Mexican-American Drug War

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The Mexican drug-trafficking cartels are said to have been established in the 1980s by a man named Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, also known as “The Godfather”. With the help of Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo and Rafael Caro Quintero, Miguel started the Guadalajara Cartel, which is one of the first to have thrived from association with the Colombian cocaine trade. The two men who helped Miguel Gallardo establish the cartel were arrested, so Gallardo, the single leader of the cartel “was smart enough to privatize the Mexican drug trade by having it run by lesser-known bosses” (The Five Most Famous Drug Cartels”), that he often met with in Acapulco. Eventually Miguel was arrested as well which caused the split of the Guadalajara Cartel into the Sinaloa Cartel and the Tijuana Cartel. The Sinaloa Cartel was led by Joaquin Guzman who was a most-wanted Mexican drug trafficker worth a billion dollars. Under control of Joaquin, the Sinaloa Cartel became powerful and won the battle against the Juarez Cartel who was a former partner of the group. The battle, caused by want for more routes into the U.S. resulted in 12,000 deaths and led the group to employ gangs such as the Artist Assassins, Genre Nueva, and Los Mexicles to fight against the Juarez Cartel. The second half of the Guadalajara Cartel, the Tijuana Cartel was started in the 1990s and by the early 2000s became one of the “biggest and most violent criminal groups in Mexico,” as stated by the article, “The Five Most Famous Drug Cartels”. Led by the Arellano Felix brothers, the nephews of Miguel, and later their own nephew, Luis Fernando Sanchez Arellano, the Tijuana Cartel suffered through many deaths and arrests, which made the group smaller, yet still influential. Another cartel, the... ... middle of paper ... ...they continue to send troops to regain control of towns and prevent violence and crime in an attempt to make drugs a less prominent factor in their society. All that we as individuals can do to somewhat change the course of the future of the cartels is to educate ourselves on drug abstinence and help stop the spread of the use of drugs. Works Cited Beith, Malcolm. “The Current State of Mexico’s Many Drug Cartels.” Insight Crimes. n.p., 25 Sep. 2013. Web. 16 Feb. 2014. Corcoran, Katherine. “Mexico’s Drug War Strategy Remains Unchanged With New Government.” Huffington Post. The Huffington Post, 18 Aug. 2013. Web. 16 Feb. 2014. De Cordoba, José & Lunhow, David. “The Perilous State of Mexico.” The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, 21 Feb. 2009. Web. 16 Feb. 2014. “The Five Most Famous Drug Cartels.” Drug Abuse. n.p.,n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.

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