Thoughts on Classifying Cartels

By Itzli 

Earlier this week I wrote some thoughts about the recent designation of six Mexican cartels as Foreign Terrorists Organizations by the United States. In of itself the article wasn’t great but I wanted to do it as a leadup to this article, with the main point I wanted to make in it that while the word cartel isn’t really accurate it is used in place of drug trafficking organization, which is a group that I define as being involved in one or more drug related functions: cultivation, importation, production, distribution, and exportation. The other piece of the article was to provide clarification on the scale of these six groups as the press release was inconsistent in detailing this information and to point out that CU was presented differently from the other cartels. With all this in mind it is quite clear that these six cartels are not on equal footing when it comes to scale and areas of operation. 

About ten years ago, with the input of several individuals from the forum, I created a list of then active Mexican cartels with their major subgroups and notable cartel members. Around this same time I started using a three tiered classification system for cartels in my research but never came up with formal names or definitions. I still feel the concept is relevant so here’s where my mind has been at:

1. Major Cartels- the big cartels that conduct all five drug related functions and operate over a vast area of Mexico.

2. Minor Cartels- smaller cartels that may not be involved in all five drug related functions and operate in only a few states in Mexico.

3. Demi Cartels- very small groups that operate at a localized level; they generally started as part of a larger cartel and either splintered off or continued on their own with the collapse of their parent cartel.

In doing research for the article that will follow this one it seems that the Mexican government has come up with something similar; a map from September 2024 specifies “Grupo Criminal Trasnacional Cártel” and “Cárteles Regionales”. Merging this with my work, we can start using the term Transnational Cartels with major cartels and Regional Cartels with minor cartels. 

As for Demi Cartels, the Mexican government places some groups I would consider Demi Cartels as Regional Cartels and doesn’t touch on a number of groups that I would list. We’ll discuss this more next time but for now I want to say that I feel the Demi Cartel concept needs to be included but there definitely isn’t always a clear cut line between a small drug trafficking organization and what could be considered a street gang.

Let’s wrap this up by taking another look at the cartels that the United States government listed as FTOs. In my concept both the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG would be considered Transnational/Major Cartels and it should be noted that the Mexican government listed them as such in September. Furthermore, I consider the CDN, LNFM, and CDG as Regional/Minor Cartels and the Mexican government did so as well. As for CU, the Mexican government did not include it in the September map and in my concept the CU should not be listed as it would be considered an alliance of multiple Demi Cartels