The Cartel : A Powerful Drug Trafficking Organization

Drug cartels have arisen as a major crisis for the future in the Americas. Individuals indulge themselves on drugs for many reasons such as tradition, attempting to escape poverty, and generating revenue for rebellious activities. Drug trafficking has proven to be ludacris, with the increasing involvement of corrupt government officials in their distribution. The UN has stated the approximate estimation of profits of drug trade is roughly around $150 billion alone in the Americas, which accounts slightly less than 5% GDP. Currently the most common way of drug transport is land through Central American countries like Mexico, and it eventually crosses over the border to the United States.

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.

Mexican drug cartels have been expanding its portfolios to include doing business in sex trafficking. The Zetas are the most feared drug cartel in Mexico’s drug, sex trafficking trade, and etc.; the Zetas are a criminal army made up of defectors from the Mexican military. Anybody who crosses them will more than likely get their heads chopped off or won’t live to see another day.

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.

Due to drugs-related gang violence since 2006, when Mexican President Felipe Calderón entered office, more than 100,000 people have been killed (CNN Library, 2017). Among the major Mexican cartels - Los Zetas Cartel, Gulf Cartel, La and La Familia Michoacana, the Sinaloa Cartel is the most dominant drug trafficking organization in Mexico with an increasing presence in the United States. Roughly 80% of illegal substances like heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana are supplied by the Sinaloa Cartel (Woody, 2016). There have been several attempts of increased pressure from both the U.S. and Mexican governments to disrupt drug trafficking organizations and this has led to significant instability and violence escalating into a national security crisis.

The situation in Mexico regarding the Drug Cartels has been an ongoing battle that has taken the life of between 30,000 to 40,000 civilians, cartels henchmen and federal employees. The violence has evolved into something new in recent years. The brutality contributed by the drug cartels could potentially be labeled as terrorist acts. The strong domestic conflict surrounding the drug cartel in Mexico has boiled over the border and into the United States. Illegal drugs enter the United States through various openings along the U.S- Mexican Border. There are nine important crossings, such as Tijuana-San Diego, Mexicali, and Ciudad Juarez-El Paso. From Texas to Southern California, these drugs are handed out throughout the United States via

The most activity that these cartels do is around the United States and Mexican border by transporting illegal substances and even people and putting many people in danger not just in Mexico but in the United States. But also the economy is being hurt because the United States losing about one point six million dollars annually to these cartels contributing to smuggling and the U.S is number drug using country all around the world. While more and more smuggling is happening cartel kingpin for example Joaquin Guzman is getting more powerful and being the number one supplier to Chicago that most of these narcotics are being distributed. Statistics of that came from the DEA reports that cartel presence in the United States cities are getting bigger from the years of two-thousand-eight to twenty-eleven climbing the scale to twelve hundred on the number of reports from American communities that suspected narcotics presence. Making the struggle to make communities more secure but organizations that are not affiliated to the government are helping to get rid all this problematic situations with cartels such as the Chicago Crime

SinaloaMore…Signal drug cartel, is the biggest and most powerful drug trafficking organization in North, Central and South America. Which was established in the 80s and operates in several Mexican states and many other countries with criminal activities such as money laundering. It has grown far beyond our borders and is now believed to be very influential and a far-reaching drug organization in the United States. The cartel members rely on connections at the highest levels and are led by Mexico's mighty drug lord Joaquin GuzmanGuzman's alias “El Chapo” who recently escaped from a maximum-security prison in Mexico. SinaloaMore…Signal has long been connected with contraband drugs in Mexico, as well as the location for marijuana and poppy cultivation.

“The Sinaloa Cartel was founded by Jaime Hererra Nevares, Ernesto Fonseca Carillo, Eduardo Fernandez, Jorge Escobar, Pedro Aviles Perez, Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, and Hector Luis Palma” (Beith, 2011, p. 68). The Sinaloa Cartel is a culmination of different Mexican drug organizations. Herrera was in charge of an organization that exported heroine from Mexico through Chicago using what is known as the “heroin highway” (Beith, 2011). Eventually the Herrera organization teamed up with Ernesto Fonseca and Jorge Escobar who were key figures in the Sinaloan drug world. The Mexican government launched Operation Condor which forced

The increasing momentum of Mexican drug cartels is accompanied by a surge of violence and police corruption that is catastrophic for Southern Texas-Mexico border city protection in the United States. This escalates the necessity for firearms possessed by citizens because of their defense benefits that surpass any negative effect. Mexican drug cartels are criminal organizations that are located in Mexico and focus on profiting large amounts of money from illegal substances by creating the product and smuggling it across the U.S.-Mexico border. This billion-dollar market is brutally fought for by the Sinola Cartel and the Gulf Cartel, who establish fear and authority in Mexican cities eliminating all that oppose them including those in the United

According the US Drug Enforcement Administration, Sinaloa Cartel is the largest and most powerful drug trafficking syndicates in the world, is an alliance of some of Mexico’s top capos based in Culiacan, Sinaloa state, Mexico. The state has long been recognized as major which involved in illegal drug industry as home to marijuana and poppy crops. (www.insightcrime.org) By the early 21st century the cartel had operations in more than 50 countries but was particularly dominant in the United States. (Tikkanen, 2016) The Sinaloa Cartel was responsible for the majority of illegal drugs notably marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamines were smuggled from Mexico then the cartel remains the main controlling the most U.S states. In the mid 1990s,

The Cartels have major influence over many small towns and cities as they make sure their businesses compete with the rest of the illegal drug market. The word Cartel means a formal organization of producers that agree to coordinate prices and production. In order for their organizations to remain established, some cartels in Mexico even have the power to bribe the government so that they look the other way. This is a form of Clientelism, which is an informal aspect of policymaking where a powerful patron offers resources such as land, contacts, protection or jobs in return for the support and services of lower-status and less powerful clients. This obviously leads to corruption as well as the cartel being basically untouchable in some cases. The amount of violence that stirs from this phenomena is staggering and many people die from it every year in

In 2006, Mexico began to crack down on drug trafficking operations in union with the United States. Why all of the sudden? In regard to that question, my paper will include a history of events leading up to this sudden crack down on drug trafficking, from its start in the 1960’s until today. After the history of the drug war, I will discuss the main states involved like the United States and Mexico itself. Along with their main goal of eliminating drug trafficking all together, although it is a very high expectation. Mexico has sent out 50,000 soldiers that are being paid less than a burrito vendor, in attempt to lessen the

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.