Title: Mexico’s Long War: Drugs, Crime, and the Cartels | Council on Foreign Relations
Headings: Mexico’s Long War: Drugs, Crime, and the Cartels
Mexico’s Long War: Drugs, Crime, and the Cartels
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Summary
What drugs do the cartels traffic?
The amount of fentanyl seized by Mexican authorities nearly quintupled between 2019 and 2020.
Which are the largest cartels?
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What led to the cartels' growth?
Cartels use a portion of their vast profits to pay off judges, police, and politicians.
How are drugs smuggled into the United States?
What measures has Mexico taken to stem the drug trade?
Mexico’s Murder Rate Has Risen in Recent Years
What has been the toll on human rights?
What assistance has the U.S. government provided?
U.S.-Mexico Relations
The U.S.-Mexico Border
United States
Mexico
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Content: The group formed when the Beltran-Leyva brothers split from Sinaloa in 2008. Since then, all four brothers have been arrested or killed, but their loyalists operate throughout Mexico. The organization’s splinter groups have become more autonomous and powerful, maintaining ties to Jalisco, Juarez, and Los Zetas. What led to the cartels' growth? Experts point to both domestic and international forces. In Mexico, the cartels use a portion of their vast profits to pay off judges, police, and politicians. They also coerce officials into cooperating; assassinations of public servants are relatively common. The cartels flourished during the decades that Mexico was ruled by a single party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Within this centralized political structure, drug trafficking groups cultivated a wide network of corrupt officials through which they were able to gain distribution rights, market access, and protection.