page_title: Drug cartel
section_title: Mexico
hierarchical_section_title: Drug cartel / Americas / North America / Mexico
caption_attribution_description: English: The Merida Initiative, a U.S. Counter-Narcotics Assistance to Mexico.
context_page_description: A drug cartel is any criminal organization with the intention of supplying drug trafficking operations. They range from loosely managed agreements among various drug traffickers to formalized commercial enterprises. The term was applied when the largest trafficking organizations reached an agreement to coordinate the production and distribution of cocaine. Since that agreement was broken up, drug cartels are no longer actually cartels, but the term stuck and it is now popularly used to refer to any criminal narcotics related organization.
  The basic structure of a drug cartel is as follows:
  Falcons: Considered as the "eyes and ears" of the streets, the "falcons" are the lowest rank in any drug cartel. They are responsible for supervising and reporting the activities of the police, the military, and rival groups.
  Hitmen: The armed group within the drug cartel, responsible for carrying out assassinations, kidnappings, thefts, and extortions, operating protection rackets, and defending their plaza from rival groups and the military.
  Lieutenants: The second highest position in the drug cartel organization, responsible for supervising the hitmen and falcons within their own territory.
context_section_description: Mexican cartels (also known in Mexico as: La Mafia (the mafia or the mob), La Maña (the skill / the bad manners), Narcotraficantes (Narco-Traffickers), or simply as Narcos) usually refers to several, rival, criminal organizations that are combated by the Mexican government in the Mexican War on Drugs (List sorted by branches and heritage):
  Gulf Cartel (The oldest Mexican Criminal syndicate, started as prohibition-era bootlegging gang)
  Los Zetas (Formerly part of the Gulf cartel, now independent)
  La Familia Michoacana (Formerly a branch of the Gulf Cartel, then went independent) (Disbanded)
  Los Caballeros Templarios (Splintered from La Familia Cartel)
  Guadalajara Cartel (The first full-fledged Mexican Drug cartel, from which most of the big cartels spawned) (Disbanded in 1989)
  Sinaloa Cartel (Spawned from the Guadalajara Cartel)
  Colima Cartel (Disbanded, former members are now a branch of the Sinaloa Cartel)
  Sonora Cartel (Disbanded in 1989, its remnants joined the Sinaloa Cartel)
  Artistas Asesinos (hitman squad)  (Disbanded)
  Gente Nueva (Sinaloa cell in Chihuahua)  (Disbanded)
  Los Ántrax (enforcer squad)
  Milenio Cartel (First loyal to the Sinaloa Cartel federation, later independent) (Disbanded)
  La Resistencia (Splintered from the milenio cartel) (Disbanded)
  Jalisco New Generation Cartel (Independent remnants of the Milenio cartel)
  Beltrán-Leyva Cartel (Formerly part of the Sinaloa Cartel federation, later independent) (Disbanded)
  Los Negros (Beltran-Leyva enforcement squad) (Disbanded)
  South Pacific Cartel (branch of the Beltran Leyva Cartel in Morelos)
  Cártel del Centro (cell of the Beltran-Leyva Cartel in Mexico City) (Disbanded)
  Cártel Independiente de Acapulco (Splinter from the Beltran-Leyva Cartel)
  La Barredora (gang)
  El Comando Del Diablo (gang) (Hitman squad of la Barredora) (Disbanded)
  La Mano Con Ojos (gang) (small cell of Beltran-Leyva members in the State of Mexico) (Disbanded)
  La Nueva Administración (Splintered from the Beltran-Leyva Cartel) (Disbanded)
  La Oficina (gang) (cell of the Beltran-Leyva Cartel in Aguascalientes) (Disbanded)
  Cártel de la Sierra (cell in Guerrero)
  Cártel de La Calle (cell in Chiapas)
  Los Chachos (gang in Tamaulipas) (Disbanded)
  Tijuana Cartel (Spawned from the Guadalajara Cartel)
  Oaxaca Cartel (Was a branch of the disbanded Tijuana Cartel, its regional leader was captured in 2007)
  Juárez Cartel(Spawned from the Guadalajara Cartel)
  La Línea (Juárez Cartel enforcer squad)
  Barrio Azteca (U.S. Street Gang)  (Allied with La Linea)
  Lesser-known small-criminal organizations:
  Los Mexicles  (U.S. Street Gang)
  Los Texas (street gang) (Disbanded)
  Government officials: Other organizations that have been involved in drug trade or traffic in Mexico (this does not necessarily apply for the whole institution):
  Mexican officials:
  Municipal, State, and Federal police forces in Mexico
  Mexican Armed Forces (Army and Navy)
  Mexico City International Airport
  Club Xoloitzcuintles (football)
  United States officials:
  Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
  Texas National Guard
  U.S. Customs and Border Protection
  United States Immigration and Naturalization Service
caption: The Mérida Initiative, a U.S. Counter-Narcotics Assistance to Mexico
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