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[[File:Javelin Mexico.PNG|right|250px|thumb|[[Escalation]]: A member of the [[Mexican]] Gulf Cartel near a [[Texas]] border town sports a US-built [[Javelin missile]] supplied to [[Ukraine]] by the [[United States]], June 2023.<ref>[https://www.firstpost.com/world/us-javelin-misses-mark-anti-tank-missile-meant-for-ukraine-lands-up-with-mexican-gangster-12676452.html US 'Javelin' misses mark: Anti-tank missile meant for Ukraine lands up with Mexican gangster], Abhishek Awasthi, June 01, 2023, ''FirstPost''.</ref>]]
A '''Drug cartel''' is an [[illegal drug]] smuggling operation. Some cartels are also involved in [[human trafficking]] and [[illegal]] [[weapon]]s sales and transfers.
==Mexican drug cartels==
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]], just across the [[Rio Grande]] from [[Brownsville]], [[Texas]]. It takes its name from the [[Gulf of Mexico]] and services primarily demand for illegal [[narcotics]] from the eastern [[United States]]. The Gulf Cartel is reported to have presence in Mexico, the United States, Guatemala and Italy amongst other countries. 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 [[Sinaloa Cartel]] formerly headed by [[Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán]], and its allied with [[Tijuana Cartel]], primarily service demand for illegal [[narcotic]] in the western [[United States]]. Considering that Mexican drug cartels get over 90% of their [[weapon]]s from 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.
==Biden era==
Prior to the [[Biden junta]]'s [[open borders|opening the border]] [[bi-partisan]] experts estimated the money made on drug trafficking by the [[Mexican Drug Cartel]]s at around $500 billion, or one half-trillion dollars per year. Sen. [[Sonny Purdue]] said in 2019: “At half a trillion dollars — $500 billion — that makes the cartel business and the drug traffic just in Mexico alone coming across to the United States bigger than [[Walmart]], to put it in perspective. So this is larger than our largest companies.” Democrat Sen. [[Dianne Feinstein]] quoted the same figure testifying, “The illicit drug trade is a business, valued at anywhere between $426 [billion] and $652 billion…”.<ref>https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/has-joe-biden-sold-out-america-to-the-mexican-drug-cartels/</ref>
==Obama era==
{{Main|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]].<ref>https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/17/AR2010121706598.html</ref>
[[File:Fast and Furious violence.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Well over 100,000 people were killed in [[Mexican Drug Cartel]] Wars after the [[Obama administration]] began supplying [[weapon]]s in [[Operation Fast and Furious]].<ref>https://archive.is/RyT8w</ref>]]
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.<ref>[https://www.americanthinker.com/2011/10/fast_and_furious_in_a_rotten_nutshell.html#ixzz27iRBCN28 Fast and Furious in a Rotten Nutshell], Ronald Kolb, ''American Thinker'', October 7, 2011,</ref> 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.<ref>[https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2012/08/22/fast_and_furious_doj_inspector_general_report_delivered Fast and Furious: DOJ Inspector General Report Delivered], Katie Pavlich, ''Townhall'', August 22, 2012.</ref>
:{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year !! Mexican drug related gun murders skyrocket <br>during Obama's Fast and Furious campaign<ref>https://archive.is/RyT8w </ref>
|-
| 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==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Obama Administration]]
[[Category:Crime]]
[[Category:Mexico]]
[[Category:Drugs]]
[[Category:International Relations]]