Difference between revisions of "Mexican drug cartel"
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Revision as of 17:38, July 31, 2025
Mexican drug cartels are illegal drug smugglers from Mexico. Some cartels produce their own illegal drugs as well.
The Gulf Cartel is based in Matamoros in the state of Tamaulipas and takes its name from the Gulf of Mexico. It is one of the country's most powerful cartels.
The cartel's paramilitary branch, the Zetas, consisting of deserted Mexican and Guatemalan Special Forces, are particularly fearsome, applying heavy weapons, most of them imported from the United States, and operate with military precision. The Zetas are blamed for the terrorist attack on Mexico's independence day celebration in Morelia on September 16, 2008.
The cartel was founded in the 1970s by a group of alcohol smugglers. The Gulf Cartel was led by Osiel Cárdenas who was arrested in 2003 and extradited to the United States in 2007. Since then the Zetas have risen in the power structure, with Zeta commander Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano often being considered the new leader of the Cartel.
The Gulf Cartel's main rival is the Sinaloa Cartel from Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán, while it is allied with the Tijuana Cartel. The Gulf Cartel is reported to have presence in Mexico, the United States, Guatemala and Italy amongst other countries. Considering that Mexican drug cartels get over 90% of their weapons in the United States, the Mexican government has repeatedly blamed the cartel's strength on the absence of any serious gun control policies in the United States.
Obama era
For a more detailed treatment, see Operation Fast and Furious.
The Washington Post reported that White House officials stopped a requirement for gun dealers to report bulk sales of high-powered semiautomatic rifles commonly used by illegal drug cartels. The proposal from the Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms was held up on White House orders from Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.[1]
On March 10, 2011 Holder made his first of many comments about the Justice Department's internal investigation as to why the Treasury Department was ordered not to enforce the law at the Justice Department's request, telling Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison that he had "asked the Inspector General to try to get to the bottom of it." Inspector General Cynthia Schnedar was asked to head an independent investigation. Holder had been in effect Schnedar's boss from 1994 until 1997 while she served as assistant U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C. in the 90s. During Ms. Schnedar's tenure the two had worked a number of cases together.[3] Schnedar quit shortly before the Inspector General's Report was issued, clearing Holder. The bulk of the report throughout was done by Schnedar, but Press Releases attributed the report to her replacement.[4]
Year Mexican drug related gun murders skyrocket
during Obama's Fast and Furious campaign[5]2006 62 2007 2,837 2008 6,844 2009 11,753 2010 19,546 2011 24,068 2012 18,061 (by October 31, 2012) 2013 23,640 killed in 2013 (through to March 2014)
References
- ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/17/AR2010121706598.html
- ↑ https://archive.is/RyT8w
- ↑ Fast and Furious in a Rotten Nutshell, Ronald Kolb, American Thinker, October 7, 2011,
- ↑ Fast and Furious: DOJ Inspector General Report Delivered, Katie Pavlich, Townhall, August 22, 2012.
- ↑ https://archive.is/RyT8w
