Mexico, often-called as the world’s capital for cocaine, meth and fentanyl, and the main gateway for drugs smuggled into the US and beyond, has lost one of its most powerful kingpins. The leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, was killed in an operation by Mexican security forces on Sunday, Mexican defence officials said.
The cartel was led by Ruben Oseguera, known as “El Mencho”, a former police officer who was Mexico’s most wanted man. The bounty for his capture? A cool $15 million, or roughly Rs 136 crore in Indian currency.
But it is not the only group operating in the country. Mexico’s drug crisis is largely driven by two dominant cartels — the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). Last year, President Donald Trump designated both as Foreign Terrorist Organisations.
Alongside these groups, at least five other major cartels, including the Gulf Cartel, Juarez Cartel/La Lnea, Northeast Cartel and La Familia operate across various regions of Mexico. In addition, numerous local and non-designated organisations continue to function, collectively shaping the country’s synthetic drug crisis.
India Today has mapped the territorial spread of Mexico’s cartels based on the analysis of Ioan Grillo, a Mexican journalist and author of El Narco: Inside Mexico’s Criminal Insurgency, who has charted the hyperlocal zones of influence of various groups.
According to the US government, the Sinaloa Cartel has long been one of the world’s largest drug-trafficking organisations. The arrest of its leader in July 2019 fractured the group’s power structure, triggering a surge in violence as rival factions moved to exploit the vacuum. Yet the cartel remains formidable, continuing to dominate north-west Mexico and reportedly maintaining a presence from Buenos Aires to New York.
Jalisco was founded relatively later, in 2010, and is the strongest and most aggressive competitor to Sinaloa, but after 2019 it became one of the country’s most dominant organised crime groups. It is a key player in the illegal amphetamine market in the US and Europe and is also thought to have links to the drug market in Asia.
It has grown much more powerful in recent years and its rise has been fuelled by its use of extreme violence. It has reportedly downed an army helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade, killed dozens of state officials, and has even been known to hang the bodies of its victims from bridges to intimidate its rivals.
The Gulf cartel is one of Mexico’s oldest criminal groups and its roots can be traced back to the 1980s. It became known around this time for trafficking cocaine and marijuana into the US. It is also thought to have smuggled heroin and amphetamines, and it worked closely with cartels in Colombia.
The cartel was initially led by Juan Garca Abrego, the first Mexican drug lord to be included in the FBI’s 10 most wanted list. He was captured in 1996 and jailed for life. His heir, Osiel Cardenas Guillen, built up the cartel’s military wing. He recruited a number of corrupt special forces soldiers and pushed an even more violent approach. Those soldiers would eventually go rogue and form a rival cartel of their own (more on this later).
The killing of El Mencho has triggered a surge of violence across areas under the cartel’s influence, with reports of burning vehicles used to block roads. In Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco and one of the host cities for the upcoming World Cup, businesses shut down as sirens and helicopters echoed through the city centre, and residents were urged to remain indoors.
The operation on Sunday came after Trump had repeatedly pressured Mexican officials to do more to counter the cartels and after Trump and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller explored the possibility of unilateral military action in Mexico.
Oseguera, one of the most wanted fugitives in Mexico, was a founder of the New Generation cartel, which has grown to become one of the most powerful and violent organisations in Mexico, trafficking large quantities of fentanyl, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine into the US.
