KPBS border reporter Gustavo Solis talked to experts about the reasons behind the attacks. American strategy included instituting a Joint Task Force in southern California. While both resort to violence, the Sinaloa Cartel is viewed as more professional. And thats by design. Its leader Juan Jos Faras lvarez, alias El Abuelo,began by leading a vigilante group, or "autodefensa," against the Knights Templar. Its front line runs through Tijuana, the gateway to San Diego and the. On December 1, 2011, William R. Sherman, acting special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's office in San Diego, announced that the cartel had been annihilated and that the Sinaloa Cartel now controlled a large number of the drug routes the Tijuana Cartel once had. Gustavo became the Investigative Border Reporter at KPBS in 2021. If you are wondering about who controls the Sinaloa and Tijuana Cartels at the end of Narcos: Mexico season 3, we got you covered. [20][21], The Tijuana Cartel has infiltrated the Mexican law enforcement and judicial systems and is directly involved in street-level trafficking within the United States. "Los Cabos" are a regional Tijuana cartel organization that worked under the Cartel de Sinaloa (CDS) , then a majority of them left to join the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacin (CJNG) . However, the government has. It originated as a ranch settlement on part of a land grant (1862) and developed as a border resort with gambling casinos. He bribed the leader of a special forces team sent to track him down to become one of his henchmen, using him to hunt down other cartel bosses in exchange for $30,000 a month. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article. [38][39] It was later reduced to .mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}23+12 years in 2015 and he will be released soon. [36] On December 12, 2011, Tijuana Police Chief Alberto Capella Ibarra announced that captured cartel lieutenant Francisco Sillas Rocha had confessed that the Tijuana Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel had formed a truce and that the Tijuana Cartel was seeking to merge with the Sinaloa Cartel. And in season 3, it finally spills over. It is one of at least 40 groups vying for criminal economies there. The brothers retaliated by killing Guzman's envoy Rayo Lopez when he drunkenly showed up to their nightclub, with Ramon Arellano Felix shooting him publicly and having many of his family members killed to prevent reprisals. But they dont have direct access to the US border and are forced to pay hefty taxes to the Arellano family to move their cargo through Tijuana. In the city of Tijuana, in the Pacific state of Baja California, the CJNG and Sinaloa Cartel are the main providers of synthetic drugs, especially fentanyl. The most notorious example came in April 2019, when 14 people were murdered during a party in the town of Minatitln. Now, the Old School Zetas have a presence in only certain municipalities such as Coatzacoalcos andMinatitln, but Veracruz's strategic points are held by the CJNG. "But in this government, there is no pact with criminals. Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada Garca, the man many believe to have the most control over the Sinaloa cartel, has spent five decades in the drug trade.While El Chapo is widely described as the cartel's leader, that notion obscures the fact that Sinaloa operates more like a federation with multiple leaders who form something analogous to a board of directors. The Sinaloa cartel has a presence in 17 Mexican states. In November 2020 it was reported emissaries from the Los Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa Cartel had been seen in Tijuana attempting to form an alliance with the now resurgent Tijuana Cartel. hide caption. "The Zetas have been decimated.". Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero says residents of her city can trust officials to keep them safe. This act led to war between the two families. To comprehend whats happening now, you need to understand the history of the Mexican cartels, said David Shirk, director of the Justice in Mexico program at the University of San Diego. We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. These attacks have not been successful yet. Segn el gobierno federal, la iniciativa tiene la intencin de "contribuir a la prevencin, deteccin del desvo o uso y castigo de la produccin ilcita de drogas sintticas", esto . Following Netos advice, Chapo removes Palma to a different prison, effectively asserting control over the prison and a resurgent Sinaloa. Another thing that happened in the aftermath of these events is that the government is saying that their strategy is working, she said. Could more local solutions work. The city lies along the Tecate River near the Pacific Ocean and is 12 miles (19 km) south of San Diego, California, U.S. [10] This alliance has since dwindled as the Tijuana, Jalisco New Generation, and Sinaloa cartels all now battle each other for trafficking influence in the city of Tijuana and the region of Baja California. The Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel (CSRL) has arguably been the CJNG's most notable rival in the last two years, despite being confined to a limited area in central Mexico. Here, InSight Crime zeroes in on the main regions in which CJNG operates and the resistance they face: In the Golden Triangle -- a crucial drug-producing region composed of the states of Sinaloa and Durango, as well as large parts of Chihuahua -- the Sinaloa Cartel continues to be the major criminal player. When the second season of Narcos: Mexico ends, Miguel ngel Flix Gallardo (Diego Luna) is in jail and his Guadalajara Cartel has splintered into three independent cartels: the Tijuana Cartel under the leadership of the Arellano family; the Sinaloa Cartel controlled by Chapo (Alejandro Edda), Palma (Gorka Lasaosa), and Azul (Fermn Martnez); and the Jurez Cartel with Amado Carrillo Fuentes (Jos Mara Yazpik) and Rafael Aguilar Guajardo (No Hernndez) as leaders. He then proceeded to declare war on the Gulf Cartel, arranging for a series of raids targeting Cardenas Guillen and his brother, Antonio Cardenas Guillen, in Nuevo Leon, starting a new war. "I think these events should encourage us to really think seriously, precisely about what are these structural conditions that allowed this violence to take place. Our work is costly and high risk. It was in this city that the CJNG kidnapped and briefly heldtwo of El Chapo's sons in August 2016. And even then, it wont be a lasting peace. The region of Tierra Caliente, covering parts of the states of Michoacn, Guerrero and the State of Mexico, is home to arguably Mexico's most complex criminal panorama. Tijuana is now the . "The population had to follow [rumors of a curfew] from criminal groups, whether or not these were verified," said Cecilia Farfn-Mndez, the head of security research at the Center for U.S.-Mexico Studies at UC San Diego. That was way the Arellano Felix brothers operation included other clans in Tijuana, San Diego and Los Angeles. There is also the Gulf Cartel headed by Juan Nepomuceno Guerra (Jesus Ochoa) and Juan Garca Abrego (Flavio Medina). In the 1990s they formed an alliance with the Cali Cartel and Norte del Valle Cartel for the cocaine business.[48]. "This aligns really well with data that we have on the perception that criminal groups have the firepower capacity to effectively confront the state. A report by the International Crisis Group found at least 20 distinct criminal groups there, vying for control of synthetic drug production, drug trafficking routes coming in via the Pacific and for theincreasingly lucrative extortion of the avocado industry. [52] While the United States proved successful in minimizing and fighting the Arellano-Felix Organization, the effectiveness on combating the war on drugs also proved successful. SEE ALSO:Morelos, Mexicos Latest Hotspot for Fragmented Criminal Showdowns. On November 5, 2007, Francisco was sentenced to life in prison, at ADX Florence, after pleading guilty in September 2007 to running a criminal enterprise and laundering money. [29] Leyva remains at large and Villareal was captured in July 2011. However, Enedina had her arrested so Season 3 can look at her trying to bring down . "Work is underway," he said from inside. The CJNG has made direct attempts to dominate this area but continues to face the Sinaloa Cartel, remnants of Los Zetas and Los Pelones, another group to emerge from the fragmentation of the Gulf Cartel. Toya Sarno Jordan for NPR [16] To be exact, experts told InSight Crime that the peace exists because Joaqun Guzmn Loera wants it that way, and argued that his organizationthe Sinaloa Cartelhas become spread too thin with its wars with Los Zetas and the Jurez Cartel and that opening a third war would be inconvenient. Chapo has always been smart and innovative. Incluso, en 1993 hubo un intento de asesinar al lder del Cartel de Sinaloa. Like other large cartels, the CJNG has found it increasingly difficult to control strategic territories the more it has expanded. And in states surrounding the capital, the CJNG is running into the results ofcriminal fragmentation. The two men met up with their contact, Carlos Tirado Lizarraga, who told them about the situation; they were unaware that Tirado had lured them into a trap at the behest of Guzman, who had ordered the kidnapping of Tirado's sister to force him into betraying his boss. What MS-13 has not done is establish any real foothold in the international drug trafficking market. In 1989, the ambitious Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquin Guzman Loera approached the brothers Benjamin and Ramon Arellano Felix, the leaders of the Tijuana Cartel, and offered to work with them in the drug trade. The Tijuana Cartel has lost power but is growing more alliances in foreign countries.[46][53]. Updated on: August 13, 2022 / 7:59 AM / AFP The cartel and its origins have also been portrayed in the Netflix series Narcos: Mexico. Chapo is later arrested and brought to the same prison where Neto is. [37] After Benjamin Arellano-Felix pleaded guilty to racketeering and conspiracy to launder money on January 4, 2012, it was accepted that the Tijuana Cartel had greatly lost influence. But everyone else is saying: 'How can you say that, have you not seen what is happening?. Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) - Split from the Sinaloa Cartel in 2010, it is "one of the most powerful and fastest growing in Mexico and the United States," according to the DEA. This task force included sectors of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. TheSinaloa-Tijuana war was a bloody gang war fought between the rival Sinaloa and Tijuana Mexican drug cartels in the states of Baja California, Sonora, Sinaloa, Durango, Jalisco, Guerrero, Michoacan, and Oaxaca from 1989 to 1993 and from 2001 to 2002. The Sinaloa Cartel's forces heavily employed Narco Tanks and .50 caliber Barrett rifles, among other weapons during fighting in 2019 in Culiacn after a previous attempt to detain Ovidio, along. [28] Fernando Sanchez Arellano was arrested by Mexican police in June 2014. Headlines and US indictments have confidently proclaimed the Jalisco Cartel to be Mexico's dominant criminal group. Its a peace that is totally at the discretion of criminal groups. "Because they gained what they were seeking: to have a lot of problems and fear in the population. Toya Sarno Jordan for NPR Pero la cada . Aun as, los sinaloenses parecen gustar de las disputas, en los aos siguientes el Crtel del golfo, Los Zetas y el Crtel de Tijuana se convertiran en sus enemigos. This mother says violence has sadly become expected for residents of Tijuana. Fourteen Mexican drug gang members were killed and eight others were injured in a gun battle in Tijuana near the U.S. border on Saturday, April 26, 2008, that was one of the bloodiest shootouts in the narco-war between the Tijuana Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel. In southeastern Mexico, the resorts of Cancn and Playa del Carmen are hotspots for human trafficking, money laundering, extortion and drug dealing. With Netos help, he learns how to use his inherent talents better. Shiny SUVs rest curbside. Areas predominantly controlled by the Tijuana Cartel shown in purple, List of Mexico's 37 most-wanted drug lords, "El crtel de los Arellano Flix contina: PGJE", "A Line in the Sand: Confronting the Threat at the Southwest Border", "Violence the result of fractured arrangement between Zetas and Gulf Cartel, authorities say", "Femme Fatale Kidnapper Of CAF Members Has Appeal Denied In US Court", "Los Cabos Leave Ice Chests With Remains and Threats for CAF in Snchez Taboada, Tijuana", "Mexican drug runners may have used C-130 from Arizona", "Expert Says Weakened Sinaloa Cartel Under Attack by Rivals", "Mexico: The Price of Peace in the Cartel Wars", "Tijuana's New Calm Shows Benefits of Local Policing in Mexico", "Leyzaola pact con los rivales de El Teo", "Tijuana Cartel Survives, Despite Decade-Long Onslaught", "Why the Jalisco Cartel Does Not Dominate Mexico's Criminal Landscape", "History of DEA Operations DEA History", "Asesinan a Francisco Rafael Arellano Flix en Los Cabos", "The Business Arellano-Felix Cartel Drug Wars FRONTLINE PBS", "Mexican Drug Cartels: Government Progress and Growing Violence", "U.S. charges top leaders of Tijuana-based drug cartel", "DTO 101: The Arellano Felix Organization", Mexican drug cartel boss Luis Fernando Sanchez Arellano nabbed, "Mexico captures US-born Tijuana drug lieutenant (July 11, 2011)", "Mexican troops arrest Tijuana drug cartel boss", "Tijuana's Uneasy Peace May Endure Despite Arrests", "Arellano Flix cartel operator "El Chapito Leal" arrested in Tijuana", "Tension high in Tijuana following the arrest of "El Chapito" Leal - the San Diego Union-Tribune", "Mexico's Drug Cartels (CRs Report for Congress)", "Latest drug tunnel, pot seizures may reflect rise of Sinaloa cartel", "Captured Tijuana Cartel Boss Confirms Sinaloa Truce", "DEA CONFIRMS CAPTURE OF BENJAMIN ARELLANO-FELIX", "Mexico home to record 1,400 drug-related deaths in April", "Mexico cartel boss Arellano Felix jailed for 25 years", "Eduardo Arellano-Felix Extradited from Mexico to the United States to Face Charges", "Mexican officials warn Americans to stay away", "Sources: U.S. informant oversaw killings", "Juarez murders shine light on an emerging "Cartel in California", "Sources: La Historia de Los Arellano Felix", "Last of Tijuana cartel's Arellano Felix brothers jailed", "Business - The Arellano-Felix Organization | Drug Wars | FRONTLINE | PBS", "Mexico: Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking Organizations", "Tijuana new Generation of Cartel "New Tijuana Cartel", Fatal Shooting in Logan Heights May Have Been Gang-Related - San Diego, California News Station - KFMB Channel 8 - cbs8.com, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tijuana_Cartel&oldid=1131119244, Luis Fernando Arellano Flix (believed to be born 26 January 1966) not currently wanted, This page was last edited on 2 January 2023, at 17:10. From the mountains of. After the death in 1997 of the Jurez Cartel's Amado Carrillo Fuentes, the Tijuana Cartel attempted to gain a foothold in Sonora. It was the third time that week that widespread arson and shootings by drug cartels had been seen in cities across northern Mexico. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. Gunmen cleared public buses and set them ablaze. He was born in Mexico City, grew up in San Diego and has two passports to prove it. Checkpoints have been set up in some areas and troops can be seen stopping and inspecting cars close to where one of the vehicles was set on fire last Friday. In Nayarit, the CJNG has also managed to create connections to senior officials, including a former state attorney general and governor. Initially, they seem to be collaborating. This would suggest that the CJNG and Sinaloa organizations have more common interests than differences. Large segments of Mexico's people, territory, and economy are falling under the rule of Mexican criminal groups even in areas where violence has not flared up or has declined, with the declines . El enfrentamiento. The shootout led to a renewal of all-out warfare, and Carrillo Fuentes sided with the Tijuana Cartel, seeking to have Guzman killed. Now there is another battle. Its like shadow puppetry. Despite attempted shows of strength on the fringes of the Golden Triangle, this remains the part of Mexico where the CJNG lacks any real influence. The Arellano Flix family has seven brothers: They also have four sisters, of whom Alicia and Enedina are most active in the cartel's affairs. A Mississauga-based senior manager for the Sinaloa cocaine cartel has been granted full parole after serving less than four years of a 13 year prison sentence. Part of the problem, Caballero said, was previous political leaders in Mexico had either accepted the cartel violence or looked the other way when it happened. Run by the Arellano-Flix family, the Tijuana cartel are also one of the main players in Narcos: Mexico Season 3. . How and where does the Sinaloa Cartel operate? The CJNG has a presence inCiudad Jurez, supposedly bolstered by an alliance with the NewJurez Cartel (Nuevo Cartel de Jurez). If there was a concern, the cartel pivoted and used the. But along the border with the United States, the group has been involved in a series of violent clashes for control of border crossings. The drug trafficker, in his flight from Tijuana, was protected in Sinaloa by Damaso Lopez, alias "El Licenciado," one of the Sinaloa Cartel leaders closest to El Chapo. Th. Unfortunately, what we have seen over the past 10 to 15 years is a lot of repetition of the same go-to strategies, which consists largely of military deployment, said Stephanie Brewer, Director for Mexico at the Washington Office on Latin America, or WOLA. Crtel de Sinaloa r ett mexikanskt globalt brottssyndikat som utfr olika sorters brott som bland annat kidnappningar, korruption, mord, penningtvtt, mnnisko- och vapenhandel. In the 1990s, the Tijuana Cartel decided to expand their market opportunities in Colombia, exchanging drugs for weapons. Thats when the U.S. pressured Mexican leaders to go after them. Tijuana hasn't seen this type of violence in its streets since the mid-2000s, when the federal government took a hardline approach on the cartels. Ruiz was wanted in connection with several murders including a double-homicide last July where the victims were . He would spend the years 1993 to 2001 in maximum-security prisons. hide caption. [13] Nonetheless, most of the victims in Tijuana were white-collar entrepreneurs, and the kidnappings were bringing "too much heat on organized crime" and disrupting the criminal enterprises and interests of the cartel. But the fact that the Sinaloa Cartel is less brazenly in-your-face threatening and aggressive and that it has a capacity to calibrate violence and repression to levels at least somewhat. With the imminent release of El Ingeniero and the current consolidations with in Baja California as well as an alliance with Rafa Caro Quintero and the Sonora plaza its speculated the Tijuana Cartel may again rise and surpass both the Gulf and Juarez Cartel's who along with the Sinaloa Cartel are suffering greatly from internal strife. Police stand guard as people take part in the peaceful rally outside the military base. Between the choice of the violence of the Sinaloa Cartel and the violence of Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion, life tends to be much more brutal, much more difficult under Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacions rule, Felbab-Brown said. Miguel ngel Flix Gallardo (Diego Luna) is in jail. Toya Sarno Jordan for NPR [44] He pleaded guilty to money laundering and is serving 15 years. "A large part of Veracruz is now controlled by the CJNG," Balderas said. [citation needed] Felix received money from members of the criminal group and local criminals to "kick up" money from their illegal activities such as kidnapping and contract killing take half of the money and give it to the Tijuana Cartel to launder it. "The Sinaloa Cartel is still the most powerful. Operating out of Tijuana, the cartel is now believed to make other activities such as kidnapping, people smuggling and bribery from a network of cells of local members within the Tijuana border region where the drugs are stored prior to shipment. "My coworkers told me that, hey, you got to come and I said, I'm sorry, but I'm not going to risk myself to just get some money," he said. Tal alianza se forj a la sombra de los muros de la crcel de El Altiplano, prisin de mxima seguridad en la que coincidieron Benjamn Arellano Flix y Osiel . Historica Wiki is a FANDOM Games Community. Felbab-Brown has studied the difference between how each cartel operates. The San Diego-Tijuana border region was jolted just over a week ago, when cartel members launched a campaign of terror on the streets of Tijuana, with vehicles being set ablaze and gunmen. In early May 2020, Faras lvarez called on vigilante groups in four municipalities to unite and resist the "invasion" by the CJNG. Mexico's Atlantic Coast was traditionally contested between the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas. It is based in Culiacn, Sinaloa state, Mexico. But much of the efforts done between 2008 and 2010 in Tijuana would not have been possible without the coordination of local police forces and the Mexican military and possibly with a cartel truce to put down the violence. But along the border with the United States, the group has been involved in a series of violent clashes for control of border crossings. Action by the Mexican Authority alone could not maintain the needed control. It's not for lack of trying. TIJUANA ( Border Report) Monica Yadira Ruiz a.k.a. SINALOA CARTEL Founder: 1989 Originally part of: Guadalajara Cartel Allies: Gulf Cartel, Knights Templar The Tijuana cartel was further weakened in August 2006 when its chief, Javier Arellano Flix, was arrested by the U.S. Coast Guard on a boat off the coast of Baja California. The president downplayed recent violence and said the Mexican National Guard is taking care of the issue. The sun sets in Tijuana, Baja California, on the border with San Diego. The Tijuana Cartel, also known as the Arellano - Flix Organization is a Mexican drug cartel operating out of Tijuana, Baja California. Chris Arturo Pichardo contributed to this report. As a result, the Tijuana Cartel reversed their branding back to Cartel Arellano Flix and arranged the assassination of Cabo 33 the Jalisco Cartel's head of operations in Baja California, after effectively removing the Jalisco Cartel's influence in Baja California the Tijuana Cartel has further engaged the Sinaloa Cartel for control of Tijuana plaza and its surrounding areas. The Arellano-Felix family controlled the city of Tijuana.. Unlike Sinaloa, Tijuana is shown to be thriving at the start of season 3. The latest escalation is not just a repeat of the mid-2000s, but in some ways even more dramatic because of the new factor that is Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion, said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who is writing a book about organized crime in Mexico. [19], The Arellano Flix family was initially composed of seven brothers and four sisters, who inherited the organization from Miguel ngel Flix Gallardo upon his incarceration in Mexico in 1989 for his complicity in the murder of DEA Special Agent Enrique Camarena. "The communities are not interested in accepting the CJNG," Ernstadded.