The Active Mexican Cartels

 By Itzli  

Creating a list of the active Mexican drug cartels is not an easy task but we’ll give it a shot. Last week I wrote a couple of articles leading up to this; the first on the United States designation of six of them as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and the second on a classification system for cartels.

Before we move forward there is one more thing that I have been waiting to discuss and I’ll keep it fairly brief. When we look at the FTO cartels some are straightforward as far as leadership: Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) is led by Nemesio Rubén “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, Cártel del Noreste (CDN) by Juan “Juanito La Sombra” Cisneros Treviño, and La Nueva Familia Michoacana by the Hurtado Olascoaga brothers Johnny “El Pez” and José Alfredo “El Fresa”. On the opposite end is Cárteles Unidos (CU), which the press release admits isn’t a singular cartel but “an alliance of multiple cartels and other groups”.

The Cártel del Golfo (CDG) doesn’t follow either of these patterns; once was a singular CDG cartel that first fractured in the fall of 2011 with the independence of Los Metros. I have a hard time seeing how one can refer to CDG as if it was a single organization considering the fact that Los Metros has generally been in armed conflict with other CDG derived groups save for the occasional ceasefire and there not being a unified leadership for over a decade. .

In the case of the Cártel de Sinaloa (CDS), I see a similar situation unfolding. After Joaquín Archivaldo “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera first escaped prison in 2001, the leadership of the CDS was regarded as being primarily him and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García. In 2013 Rafael Caro Quintero was released from prison and, since then, his organization is generally referred to as part of the CDS. More recently, we see fractured leadership and open conflict within the CDS which leads to the question, is there a point that the government and media will treat parts of it as a separate cartel as was the case when the Beltrán Leyva Organization (BLO) departed the CDS?

I do recognize the fact that drug trafficking organizations often have multiple sub-structures that often work fairly independently. It is my opinion, however, what makes them a single cartel is that when you look at how it is organized there is one person who is regarded as their leader or, in the case of multiple leaders, they work together in a singular fashion. That’s not to say that there is never conflict in the lower ranks, but as long as the leadership presents itself as unified then it should be considered a single cartel. On the flip side, I feel that when a drug trafficking organization has parts actively working against the leadership and the overall interests of the cartel, that piece should be regarded as a separate cartel.

As for the definition of an active cartel I keep it fairly simple, I look for references to a specific cartel operating at a point over the past year. With that said, let’s dive in. As touched upon in my classification article  a definition can be come up for Transnational/Major Cartels that seems to reflect the thinking of the Mexican government. However, I feel that the CDS should not be regarded as a single cartel, which leads to the following (note that I list some of their major subgroups for clarification):

• Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG)

• Cártel de Caborca aka Sonora Cartel, La Barredora 24/7, La Plaza 

• Cártel de Sinaloa (CDS)- Los Chapitos, Los Pelones, Los Deltas, Los Canobbio Inzunza 

• Cártel de Sinaloa (CDS)- Los Mayos/La Mayiza, Los Cabrera, Los Rusos

Next up comes the Regional/Minor Cartels. As mentioned in the last article, I place two of the FTOs in this category:

• Cártel del Noreste (CDN)- Tropa del Infierno, Los Chuckys, Truenos del Infierno, Operativo Coahuila

• La Nueva Familia Michoacana (LNFM)/La Nueva Empresa

I also consider there to be a couple other independent CDS derived cartels that fall in this category and begin  breaking up the CDG in similar fashion:

• Cártel de Sinaloa (CDS)- Los Guanos

• Cártel Independiente de Sonora- Los Salazar, Los Cazadores, Los Fantasmas, Los Paredes

• Cártel del Golfo (CDG)- Los Metros, Operativa Toros, Operativa Condor

• Cártel del Golfo (CDG)- Matamoros Faction, Los Escorpiones, Los Alacranes

Now we begin to move away from the FTOs and reach a couple that others have been pointing out as missing from that list:

• Beltrán Leyva Organization (BLO)- Cártel de Guasave, Los Meza Flores

• Nuevo Cártel de Juárez (NCDJ)- Juárez Cartel, La Línea

Within the concept of Regional/Minor Cartels, we have to consider some organizations as being part of this category despite not being as well known, as I find to be the case with:

• Cártel Pura Gente Nueva Zetas Vieja Escuela (PGN-ZVE)

• Cártel de Palmillas/Los Hades

• Cártel del Istmo

Things get more subjective as we move along into the more local cartels that I refer to as Demi Cartels. There are a number that I feel definitely should be included in this category. Among them are several that are derived from the CDG:

• Cártel del Golfo (CDG)- Los Fantasmas, Fuerzas Especiales Cárdenas Guillen (FECG)

• Cártel del Golfo (CDG)- San Fernando Faction, Los Sierra, Zetas Vieja Escuela, Los Panteras

• Cártel del Golfo del Sur- Los Rojos 

• Cártel de Los Alemanes

• La Barredora 

We also get into some of the Michoacán based cartels that made up the CU, although the elephant in the room is that the third on this list has left this alliance:

• Cártel de Tepalcatepec/Cártel de El Abuelo

• Los Caballeros Templarios

• Los Viagras, Los Blancos de Troya

A few more groups are derived from the Beltrán Leyva Organization and operate in the Guerrero to Mexico City corridor. I am going back and forth on whether or not to consider the first on this list as independent though:

• Los Rusos (Acapulco)

• La Unión Tepito

• Los Ardillos

• Los Mayas/Los de Siempre

Let’s wrap up the definite Demi Cartels with three of miscellaneous origins:

• Cártel de Chiapas y Guatemala

• Cártel de Los Arellano Félix (CAF) aka Tijuana Cartel

• Cártel Santa Rosa del Lima (CSRL)

Before we proceed, there are some that I considered but did not include because I couldn’t find enough evidence to consider them still active so I consider them tentatively extinct:

• La Bandera/Guerreros Unidos

• Los Añorve

• Los Caborca

• Los Chanos

• Los Jefes/Los Rojos

• Los Pájaros Sierra

• Los Tequileros

Like I said before, things become subjective. Should we include every small drug trafficking organization as a Demi Cartel or just the bigger ones? Arguments can be made for an against all of the following (note I included geographic information for clarity):

• Cártel de Campeche

• Cártel de la Virgen [Michoacán]

• Cártel de Los Reyes [Michoacán]

• Cártel de Tláhuac, Los Borregos [Mexico City]

• Cártel del Sur [Guerrero]

• Cártel Independiente de Acapulco (CIDA)

• Cártel Independiente de Colima, Los Mezcales

• Cártel Independiente de La Laguna

• Cártel Mafia Veracruzana, Fuerzas Especiales Grupo Sombra (FEGS)

• La Familia Epitacio [Yucatán]

• La Familia Valencia Salgado [Campeche]

• La Unión de León [Guanajuato]

• Los Arreola [Guerrero]

• Los Bukanas [Puebla]

• Los Chivos [Veracruz]

• Los Colombianos [Morelos]

• Los Granados [Guerrero]

• Los Herrera [Chiapas]

• Los Maldonado [Guerrero]

• Los Migueladas [Michoacán]

• Los Pelones [Quintana Roo]

• Los Rodríguez [Guerrero]

• Los Talibanes [Zacatecas]

• Los Tlacos/Cártel de la Sierra/Los Sierreños [Guerrero]

If a person keeps the definition too broad we’ll get to a point that groups that are usually considered gangs would be considered Demi Cartels. Take for example Ciudad Juárez, Los Artistas Asesinos, Los Aztecas, and Los Mexicles; they are well known and tied to drug trafficking but generally aren’t considered to be cartels. I believe they should be excluded from the Demi Cartel category and there’s numerous organizations that I feel the same way about. I ran into many writing up my Demi Cartel list and there are certainly many others across Mexico.

In Mexico City:

• La Anti Unión Tepito

• La Empresa

• Los Canchola/Malcriados 3AD

• Los Catalinos

• Los Gastones

• Los Molina

• Los Patines de Venustiano Carranza

• Los Peluches

• Los Perros de Coyoacán

• Los Rodolfos

• Nuevo Imperio

In Morelos:

• El Señor de la V

• Los Aparicio

• Los Linos

In Puebla:

• La banda de El Chucky

• La banda de El Gaitán

• La banda de El Larry

• La banda del Pistolas

• La banda del Sapo

• Los Cadena

• Los Calimanes

• Los Croquis

• Los Fabiola

• Los Grillo

• Los Kaimán

• Los Loco Téllez

• Los Maníacos

• Los Moco

• Los Negros

• Los Pericos

• Los Rábanos

• Los Tinacos

• Los Tlaxca

• Los Xolalpa

Let’s consider this all a first draft based upon where my head is currently at. It would be great to see what everyone else thinks so feel free to comment with any disagreements, things I overlooked, or questions you may have.