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: El Chapo, Los Zetas and Mexican Drug Cartels
By the mid-1980s, the U.S.-Mexican border became the main transport route for cocaine, marijuana and other drugs into the United States. By the late 1990s, Mexican traffickers dominated drug distribution and introduced methamphetamine. The Sinaloa Federation, which is still operating today, is perhaps the largest and most well-known Mexican drug cartel. It’s also known as the “Pacific Cartel,” the “Guzman-Loera Organization,” the “Federation,” and the “Blood Alliance.” According to the U.S. Attorney General’s office, the Sinaloa cartel imported and distributed almost 200 tons of cocaine and large amounts of heroin between 1990-2008. 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.