Mexico's Drug War: The Sinaloa Cartel

Joaquin Guzman best known as “El Chapo” is the world's greatest drug lord. He has been captured three times and has been able to escape twice, once in a laundry basket and the second time he managed to escaped in an underground tunnel built in his shower cell. He was recently recaptured after being fugitive for about six months. Joaquin entered the drug business as a teenager and later became in charge of the Sinaloa cartel. “He shops and ships by some estimates more than half of all the cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana that come into the United States”(Penn). Many argue that El Chapo is a really bad person that only does a lot of harm to the citizens in Mexico, but what most don't know is that he actually helps some of them.

Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera, also known as El Chapo, was born in the rural community of La Tuna, Badiraguato, Sinaloa (Beith, 2010). Guzman Loera started his trafficking career in the 1980’s working for the powerful Miguel Angel Felix-Gallardo (U.S Department of State, 2015); he was able to quickly move up the ranks because of his expertise in air logistics (U.S DOS, 2015). Guzman Loera is now the most powerful drug trafficker in the world and the leader of the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico. Thousands of killings have been attributed to Guzman Loera’s organization, along with kidnappings, and extortions. Mexican authorities arrested Guzman Loera on June 9th, 1993, for murder and drug related charges and was given a twenty year sentence in a maximum security prison in Jalisco, Mexico. However, he managed to escape from the maximum security prison on January 19, 2001 (U.S DOS, 2015). His escape from the maximum security prison in Jalisco has allowed him to

Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera (El Chapo) was born on December 25, 1954 in the community of Badiraguato, Sinaloa, Mexico. His parents were Emilio Guzman Bustilos and Maria Consuelo Loera Perez. He grew up on his father’s cattle ranch with his two younger sisters, Amida and Bernarda, and four younger brothers, Miguel Angel, Aureliano, Arturo and Emilio. It is also known that his father was an opium farmer. Throughout Guzman’s childhood he was often beaten by his father for standing up to him. Usually protecting his younger siblings therefore he ended up taking his father’s wrath. Guzman dropped out of the third grade to work for his father, this was due to the fact that the nearest school was 60 miles away and the family could not afford to commute. With little education and few opportunities for employment in his hometown, he became to help cultivate opium for his father. His brothers also joined the family business when they came of age. They would harvest the plant by the kilos and his father would sell it to other suppliers. Guzman became tired of his father’s mismanagement, so he started growing and cultivating his own marijuana plantation with a few distant cousins. He then became financially able to support his family, while his father could not. This ended up leading to his father kicking him out due to jealousy. He then went to live with his grandfather, this is where he earned his nickname El Chapo, which means shorty. This due to the fact that he was 5’6” and

There are seven drug cartels in Mexico (CRS 1). The most important cartels are Sinaloa and Juarez. The Sinaloa cartel operates in the states of Nayarit, Sinaloa and Mexico State (Reforma 1). The Juarez cartel operates in Sinaloa, Nuevo León, Chihuahua, Jalisco, Morelos; and Quintana Roo. Mexican cartels employ individuals and groups of enforcers, known as sicarios. Statistics show that more than twenty people are killed daily in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua in crimes related to drugs. Drug lords send their gunmen to strategic places where innocent people that are in the wrong place at the wrong time are killed. Narco Lords like Vicente Carrillo Fuentes and Joaquin el Chapo Guzman, fight among themselves for the

The United States agency of drugs have discovered that for all of the illegal drugs consumed in the nation has been transported by the Mexican cartels. “U.S. federal officials say that the mexican cartels operate in dozens of U.S. cities and analysts say they are moving to consolidate their control of the entire supply chain of illegals drugs”(Schwartz, 1). The government of the United States have been conducting the investigation to now if the cartels are north. Many big cities today have a piece of the cartel organization working there and also producing drugs to distribute within the city. According to the investigation done by the DEA and U.N officials “Mexican cartels have established command - and - control centers to orchestrate cocaine shipments by sea and air along the still wild caribbean coast with the help of local authorities”(Booth, 2). All though that the cartel are moving to the United States they are still leaving command center in mexico to conduct shipments by ground or any other shipments overseas. The cartel is able to transport such quantities of drugs with help of the local authorities and other corrupt government officials.

Mexico has a long history of cartels the deaths, drugs and weapon trafficking is in all time high increasing year by year. “Mexico's gangs have flourished since the late 19th century, mostly in the north due to their proximity to towns along the U.S.-Mexico border. But it was the American appetite for cocaine in the 1970s that gave Mexican drug cartels immense power to manufacture and transport drugs across the border. Early Mexican gangs were primarily situated in border towns where prostitution, drug use, bootlegging and extortion flourished” (Wagner). They keep themselves armed and ready with gun supplies shipped from the U.S, taking control of the drug trades. The violence is spilling so out of control that

More than 60,000 people have been killed in the ongoing drug war in Mexico. The fact that this violence has yet to reach its acme is quiet frightening. The freight instilled in the tourist that once found the many hotspots located in Mexico such as Acapulco and Cancun are now terrified to set foot in the land. Due to the fact that there is no safe or secure area where tourist can venture out for a good time. Due to violence Mexico has been affected with a lack of tourist, revenue and its acclaimed bad reputation.

The changes in key government leadership positions have had significant implications on Mexico 's drug trade business (Lupsha 1995). Take the example of one of Mexico 's leading drug traffickers, Juan Garcia Abrego who is widely known as the inventor of Mexican drug trafficking. Abrego 's drug smuggling operations flourished under former President Salina 's administration. When former President Zedillo entered office in December of 1994, Abrego lost the high-level protection provided under the former President Salina. Without this level of protection, Abregos influence in the drug trade industry decreased dramatically to the point of bankruptcy, in a traditional business sense. During this transformation, other well-connected cartels gained uncontested access to large drug trafficking corridors once controlled by Abrego. Despite Abregos deteriorating drug influence in Mexico, President Zedillo put a large bounty on him, making Abrego the most wanted drug smuggler in Mexico. Nevertheless, Abrego 's eventual capture was highly celebrated by the United States as a sign of Mexico 's increasing efforts and dedication to the elimination of illicit drug smuggling operations. In my opinion the example of Abrego 's lost influence and highly celebrated capture directly relates to the politic rhetoric and corruption that is associated with

Mexican Drug Cartels have been a problem for many years. The cartels are an organized crime organization and they don’t just deal drugs; they commit murders too. The Cartels origins are traced back to the Columbian Cali and Medellin mega-cartels who were responsible for the majority of drug trafficking into the United States. Crime has existed for many years but it surfaced more when Pablo Escobar was popular. Pablo Escobar was one the main transporters for cocaine throughout Mexico and the United States coming straight out of Columbia. Law enforcement tried to stop the drug trade but Escobar formed a relationship with Mexico-based traffickers who smuggled drugs into the United States. Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo also known as “The Godfather” of the cartels. Seeing how he established the Guadalajara Cartel, which is recognized as the first Mexican Cartel, and were the first to link up with Escobar and started the transportation of cocaine

At first, Mexican drug cartels were structured just like family owned businesses. There would be a family member who was the main drug lord and cousins and uncles of the family would be the body guards and drug dealers. After the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) lost their power within the Mexican government the structure of drug cartels became much more complex. A hierarchical diffusion is seen within the drug cartel system because the drugs spread from one important drug lord to another, and we generally see this happening in the urban part of Mexico, more than in the rural areas. A corporate structure began forming as hierarchies began developing under drug lords and more people got involved. Professor Guillermo Trejo of Notre Dame 's Kellogg Institute claims that once the PRI lost their power there was a rapid increase in violence. This is because of Mexico’s former President, Felipe Calderón, who politically associates with the National Action Party (PAN). In 2006 President Calderón declared war on the drug cartels. This milestone triggered a huge change within Mexico’s international relations, government, and culture.

Many critics are now making comparisons between the Mexican drug cartels, like the one mentioned above, and legitimate corporations like Netflix, or Google. There are currently seven major Mexican drug cartels. Although, the cartels may all come from different backgrounds and have different approaches towards trafficking drugs, they all share a similar business style structure to

The Mexican Drug War was a sad time when Mexico was trying to have firearms, tobacco, alcohol, etc... come over the border into their country illegally. During this time many lives were lost and sadly forgotten.

During the early 1990’s Colombia being one of the biggest exporters of narcotics in history, led by Pablo Escobar, who had a wide range of organized crime affiliations throughout Latin America. Pablo Escobar was a Colombian drug lord and he smuggled narcotics all the way to South Florida as when authorities tried to capture him. One of Pablo Escobar’s most important alliances was that of the Mexican-based traffickers. Escobar knew that this was an important trade route because of its geography and how it would be easier to smuggle the narcotics into the United States. This allowed a smuggling partnership between both countries and Mexico was to eventually lead their own drug based trafficking system with the help of Pablo Escobar. From the distributed drugs, cartels would take a certain amount of profit, and would use that money to bribe Mexican officials. By bribing Mexican officials it was insured that if smugglers were to be arrested they would either be let go, the case would be dropped or taking action against a rival smuggling group by giving away information about the rival’s plan to carry

The government has made some gains, but at a heavy price. A total of 34,612 people have died in drug-related killings in Mexico in the first four years (Siddique). Most of these killing are between cartel rivals fighting for the control of territories. There are five cartels operating in Mexico: the Sinaloa, the Gulf, Juarez, Tijuana, the Zetas. The major cartels are the Gulf, Sinaloa and Juarez (Cook 21). Many of these cartels have joined together forming powerful alliances known as the “Federation” (Cook 17). The cartels work together, but they remain independent organizations.

Over the past years, Mexico has experienced extreme changes due to the violent drug wars. Violence has presented itself in every neighborhood, every street corner, and even in the schools. Chalk outlines are seen drawn on various streets of homicide scenes. Thousands of people have lost their lives in the hands of drug traffickers. Life itself in Mexico, has taken a change for the worse. One may ask what the reasons are for this wave of violence. The most logical answer, of course, is to blame the criminals. It is the drug lords who are smuggling, transporting, and selling these drugs. They should be the ones held responsible, right? The answer to this question is deeply rooted in the history of corruption in the Mexican Government. The