Over the last several decades, violence has consumed and transformed Mexico. Since the rise of dozens of Mexican cartels, the Mexican government has constantly been fighting an ongoing war with these criminal organizations. The cartel organizations have a primary purpose of managing and controlling illegal drug trafficking operations in Central America and South America to the United States. Violence on a massive and brutal scale has emerged due to the nature of the illegal drug trade. Because the drug trade is vastly widespread, cartels are often fighting one another and competing in business. Mexican authorities count at least 12 major cartels, but also talk of an untold numbers of smaller splinter groups. (Taipei Times). Five cartels from Mexico have risen to become the extremely powerful amongst all the drug organizations operating in Mexico. The Guadalajara Cartel, the Sinaloa Cartel, the Tijuana Cartel, the Juarez Cartel, and the Gulf Cartel. These organizations, along with other distinguished Mexican cartels, have plagued Mexico with violence, terror, and fear due to the essence and nature of illegal drug trafficking.
Mexican cartels are the world’s most powerful drug trafficking organizations and the largest supplier of illegal narcotics into the United States. The Mexican drug-trafficking organizations are a collection of criminal enterprises. (Evelyn Morris). Mexican Cartels are able to invade an area and control it for Cartel operations. The Mexican cartels are capable of controlling territory, but they do not have a political agenda. (Steven Dudley) Because of Mexico’s location neighboring the United States, it has been used as a staging and pre-distribution point for illegal-drugs destined for U.S. markets. About half of the estimated 65 billion dollars worth of illegal narcotics in the United States is smuggled through Mexican-American border. Once the narcotic shipments reach the U.S., it is then separated and distributed throughout the country. Drug organizations in other countries in Central America and South America have operated and traded with Mexican cartels due to Mexico’s strategic location for profit and distribution into the United States.
The United States Intelligence community considers the Sinaloa Cartel to be the one of the most dangerous cartels in Mexico today. The first known origins of the Sinaloa Cartel began with a Mexican citizen, Pedro Aviles Perez. Pedro Aviles Perez was a drug lord in the Mexican state of Sinaloa in the late 1960’s. Perez has been considered the first major drug smugglers to begin the first large scale drug trafficking operation in Mexico. Perez has also been referred to as the architect behind the first aircraft smuggling operation into the United States. In September of 1978, Pedro Aviles Perez was killed in a shootout with Federal police. It is believed that Perez was set up by the cartel organization’s treasurer, Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo. Carrillo was a high-ranking member of...
