Drug cartels are criminal organizations developed with the primary purpose of promoting and controlling drug trafficking operations. They range from loosely-managed agreements among various drug traffickers to formalized commercial enterprises. Drug cartels are not strictly cartels proper.
Drug cartels operate in many countries throughout Latin America, including Mexico, Central America and Colombia, and in Afghanistan and South Asia. They are the cause of extreme gangster-like violence and thousands of murders, particularly in Mexico all along the U.S. border.
Medellin Cartel
The Medellín Cartel, was an organized network of "Drug Suppliers and Smugglers" originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia. The Cartel operated in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Central America, The United States, as well as Canada and even Europe throughout the 1970s and 1980s. It was founded and run by Pablo Escobar, Jorge Ochoa, along with Ochoa's brothers Juan David and Fabio. During the height of its operations, the Cartel brought in more than $60 million per month. The total amount of money made by the Cartel was in the tens of billions, and very possibly the hundreds of billions of dollars. There were many "groups" during the Cartel's years, usually white Americans, Canadians or Europeans, organized for the sole purpose of transporting shipments of cocaine destined for, The United States, Europe and Canada. While many "groups" were infiltrated and taken down by Federal agents and informers, a few were stumbled upon by authorities, usually due to some small misstep or careless behaviour by a member(s) of a particular "group". Once authorities were made aware of "questionable activities", the group would be put under Federal Drug Task Force surveillance. Evidence would be gathered, compiled and presented to a Grand Jury, resulting in Indictements, Arrests and Prison Sentences, for those convicted. The number of Colombian Cartel Leaders actually taken into custody as a result of these operations, was very few. Mostly non-Colombians, conspiring with the Cartel, were the "fruits" of these indictments. Most Colombians targeted, as well as those named in such indictments, lived and stayed in Colombia, or, fled before indictments were unsealed. However, by 1993 most, if not all, Cartel fugitives had been imprisoned or hunted and gunned down by the Colombian National Police trained and assisted by U.S. Delta Force and CIA.
Gulf Cartel
The Gulf Cartel (Cártel del Golfo) is a Mexican drug trafficking organization (MDTO) based in Matamoros, Tamaulipas. Heavy operations also include the cities of Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo. Its chief rival is the Sinaloa Cartel. The Gulf Cartel traffics cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamime and heroin across the border to major cities in the United States. The group is known for its violent methods and intimidation, and works closely with corrupt law officials and business people in Mexico as well as in the United States. The sphere of influence for the cartel has been determined to be from the Gulf Coast state of Tamaulipas to Piedras Negras, Coahuila.
Aside from earning money from the sales of narcotics, the Cartel also collects taxes aka piso, cuota from street level dealers, prominent businesses. Anyone passing narcotics or aliens through a plaza belonging to the Gulf Cartel is subject to payment of these 'taxes' to the cartel, regardless of whether the contraband is subsequently apprehended by US law enforcement or not. Payment of these taxes assure that the Cartel will not strike violently at those who pay them. The Gulf cartel does not limit itself solely to narcotics trafficking, as they have been known to kidnap local businessmen to collect money.
Sinaloa Cartel
The Sinaloa Cartel is a Mexican drug trafficking cartel primarily operating out of the states of Baja California, Sinaloa, Durango, Sonora and Chihuahua. The cartel is also known as the Guzmán-Loera Organization and the Pacific Cartel, the latter due to the coast of Mexico from which it originated, other names include the Federation or Golden Triangle.
The cartel is primarily involved in the smuggling and distribution of Colombian cocaine, Mexican marijuana, methamphetamine, and Mexican and Southeast Asian heroin into the United States. It is believed that a group known as the Herrera Organization would transport multi-ton quantities of cocaine from South America to Guatemala on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel; from there it is smuggled north to Mexico and later in the United States. Other shipments of cocaine are believed to originate in Colombia from the Cali and Medellín Cartel from which the Sinaloa Cartel handle transportation across the U.S. border to distribution cells in Arizona, California, Texas, Chicago and New York.
In the late 1980s, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration believed the Sinaloa Cartel was the largest drug trafficking organization operating in Mexico. By the mid-1990s it was believed to be the size of the Medellín Cartel during its prime. The Sinaloa Cartel was believed to be linked to the Juárez Cartel in a strategic alliance following the partnership of their rivals, the Gulf Cartel and Tijuana Cartel. Following the discovery of a tunnel system used to smuggle drugs across the Mexican/US border, the group has been associated with such means of trafficking.
By 2005, the Beltran-Leyva brothers, who were formerly aligned with the Sinaloa Cartel, had come to dominate drug trafficking across the border with Arizona. By 2006, Sinaloa Cartel had eliminated all competition across the 330 miles of Arizona border, and it was suspected they had accomplished this by bribing state government officials. The Beltran-Leyva brothers are now allies of Los Zetas of the Gulf Cartel.