During The Course Of This Class, We Identified Organized

A widely propagated myth would have us believe that Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera and his Sinaloa Federation are less violent than many of their competitors. Statements from journalists and analysts allege that Sinaloa is more businesslike than Los Zetas, whose reputation for brutality is well-documented, and that this business savvy somehow renders the group relatively benign. In turn, this has led many to believe that the Mexican government could broker a deal with the leader of one of Mexico's largest criminal organizations.

The Gulf Cartel was the first to recruit Mexican Special Forces to act as a military wing to: enforce receipt of payments, protect from other cartels, and carry out well organized assassinations of members from rival gangs or cartels. This Special Forces group was known as the Zetas. The Gulf Cartel's vision to bring a group of highly trained gunmen into the drug game would forever have an impact on the drug cartels in Mexico (Beith, M. (2013, September 24)).

Recognized as one of the most fearless and violent cartels in all of Mexico, Los Zetas was brought forth by a need for personal security in the Gulf Cartel. This former hit man/security style operation, active since 1997, has since grown into its own ruthless and violent organization becoming the second most powerful cartel and easily the most feared in all of Mexico. Heavily trained and armed, members of Los Zetas are set apart from other cartels because of the level of brutality they are willing to administer to those who cross them, though they had initially hoped that by being more intimidating they would have to fight less. It is their command of the drug market, their lack of fear in using violent tactics, and the

Figure 3, illustrates the Zeta TCO’s area of operations in Mexico with their proximity at or near the Guatemalan border. An area of concern for U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies is their proximity to the Central American country of Guatemala. According Casey (2011) the Zeta TCO have made their presence known in Guatemala. Narco-mantas or drug banners were hung in the town of Poptún indicating anyone including law enforcement that opposed them would be killed. The banners Poptún were similar to those hung in public squares in Mexico to claim territory and threaten rivals.

Mexican smugglers transformed into the Guadalajara cartel through the leadership of Felix Gallardo. Right at the beginning we see that there was no real motive for the cartels to be borne – other than them being created out of need. Mexican cartels would not have the power that they have today if it was not for the high demand that exists in the United States for drugs and narcotics. Since the United States government began to crack down on Colombian gangs that operated in Miami, they were forced to look towards other means to transport drugs to their hungry American consumers. The cartels were borne out of the need to meet the supply and demand that had been created by those living in the United States. Their true upstart to the cartels was not due to come type of rebellion against government, but one borne out of need to satisfy

The Sinaloa Cartel is the largest narcotic moving and profiting drug cartel in Latin America. As time progresses, the cartel becomes more creative in their efforts to conceal dirty money over borders. Early in 2014, here in Chicago, the Sinaloa Cartel was taking money and trading it for gold bars or other expensive jewelry. Then, they were shipping it to Florida, where they were working with a business. The business could keep 1% of the money they laundered into Mexico. The businesses were professionals who would make false documentation backing up the sales of gold to Mexico

The Los Zetas is a Mexican transnational criminal organization specializing in drug and human trafficking that has extended across the Texas and Arizona borders with recent expansion in the South and Midwest. They are a paramilitary group specializing in violent behavior that has crossed the Mexican/American border to include recruitment of United States young citizens. Because it is not a matter of when the Zetas will breach our border areas, but how forcefully and repeatedly, a Red Cell analysis is imperative to understand their criminal mindset and predict their imminent and future intentions. Penetration beyond our borders has already occurred not only with the shipment of drugs, but also by way of attacks on U.S. law enforcement and recruitment of U.S. youth to carry out their dirty work within the U.S. borders.

Pablo Escobar, also known as the king of cocaine, changed the western world. He also changed what the public thinks about when thinking of organized crime. Pablo had such an impact on western history that he is the subject in a new popular Netflix series, entitled “Narcos.” This series does an excellent job of enticing viewers into watching the portrayal of the chase to catch Escobar in a stimulating and theatrical way. This show also provides historically accurate and general information about drug cartels in the 1990’s.

Around this time, Mexican cartels rose to power. According to here are seven major Mexican Cartels: the Sinaloa Cartel, the Gulf Cartel, the Beltran Levya Cartel, the Juarez cartel, the Knights Templar, Los Zetas, and the Tijuana cartel. Out of all of the cartels, the most significant is the Sinaloa cartel. El Chapo is the leader of the Sinaloa cartel. He was captured in the early 2000s, however he escaped due to police corruption. His trial has been very public, bringing attention to the terror that is caused by the Cartels. The seven major cartels have long and bloody histories with each other. The Tijuana cartel, also known as Arellan Felix, controlled the Tijuana state border for many years (Bender para. 30-33). However, due to many internal murders and assassinations by the Sinaloa Cartel, the Tijuana no longer exists as a major cartel (Bender para. 30-33). Next is Los Zetas. Los

With all the efforts made to stop the war and trade of drugs in Mexico, the power of the cartels is still ever-growing. Only rarely is a story heard were someone other than the cartel comes up victorious, such as the case of sister Martinez. But unlike sister Martinez, many other peace activists find themselves out of luck. Violent murders and kidnappings are common, and people live in fear when police officers can no longer be trusted. Despite their best efforts, the Mexican Government has not yet put a stop to all this crime, but has been taking large steps in the recent times.

Drug cartels, in reality, are just as bad as they appear on film. Authorities estimate that between eighteen and thirty-nine billion dollars are brought in from drug sales to the United States each year (Keefe). It is also estimated that the war on drugs has caused over 50,000 deaths in Mexico alone since 2006 (Keefe). Deaths are often overlooked because they are not compiled by thousands at once, but gradually over a large area. Other illegal activity such as kidnapping and oil theft have came about from the cartel (Mexico’s Drug Trafficking Organizations: Source and Scope of the Violence). All three films, Miss Bala, Maria Full of Grace, and Traffic give similar accounts to the way the cartel takes people’s lives, only in different areas of the drug moving process.

Los Zetas is become an international organization that export violence in to the United States, and Drugs therefore is a treat to National Security to the country. Los Zetas stared in 1995 as a mercenary force for the Cartel del Gulf, this group initially gas form by special forces of the Mexican military. This troops were train in the USA in Fort. Benning by Americans, Israel and France special forces in La escuela de las Americas. This group protected the west coast of Mexico from the Sinaloa cartel, Oziel Cardenas the lieder of the Gulf cartel was the creator of this force. Los Zetas was and is a group train to kill and has no problem doing it. They have stop any attempts from the Sinaloa cartel from taking the Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo plazas

There are seven forms of transnational criminality are Illicit drug trafficking, Money laundering, Infiltration of legal business, Computer crime, Illicit arms trafficking, Traffic in persons, and Destruction of cultural property. Illicit drug trafficking is a very lucrative enterprise producing billions of dollars in profit that terrorist organizations can without much of a stretch take advantage of. The ties between international terrorist organizations and drug trafficking changes incredibly from organization to organization (Clarke, 2016). For instance, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), otherwise known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, is emphatically attached to drug trafficking in Colombia.

They are completely ruthless there is video evidence of them picking up young children and using them as human shields from firing enemies. Also they have been accused of torturing prisoners, firing on unarmed

Coming on to the next segment which is tactics and targeting - what kinds of attacks have they perpetrated? Why did they select those tactics? Who do they target and why?