafficking in the United States. The Juarez Cartel, also known as the Vicente Carillo Fuentes Organization, generated $200 million in weekly profits until the death of Amado Carrillo Fuentes in 1997, which marked the beginning of the group's decline. In September 2011, the Mexican Federal Police announced that the crime syndicate was now called the New Juarez Cartel. He has an armed force known as La Linea, a street gang known for beheading enemies, desecrating their bodies, and dumping them in public places to create panic and fear. The main rival of the New Juarez Cartel is the Sinaloa Cartel, which many believe currently retains control of much of the drug trafficking in the city of Juarez. In 2012, 2,086 people died in shootouts over territory, and according to CNN, their murders in the city of Ciudad Juarez still remain unsolved.

5. Knights Templar Cartel

The drug cartels are in constant confrontation, trying to prove who is most feared. The Templar cartel's first victim was hanged over an overpass with a note claiming the man was a kidnapper, instantly giving them a reputation as a group as brutal as a barbarian syndicate. The cartel takes its name from the Templars of the Middle Ages who defended Jerusalem and according to a book by journalist Ioan Grillo called El Narco: Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency, the Templar cartel claims to be defender of the state of Michoacan.

The group formed in 2010 after the alleged death of Nazario Moreno, leader of the La Familia Michoacana cartel. The Templars made their presence known by displaying more than 40 "narcos," or drug cartel banners, across the state that read, "We maintain and protect order, prevent robberies, kidnappings, extortion, and try to keep the state safe from a rival organization." According to Ioan Grillo, this heroic, illegal, Robin Hood-like approach to crime and community has led to members of the Templar cartel now being considered celebrities. The cartel controls operations in Michoacan, Morelos and the State of Mexico. Their latest showdown was with the Jalisco New Generation cartel, which is trying to gain control of Michoacan.

4. Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or Mata Zetas


The Jalisco New Generation Cartel was founded in 2009. According to the International Business Times, three men were found murdered in an abandoned truck with a note that read: "We are the new group of Mata Zeta, we are against kidnapping and extortion and we will fight it in all states for a cleaner Mexico " In 2010, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel expanded its rhetoric and declared war on all other Mexican cartels, declaring its intention to take over Guadalajara. The cartel is currently fighting with Los Zetas for control of this city, as well as control of the states of Jalisco and Veracruz.

In 2011, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel claimed responsibility for what was called the Veracruz Massacre. Thirty-five bodies were found on a dirt road near the shopping center. The cartel also claimed responsibility for 67 murders the next day. In response to the violence and executions, the Mexican government launched a campaign with the army called Operation Veracruz Seguro.

3. Gulf Cartel


Founded in 1930 by smuggler Juan Nepomunceno Guerra, the Golfo Cartel is considered the oldest criminal organization in Mexico. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, “the Golfo Cartel is responsible for transporting multi-ton shipments of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana from Colombia, Guatemala, Panama and Mexico into the United States.” The organization is also involved in money laundering, bribery, extortion, and arms trafficking.

After the split with Los Zetas (it is unclear which of the two cartels started the conflict that led to the breakup), the power of the Golfo Cartel weakened somewhat. It suffered the loss of important leaders, and the struggle itself led to several deaths and arrests in Mexico and the United States. However, according to the news portal InterAmerican Security Watch, the Golfo cartel still maintains control of its main smuggling corridors into the United States.

2. Los Zetas


According to the US government, Los Zetas is the most technologically advanced, sophisticated and dangerous cartel operating in Mexico. In 1999, commandos from the elite Mexican army defected, founded Los Zetas and began collaborating with the Golfo cartel. The name Los Zetas comes from the tactical radio call sign for commanders in the Mexican Army.

By 2010, Los Zetas had broken away from the Golfo cartel and, according to Ralph Reyes, head of the drug enforcement agency in the Mexico-Central America zone, they "took a leading role in carrying out the majority of drug-related murders, beheadings, kidnappings and extortions that are happening in Mexico.” Since the San Fernando massacre, which killed 193 people, until the 2008 Morelia grenade attack, which killed eight people and injured more than 100, Los Zetas have carried out several high-profile attacks on civilians and members of other groups. Today, Los Zetas control 11 Mexican states and continue to train new mercenaries through several campaigns.

1. Sinaloa Cartel


According to US intelligence, the Snaloa cartel, also known as the Pacific Cartel or the Guzman-Loera organization, is the most powerful drug cartel in the world. The Sinaloa cartel is responsible for importing more than 200 tons of cocaine into the United States between 1990 and 2008, according to the US Attorney General. Even though the Sinaloa cartel left 14 severed heads in boxes in front of the mayor's office in Nuevo Laredo in 2012, the cartel leader, El Chapo, preferred "bribery over bullets."

Until 2008, the Sinaloa Cartel was primarily associated with the territories in the Golden Triangle, which includes the states of Sinaloa, Durango and Chihuahua. However, that year the syndicate moved into the state of Ciudad Juarez and began a bloody turf war with the local cartel led by Vicente Carrillo Fuentes. The conflict killed 5,000 people and, despite former Mexican President Felipe Calderon sending wax to quell the violence, Juarez became the most dangerous city in the world. The Sinola cartel controls 17 Mexican states.

A feared female drug cartel leader known for kidnapping victims and dumping their dismembered bodies on the doorsteps of those killed has been detained in Mexico after her lover, horrified by the monster she had become, turned her in to the police.

Melissa "La China" Calderon, whom her boyfriend and deputy Pedro "El Chino" Gomez calls a "maniac," is accused of killing 180 people. A top female drug trafficker was captured on Saturday after El Chino handed over information, including the secret burial sites of his girlfriend's victims, to authorities in exchange for a reduced sentence.

Melissa Margarita Calderon Ojeda, 30, known as "La China" (Chinese), became involved in organized crime in 2005 when she began working for the Damaso drug cartel. This criminal organization has ties to the Sinaloa cartel, which operates in the Mexican state of Baja California - one of the country's main regions for drug smuggling - and is led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who recently escaped from prison.

Known for her ruthlessness and brutality, she was appointed head of the cartel's armed wing in 2008. Her power extended to the city of La Paz and the popular tourist resort of Cabo San Lucas, which is visited by hundreds of thousands of people every year.

During the seven years she led the cartel's armed wing, the murder rate in the state of Baja California Sur tripled. La China became notorious for abducting its victims from their homes and then dumping their dismembered bodies on doorsteps as a warning to local communities.

When she was asked to resign from her position in the Damaso cartel, she fled and declared war on her former associates. To motivate the gang members, La China ordered bags of cocaine to be distributed to them. Rogelio "El Tyson" Franco (left) headed up logistics, Sergio "El Scar" Beltran (center) became the main killer, and Pedro "El Peter" Cisneros (right) oversaw drug sales and body disposal. In addition, La China had more than three hundred street drug dealers and fighters who rode red motorcycles to identify themselves.

La China paid great attention to safety and constantly changed cars and location. In early August, fearing that her vehicles had become known to authorities and were being tracked, La China ordered logistics specialist El Tyson to buy a pickup truck. El Tyson sent two friends of his parents to La Cina who wanted to sell the car, but she killed them without paying anything. El Peter buried their bodies in a secluded area north of the city.

When El Tyson arrived on the scene and saw his innocent friends brutally murdered, he became angry and threatened to go to the police. In a fit of rage over her perceived betrayal, La China cut off El Tyson's forearms before killing him.

Shortly thereafter, master assassin El Scar killed his favorite prostitute after she refused to continue her relationship with him due to his violent sexual tastes.

The last straw was the failed attempt to kidnap El Tocho, a member of the Damaso drug cartel, who was fighting for La China territory in La Paz. The bandits managed to detain his girlfriend Lourdes, whom La China brutally tortured, trying to find out information, and then killed.

After this, El Chino, the lover of the head of the drug cartel, shocked by her cruelty, left the gang and was soon captured by the police. During questioning, he described how La China's behavior got out of control. His words were soon confirmed by El Peter, who was detained a week later. El Peter showed the police the location of the secret burials.

La China was arrested without firing a shot on Saturday, September 19, at Los Cabos International Airport while attempting to flee the country. She was taken to prison in La Paz, a city she controlled only three months ago. La Cina is currently being interrogated in Mexico City and will stand trial next year for more than 150 murders.

The Mexican drug war is an armed conflict between rival drug cartels, government forces and police in Mexico.

Although Mexican drug cartels have been around for decades, they have become more powerful since the collapse of the Colombian Medellin and Cali cartels in the 1990s. Mexican drug cartels currently dominate the wholesale illicit drug market in the United States.

The arrests of cartel leaders have led to increased levels of violence as they have intensified the cartels' struggle among themselves for control of drug routes into the United States.

Mexico is the main foreign supplier of cannabis and the largest supplier of methamphetamine to the United States. Since 2006, 26 thousand people have become victims of the drug war. The drug war has become a national threat in Mexico. Since the 70s, some government agencies in Mexico have assisted in organizing the drug trade. The growing drug war in Mexico has also affected the United States. Mexico is the main source of cocaine and other drugs entering the United States. In turn, the United States is the main source of weapons used in the showdown of drug cartels in Mexico. In certain areas of Mexico, drug cartels have accumulated military-style weapons, have the ability to conduct counterintelligence, have accomplices among the authorities and an army of rank and file from among poor young people seeking to join to them. The police and armed forces of Mexico and the US DEA anti-drug service are fighting against drug cartels. The Mexican government under the rule of Felipe Calderon for the first time hit smugglers, extradited them to foreign countries, and confiscated their money and weapons.

The US State Department estimates that 90% of the cocaine entering the country comes from Mexico and Colombia, the main producers of cocaine, and that illicit drug revenues range from $13.6 billion to $48.4 billion a year.

Military and forensic experts examine a handcuffed body outside a nightclub.

The body of a man on the side of the Acapulco-Mexico highway.

Soldiers enter the city of Ciudad Juarez to patrol the streets. The city is completely owned by drug lord Vicente Carrillo Fuentes.

Arrested gang members and their weapons.

The body of one of the killed bandits during a special operation to free hostages from the hands of drug dealers. Machine guns, cannons, ammunition, four trucks and about 2 tons of marijuana were also seized.

206 million US dollars - police catch when detaining methamphetamine producers.

Guns, drugs, cash and jewelry seized in several anti-drug operations in Mexico are displayed during a press conference at the Attorney General's headquarters in Mexico City.

Seized 1.2 tons of cocaine.

134 tons of marijuana at the Morelos military base in Tijuana, destined for destruction.

The scene of the murder of 8 people involved in drug trafficking.

Gold and silver pistols encrusted with precious stones from members of one of the gangs, found during house searches.

An arrested drug dealer who was holding several people hostage.

In the coffin is three-year-old Iliana Hernandez, shot along with her father by unknown assailants.

A friend mourns the body of Sergio Hernandez, a fourteen-year-old who tried to cross the US border and was apparently killed by American border guards.

The bodies of two men with their hands and faces tied. The reasons for the murder are unknown.

Two bodies hanging on a bridge in the center of a Mexican city. The reason for the execution is either a showdown within gangs of drug dealers, or an act of intimidation for everyone trying to cooperate with the police.

After a police shootout with a gang of drug dealers.

Searching for bullets near shot young men in handcuffs. The reason for the murder is unknown.

More than a ton of cocaine, which was shown to the media after the arrest of a drug shipment.

A police officer guards a crime scene where four people were shot dead in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's most dangerous place. More than 2,000 people have died this year in Mexico's drug war, mostly between rival gangs, as they fight to control U.S. drug smuggling that passes through the city.

On the woman's nails are sheets of marijuana and a portrait of one of the drug lords.

Marijuana plantation.

The box in which the woman's corpse was found. Initially it was thought that the box might contain a bomb.

After a shootout between bandits and police in Ciudad Juarez.

Approximately two tons of seized cocaine are being tested at the naval base.

Ciudad Juarez. Murdered members of the city's local government.

Arrest of a pregnant woman for possession and distribution of drugs.

A policeman stands outside a Mexican house where members of a drug gang consisting mainly of Colombians were arrested.

Found corpses of employees of a law firm, thanks to which drug dealers were previously arrested.

The body of a man in Guatemala after a shootout in the street.

Colombian police check packages of cocaine after a flight with drugs weighing three and a half tons was delayed.

One of 17 bodies dumped in prominent locations in Rio de Janeiro just after the president announced a $60 million anti-crime budget ahead of the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.