Title: Mexican drug war - Wikipedia
Headings: Mexican drug war
Mexican drug war
Contents
Background
Presidents
Vicente Fox
Felipe Calderón
Enrique Peña Nieto
Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Drug sources and use
Sources
Use
Poverty
Education
Mexican cartels
The Origin and Birth
Major cartels in the war
Sinaloa Cartel
Beltrán-Leyva Cartel
Juárez Cartel
Tijuana Cartel
Gulf Cartel
Los Zetas
La Familia Cartel
Knights Templar
CJNG
Nueva Plaza Cartel
Cartel propaganda
Paramilitaries
Women
Firearms
Smuggling of firearms
Gun origins
Project Gunrunner
Operations
Operation Michoacán
Escalation (2008–12)
Los Zetas-Gulf cartel conflict
Effects in Mexico
Casualties
Violence
Government corruption
Impact on human rights
Impact on public health
Journalists and the media
Murders of politicians
Massacres and exploitation of migrants
Human trafficking
Effects internationally
Europe
Guatemala
West Africa
Ecuador
Canada
United States
U.S. death toll and national security
Controversies
Money laundering
Drug demand
See also
References
Further reading
External links

Content: The Mexican government has asserted that their primary focus is on dismantling the powerful drug cartels, and on preventing drug trafficking demand along with the U.S. functionaries. Violence escalated soon after the arrest of Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo in 1989; he was the leader and the founder of the first Mexican drug cartel, the Guadalajara Cartel, an alliance of the current existing cartels (which included the Sinaloa Cartel, the Juarez Cartel, the Tijuana Cartel, and the Sonora Cartel ). Due to his arrest, the alliance broke and certain high-ranking members formed their own cartels and each of them fought for control of territory and trafficking routes. Although Mexican drug trafficking organizations have existed for several decades, their influence increased after the demise of the Colombian Cali and Medellín cartels in the 1990s. Mexican drug cartels now dominate the wholesale illicit drug market and in 2007 controlled 90% of the cocaine entering the United States. Arrests of key cartel leaders, particularly in the Tijuana and Gulf cartels, have led to increasing drug violence as cartels fight for control of the trafficking routes into the United States. Federal law enforcement has been reorganized at least five times since 1982 in various attempts to control corruption and reduce cartel violence. During that same period, there have been at least four elite special forces created as new, corruption-free soldiers who could do battle with Mexico's endemic bribery system. Analysts estimate that wholesale earnings from illicit drug sales range from $13.6 to $49.4 billion annually.