Title: History of Drug Trafficking - Colombia, U.S. & Mexico - HISTORY
Headings: History of Drug Trafficking
History of Drug Trafficking
Contents
Early Opium Trade in the United States
Mafia Drug Smuggling
The Vietnam War and Drug Trafficking
Pablo Escobar and the Medellin Cartel
Manuel Noriega and the Panamanian Drug Trade
The Cali Cartel
El Chapo, Los Zetas and Mexican Drug Cartels
Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel
CIA and Drug Trafficking
Drug Trafficking in Recent Years

Content: The infamous drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman led Sinaloa beginning in 1989. In 2003, the United States Department of the Treasury considered Guzman the “most powerful drug trafficker in the world.” After several arrests and escapes from prison, Guzman was recaptured by Mexican authorities in 2016. In early 2017, he was extradited to the United States to face criminal charges. Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel
Another Mexican cartel, known as Gulf, started in the 1920s but didn’t gain ground in the area of drug trafficking until the 1980s. Gulf became one of Sinaloa’s main rivals in the 2000s. The Gulf Cartel worked with Los Zetas, a group made up of former elite members of the Mexican military. Representatives of Los Zetas essentially worked as hitmen for Gulf. When the two groups split in 2010, a bloody fallout occurred that has been called the most violent period in the history of organized crime in Mexico. Los Zetas had a reputation for ruthless violence that included leaving body parts in public places and posting killings on the Internet.