Tough Mexico. Latin American drug war Execution of Mexican drug lords with a chainsaw

The drug mafia in Mexico is getting stronger. Although the total number of murders in the country has been steadily decreasing over the past two decades, drug dealers commit heinous crimes. They have undermined the rule of law so much that ordinary Mexicans are now and then publicly interested: did the mafias win the war against the state?

The history of modern Mexican drug traffickers begins in the 1940s, when farmers from the mountain villages of the Mexican state of Sinaloa began to grow marijuana. The first Mexican drug traffickers were a bunch of villagers connected by family ties. For the most part, they were from the small northern Mexican state of Sinaloa. Sandwiched between the Gulf of California and the Sierra Madre, about 300 miles from the US border, this poor, agrarian state has become an ideal place for smuggling. At first, marijuana was grown here or bought from other "gardeners" of the Pacific coast, and then the drug was shipped to the United States. For decades, it remained a stable and not too risky small business, and violence did not spill out beyond the narrow world of drug dealers. Later, cocaine, which came into vogue in the 60s, was added to marijuana smuggling. However, for a long time, the Mexicans were just "donkeys", serving one of the channels for the supply of Colombian cocaine to North America. And they did not even dare to compete with the powerful Colombians.

The heyday of Mexican drug gangs began after the defeat of the Colombian drug cartels of Cali and Medellin by the US and Colombian governments. One by one, El Mexicoano and Pablo Emilio Escabar were killed, the brothers Ochoa and Carlos Leder (El Aleman) from the Medellin cartel were imprisoned in Colombian and US prisons. Following them, it was the turn of the Kali cartel, led by the Orihuela brothers.

Also, after the Americans closed the supply chain of Colombian drugs through Florida, the Mexican delivery route became virtually uncontested. The weakened Colombians could no longer dictate their will to the Mexicans and now only sell them large quantities of drugs at wholesale prices.
As a result, Mexican gangs gained control over the entire chain of drug trafficking - from raw material plantations in the Andes region to points of sale on American streets. They managed to significantly expand the scale of the business: from 2000 to 2005, the supply of cocaine from South America to Mexico more than doubled, and the volume of amphetamine intercepted at the US-Mexico border - five times.

The United States, largely due to the entrepreneurial spirit of the Mexican drug cartels, ranks first in the world in terms of cocaine and marijuana consumption. And the drug cartels themselves began to earn from 25 to 40 billion dollars a year on the American market. In general, Mexico produces about 10,000 tons of marijuana and 8,000 tons of heroin annually. Almost 30% of cultivated farmland in the country is planted with marijuana. In addition, almost 90% of the cocaine consumed in the United States comes through Mexico. Most of the methamphetamine consumed in the United States is produced in Mexican laboratories (although there used to be a lot of meth - four times more pseudoephedrine was imported into the country than required for the pharmaceutical industry, and now the focus is on marijuana, which provides almost 70% of the cartel's income). All this is sold through controlled outlets, which the Mexican drug cartels have in at least 230 major American cities.

However, this expansion of business also affected relations between the leading Mexican cartels. A multiple increase in the supply of cocaine and marijuana with a fixed number of plazas (transshipment points at the border) and the number of drug addicts in the States led to a sharp increase in inter-cartel competition for the American market. It's time for big money. And big money, as you know, brings big problems. This is how the drug wars began in Mexico, because "if in a legal business there are standard legal ways of competition, then in an illegal one, the most effective way to get around a competitor is to kill him."

At first, families dispersed from Sinaloa began to vie for control of the main border transit points. Accordingly, the very structure of the cartels has undergone a change. If in the old days, the drug mafia was a sort of guy with a gold tooth and a Colt .45, now everything is completely different. Now there are whole groups of militants trained in a military way. To fight each other, the cartels began to create private armies consisting of mercenaries - sicarios. These mercenaries are armed with the latest technology and often surpass even part of the Mexican army in technical equipment and level of training. The most famous and violent of these groups is the Los Zetas. Its core is former Mexican special forces from the GAFE (Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales) unit. Modeled after Los Zetas, their competitor, the Sinaloa cartel, created its own army called Los Negros. There was no shortage of recruits: the cartels openly posted advertisements in the towns bordering the United States, inviting former and current military men to join their organizations. Cartel vacancies have become one of the reasons for the mass desertion and dismissal from the Mexican army (from 2000 to 2006 - 100 thousand people).

The first major war between rival drug cartels began with the arrest in 1989 of Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, founding father of the cocaine business in Mexico, friend of José Rodríguez Gacha (El Mexicano). This contributed to the fragmentation of his group and the founding of the first two large drug cartels - Sinaloa and Tijuana. Then fuel was added to the fire by the unexpected appearance of a group that had nothing to do with Sinaloa. They were drug traffickers, calling themselves the "Cartel del Golfo", from the state of Tamaulipas on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The natives of Sinaloa were divided: some were for new players, some were against. When the cartel formation in Mexico was completed, they split into two parts: one group consists of the Juárez Cartel, Los Zetas, the Tijuana Cartel and the Tijuana Cartel. Beltran Leyva Cartel” (“Beltrán Leyva Cartel”), and the second group from the “Golfo Cartel” (“Cartel del Golfol”), “Sinaloa Cartel” (“Sinaloa Cartel”) and “Family Cartel” (“Cartel La Familial”) . Later, two more were formed - the Oaxaca Cartel and Los Negros.

And ordinary Mexicans, clearly demonstrated a new way of waging drug wars, a group of men in black went to a roadside disco in the state of Michoacán and shook out the contents of a garbage bag - five severed heads. A new era of the Mexican drug business has begun, when violence has become a means of communication. Today, members of the drug mafia monstrously disfigure the bodies of their victims and put them on public display - so that everyone is aware of the power of the drug lords and feared them. You Tube has become a propaganda platform for the drug war, where anonymous companies upload videos and drug ballads that extol the advantages of one cartel leader over another.

The United States, as you know, is not only the main market for drugs, but also the source of weapons involved in the dismantling of drug cartels in Mexico. Almost anyone with a driver's license and no criminal record can buy weapons here. There are 110,000 sellers with licenses to sell, 6,600 of which are located between Texas and San Diego. Therefore, for the purchase itself, Mexicans usually use dummy Americans - "straw people" (mostly single mothers who do not arouse suspicion), who receive 50-100 dollars for the service. These front men buy guns by the piece, either from stores or from "gun shows" that take place every weekend in Arizona, Texas, or California. Then the trunks are handed over to dealers, who, collecting a batch of several dozen, transport it across the border. And they make good money doing it. For example, a used AK-47 can be bought in the States for $400, and south of the Rio Grande it will already cost $1,500. Armed in this way, drug cartel armies have mortars, heavy machine guns, anti-tank missiles, grenade launchers, fragmentation grenades.

The Mexican border guards themselves cannot stop the arms traffic. Or rather, they don't want to. Mexicans are not very active in searching cars entering their territory from the north, this passivity is explained by the fact that the border guards are faced with the choice of “plata o plomo” (silver or lead). Many prefer to take bribes and turn a blind eye to smuggling. Those who refuse "silver" usually do not live long. For example, in February 2007, an honest Mexican border guard stopped a truck full of weapons. As a result, the Gulf Cartel missed 18 rifles, 17 pistols, 17 grenades, and more than 8,000 rounds of ammunition. The next day, the border guard was shot dead.
Until 2006, periodic mafia showdowns had practically no effect on ordinary Mexicans. The cartels were doing big business, and big business requires a quiet environment. Drug gangs have even become an everyday element in the lives of citizens. Ordinary people, seeing the success of drug dealers (especially against the backdrop of total poverty in the country), began to compose “drug ballads” about them. Since Mexico is a very religious country, the cartels even have their own "drug saint" - Jesus Malverde, whose central temple is installed in the capital of the state of Sinaloa, the city of Kualican, and "drug saint" - Doña Santa Muerte.

There was no large-scale violence in the country. With Mexican President Vicente Fox, the cartels interacted according to the formula "Live yourself and do not interfere with others." Everyone controlled their territory and did not climb into someone else's. Everything changed with the victory in the 2006 presidential election, Felipe Calderon. Immediately after his election, the new head of state declared war on drug cartels. The president took such a radical step for two reasons. First, he needed to start some kind of popular campaign to strengthen his position after the mixed election results (Calderón's lead over his closest rival, Andreas Manuel López Obrador, was less than 0.6%). Of the two potential popular directions - the war on crime and the beginning of deep economic reforms - he chose the first as, in his opinion, the easiest. Secondly, the new president realized the danger of the coexistence of cartels and the state. Calderón realized that further “see nothing, hear nothing” tactics against the drug cartels would inevitably lead to a weakening of the government. Every year the bandits penetrated deeper and deeper into state institutions, primarily into the police.

By the time Calderón arrived, the entire police force in the northern states of Mexico had been bought by the cartels. At the same time, law enforcement officers did not fear for their future if their ties with bandits were revealed. If a local police officer is fired for corruption, he simply crosses the street and is hired by the cartel (for example, in Rio Bravo, the Los Zetas recruiting office was located directly opposite the police station). Former police officers know the principles of police work from the inside, and they were taken with joy. That is why the authority of the police in the country was very low.

As a result of an active campaign, Calderon managed to inflict some damage on the drug mafia. In 2007-2008, 70 tons of cocaine, 370 tons of marijuana, 28,000 barrels, 2,000 grenades, 3 million rounds of ammunition and $304 million were seized from the cartels. In the US, this has translated into numbers: cocaine prices soared 1.5 times, while the average purity fell from 67.8% to 56.7%, and the cost of amphetamine on American streets rose by 73%.

After the new president violated the unspoken truce, the drug cartels declared a vendetta against the government and law enforcement agencies and are waging it with their inherent cruelty and intransigence (for the sake of this, two sworn enemies, the Gulf Cartels and Sinaloa, even reconciled for a while). Those who did not run away and did not sell out are mercilessly shot. Briefly, the chronicle of the most significant victories and losses looks like this:

In January 2008, in the city of Culiacan, one of the leaders of the cartel of the same name, Alfredo Beltran Leyva (nicknamed El Mochomo), was arrested. His brothers, in revenge for his arrest, orchestrated the assassination of Federal Police Commissioner Edgar Eusebio Millano Gomez and other high-ranking officials in the Mexican capital itself.
That same January, members of the Juarez Cartel pinned to the door of Juarez City Hall a list of 17 police officers who had been sentenced to death. By September, ten of them had been killed.

On October 25, in the prestigious area of ​​Fraksionamiento Pedregal, Tijuana, troops and police stormed the villa located here, arresting the leader of the Tijuana cartel Eduardo Arellano Felix (nickname "Doctor"), after which the leadership in the cartel passed to his nephew - Luis Fernando Sánchez Arellano.
However, after the arrest of Eduardo Arellano Felix, one of the leaders of the drug cartel, Teodoro Garcia Simmental (nicknamed "El Teo") left the group and started a war against its new leader, as a result of which Tijuana was swept by a wave of violence that, according to various sources, claimed from 300 to almost 700 people. . Within a year, rivals fought for control of a road through Nogales, Sonora, and the city's homicide rate tripled.

In November, under strange circumstances, the plane of Juan Camilo Mourino, the President's national security adviser, crashed.

And in early February 2009, one of the most popular Mexican military, retired General Mauro Enrique Tello Quinones, was kidnapped, tortured and killed. Less than 24 hours before his kidnapping, he took up the post of security adviser to the mayor's office of Cancun - a resort town, one of the drug lords' recreation centers.

On December 16 of the same year, Arturo Beltran Leyva, one of the leaders of the Beltran Leyva drug cartel, was killed in a shootout with members of the Mexican Navy, and on December 30, in the city of Culiacan, law enforcement agencies detained his brother and one of the leaders of the drug cartel, Carlos Beltran Leyva.

On January 12, 2010, one of the most wanted Mexican drug lords and leaders of the Tijuana drug cartel, Teodoro Garcia Simmental (nickname "El Teo"), was caught in Baja California.
In February, the Los Zetas Cartel and its ally the Beltran Leyva Cartel launched a war against the Golfo Cartel in the border town of Reynosa, turning some of the border towns into ghost towns. It was reported that a member of the Golfo cartel killed the Zetas' top lieutenant, Victor Mendoza. The group demanded that the cartel find the killer, but he refused. Thus, a new war broke out between the 2 gangs.

On June 14, members of the opposing Zetas and Sinaloa cartels staged a massacre in the Mazatlán city prison. A group of prisoners, tricked into stealing the guards' pistols and assault rifles, broke into a nearby cell block, massacring members of a rival cartel. During this and at the same time, in other parts of the prison, 29 people died from the riots.

On June 19, in the city of Ciudad Juarez, the mayor of the city of Guadalupe Distros Bravos Manuel Lara Rodriguez, who was hiding there after receiving threats against him, was shot dead, and ten days later the criminals killed Rodolfo Torre Cantu, a candidate for governor of the northwestern state of Tamaulipas.

On July 29, the military discovered in the suburbs of Guadalajara, the whereabouts of one of the leaders of the Sinaloa drug cartel, Ignacio Coronel, and he died during the ensuing shootout. In the same month, in the municipal district of Tamaulipas, the military raided the ranch where the alleged members of the drug cartel were located and 4 people were killed in a shootout. While searching the area around the ranch, the Mexican military found a mass grave (the bodies of 72 people, including 14 women).

On August 30, the authorities managed to arrest the influential drug lord Edgar Valdes (nicknames Barbie, "Comandante" and "Guero"), and in early September, in the wake of operational intelligence information, one of the leaders of the drug cartel was arrested by the special forces of the naval forces in Pueblo "Beltran Leyva" Sergio Villareal (nickname "El Grande").

The next major success of the Mexican law enforcement agencies was the arrest in the Cancun resort of the head of the Los Zetas drug cartel, Jose Angel Fernandez.
A few days earlier, on November 6, during a shootout with the military in the city of Matamoros, one of the leaders of the Gulf Cartel, Ezekiel Gardenas Guillen (nickname Tony Tormenta), was killed.

On December 7, one of the high-ranking members of the La Familia drug cartel, José Antonio Arcos, was detained. And the next day, hundreds of police and military entered the city of Apatzingan, where La Familia is based. And with the support of helicopters, they fought for two days with armed members of the drug cartel, during which several people (civilians, militants and policemen) were killed, including the head of the La Familia drug cartel, Nazario Moreno Gonzalez (nickname "Mad").

On December 28, in the city of Guadalupe Distrito Bravos, unknown people kidnapped the last policeman remaining here, after which the city was left without a police force, and in order to ensure law and order, the authorities sent troops to the city.
On January 18, 2011, near the city of Oaxaca, one of the founders of the Los Zetas cartel, Flavio Mendez Santiago (nickname Yellow), was arrested.

On June 21, during a raid near the city of Aguascalientes, in the state of the same name in central Mexico, the police detained the drug lord of the La Familia drug cartel, Jose de Jesus Mendez Vargas. The following month, Jesús Enrique Rejón Aguilar, another founding member of the Los Zetas cartel, was arrested by police in the state of Mexico.
In total, since 2006, 26 thousand people have become victims of this conflict. For comparison, the number of dead Soviet soldiers during the 10 years of the war in Afghanistan is 13,833 people. Twice smaller!!!

At the moment, there are nine main drug cartels in Mexico: the Sinaloa Cartel, the Tijuana Cartel, the Juarez Cartel, the Golfo Cartel, the La Familia or La Familia Michiocana Cartel, the Beltrán Leyva Cartel, the Los Zetas Cartel, the Los Negros Cartel and the Oaxaca Cartel. You can read more about each of them by clicking on the links-names of the cartels.

And a little about Russians, in this interesting topic:

Mexican drug cartels use members of Russian organized crime groups, as well as former KGB officers, to smuggle drugs into the United States, as well as to increase their influence in the region.

Luis Vasconcelos, head of the Organized Crime Unit of the Mexican Attorney General's Office, says that "the Russians are highly professional and extremely dangerous."

Russian mobsters help Mexican drug dealers launder money. This was stated by the head of the intelligence department of the US Federal Drug Enforcement Administration Stephen Casteel. Russians charge 30% of the money laundered for their services.

Castile argues that the emergence of Russians in Mexico is due to the globalization of organized crime. For the first time, fighters from Russian "brigades" appeared in Colombia and Mexico in the early 90s, but their finest hour came a little later. After the arrest of the head of one of the largest drug cartels in Mexico - Benjamin Arellano Felix, as well as several dozen of his assistants, the cartel began to rapidly disintegrate. Bruce Bagley, a specialist from the University of Miami, claims that it was then that Russian mafiosi began to gradually infiltrate the fragments of the once powerful organization.

"Russian fighters are much cooler than the Mexicans. They are much more brutal. They silently do their job and try not to shine unnecessarily. They don't wear gold chains, they don't cut people with chainsaws and don't throw them into rivers," says Bagley - "But don't underestimate them. These guys are the most brutal people you can imagine."

Bagley claims that the latest operations by the Mexican police, which have effectively "decapitated the Mexican drug cartels," provide the Russian mafia with a "golden opportunity to operate in Mexico." The big cartel is breaking down into small armed groups that operate at the state and city levels in Mexico. It is more difficult to detect them there, and it is easier for drug dealers to bribe local officials. Small groups of Mexican drug dealers welcome the Russians with open arms.
Most of the money laundering operations are carried out by Russians in various offshore zones - in Haiti, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Russians escort large shipments of drugs that are being shipped to the United States. In April 2001, the US Coast Police detained a ship carrying 13 tons of cocaine and a mixed Russian-Ukrainian crew.

The number of victims is no less striking than the sight of the bodies of dead people hanging from the overpasses of the highway. Between 2006 and 2012, more than 77,000 people died in Mexico due to drug-related violence, according to BBC News. A Stanford Review article titled "A Brewing Storm: Mexican Drug Cartels and the Growing Violence on Our Border" states that, according to statistics, the number of homicides drug-related increased by 300 percent between 2007 and 2008. Mexican drug cartels are horrendous and use every means to achieve their goals, from beheadings and torture to human trafficking and massacres. Warring cartels fight for control of territory and drug supply routes. Allegiances change, people give bribes, former adversaries form alliances to fight new groups and wage war on each other.

Former Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared a Reagan-style war on drugs and drug cartels, instructing the army to capture drug cartel leaders. Mexico's current president, Enrique Pena Nieto, is taking a different approach in combating local violence. Nieto also said that local and state authorities will no longer work directly with the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration when it comes to exposing classified data. Corruption has long been a problem in Mexican law and the military, further complicating the country's policy to end cartel violence. One thing is for sure: until the demand for drugs disappears, the cartels will fight to control the supply. Below are the seven deadliest drug cartels in Mexico:

7 Tijuana Cartel

In the 1990s and early 2000s, the Tijuana Cartel, run by the Arellano Felix brothers, was one of the largest and most formidable groups in Mexico. At the height of its power, the cartel infiltrated Mexican law enforcement and the judiciary. He controlled the transportation and distribution of multi-ton consignments of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine. The cartel was infamous for its excessive violence. In 1998, Ramon Arellano ordered an attack that killed 18 people in Baja, California. However, starting in 2006, the Sinaloa Cartel took control of much of the territory that was once under the control of the Tijuana group. Although the Tijuana Cartel still exists, due to several deaths, arrests, internal conflicts, and the growing power of Sinaloa, it has been reduced to a small group of scattered cells.

6. New Juarez Cartel ("New" Juarez Cartel)


The Juarez Cartel, based near the US-Mexico border near El Paso, Texas, has long been a major player in the US cocaine trade. The Juarez Cartel, also known as the Vicente Carillo Fuentes Organization, made $200 million in weekly profits until the death of Amado Carillo Fuentes in 1997, which marked the beginning of the group's decline. In September 2011, the Mexican Federal Police announced that the crime syndicate was now called the New Juarez Cartel. He has a militant group known as La Linea, a street gang known for decapitating enemies, desecrating their bodies, and dumping them in public places to spread panic and fear among the people. The main rival of the New Juarez Cartel is the Sinaloa Cartel, which many believe currently controls much of the drug traffic in the city of Juarez. In 2012, 2,086 people were killed in skirmishes over territory, according to CNN, their murders in the city of Ciudad Juarez (Ciudad Juarez) still remain unsolved.

5. Cartel "Templar" (Knights Templar)

Drug cartels are in constant confrontation, trying to prove who should be feared the most. The first victim of the Templar cartel was hung over an overpass with a note claiming the man was the kidnapper, instantly giving them a reputation as a group as brutal as the barbarian syndicate. The cartel takes its name from the Templars of the Middle Ages who defended Jerusalem and according to a book by journalist Ioan Grillo called El Narco: Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency the Templar cartel claims to be Michoacan State Defender.

The group was formed in 2010 after the alleged death of Nazario Moreno, leader of the La Familia Michoacana cartel. The Templars made themselves known by displaying over 40 "junkies" or drug cartel banners across the state that said, "We maintain and protect order, prevent robbery, kidnapping, extortion, and try to keep the state safe from a rival organization." According to Ioan Grillo, this heroic, illegal, Robin Hood approach to crime and community has led to members of the Templar cartel now being considered celebrities. The cartel controls operations in Michoacan, Morelos and Mexico State. Their latest showdown was with the Jalisco New Generation cartel, which is trying to gain control of Michoacán.

4. Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or Mata Zetas


The Jalisco New Generation Cartel was founded in 2009. According to the International Business Times, three men were found murdered in an abandoned truck with a note that read: "We are the new Mata Zeta group, we are against kidnapping and extortion and we will fight this in all states in the name of a cleaner Mexico." ". In 2010, the Jalisco New Generation cartel expanded its rhetoric and declared war on all other Mexican cartels, announcing its intention to take over Guadalajara. The cartel is currently at war with Los Zetas for control of that city, as well as control of the states of Jalisco and Veracruz.

In 2011, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel claimed responsibility for what was called the Veracruz Massacre. Thirty-five bodies were found on a dirt road near the mall. The cartel also claimed responsibility for 67 murders the following day. In response to the violence and executions, the Mexican government launched an army-led campaign called Operation Veracruz Seguro.

3 Gulf Cartel


The Golfo Cartel, founded in 1930 by smuggler Juan Nepomunceno Guerra, is believed to be the oldest criminal organization in Mexico. According to the DEA, "The Golfo Cartel is responsible for transporting multi-ton shipments of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana from Colombia, Guatemala, Panama and Mexico to the United States." The organization is also involved in money laundering, bribery, extortion, and arms trafficking.

After the split with Los Zetas (it is not clear which of the two cartels started the conflict that led to the collapse), the strength of the Golfo cartel has weakened somewhat. He has endured the loss of important leaders, and the struggle itself has resulted in several deaths and arrests in Mexico and the United States. However, according to the InterAmerican Security Watch news portal, the Golfo cartel still maintains control over its main smuggling corridors in the US.

2. Los Zetas


According to the US government, Los Setas is the most technologically advanced, sophisticated and dangerous cartel operating in Mexico. In 1999, special forces from the elite forces of the Mexican army deserted, founded Los Zetas and began to cooperate with the Golfo cartel. The name Los Setas comes from a tactical radio call sign for commanders in the Mexican army.

By 2010, the Los Setas had broken away from the Golfo cartel and, according to Ralph Reyes, head of the Mexico-Central America zone narcotics control, they "took the lead in carrying out most of the drug-related murders, beheadings, kidnappings, as well as extortion that is taking place in Mexico.” From the San Fernando massacre, which killed 193 people, to the Morelia grenade attack in 2008, which killed eight people and injured more than 100, Los Setas carried out several high-profile attacks on civilians. and members of other groups. To date, Los Setas control 11 Mexican states and continue to train new mercenaries through several campaigns.

1. Sinaloa Cartel


The Snaloa Cartel, also known as the Pacific Cartel or the "Guzman-Loera Organization", is the most powerful drug cartel in the world, according to US intelligence. According to the US Attorney General, the Sinaloa cartel is responsible for importing more than 200 tons of cocaine into the US between 1990 and 2008. Even though the Sinaloa cartel left 14 decapitated heads in boxes in front of the mayor's office in the city of Nuevo Laredo in 2012, a cartel leader named El Chapo preferred "bribery over bullets".

Up until 2008, the Sinaloa cartel was primarily associated with territories in the Golden Triangle, which includes the states of Sinaloa, Durango, and Chihuahua. However, that year the syndicate moved to the state of Ciudad Juarez and began a blood war for territory with a local cartel led by Vicente Carrillo Fuentes. The conflict killed 5,000 people and despite the fact that former Mexican President Felipe Calderon sent waxes to quell the violence, Juarez became the most dangerous city in the world. The Sinola cartel controls 17 Mexican states.

The Mexican drug war is an armed conflict between warring drug cartels, government forces and police in Mexico.

Although Mexican drug cartels have been around for decades, they have become more powerful since the collapse of the Colombian cartels of Medellin and Cali in the 1990s. Mexican drug cartels currently dominate the wholesale illicit drug market in the United States.

The arrests of cartel leaders have led to increased levels of violence as they have escalated the struggle between the cartels for control of drug trafficking routes to the United States.

Mexico is the main foreign supplier of cannabis and the largest supplier of methamphetamine to the United States. Since 2006, 26 thousand people have become victims of the drug war. The drug war has become a national threat in Mexico. Since the 1970s, some government structures in Mexico have been assisting in the organization of the drug trade. The growing drug war in Mexico has also affected the United States. Mexico is the main source of cocaine and other drugs entering the US. In turn, the United States is the main source of weapons involved in the dismantling of drug cartels in Mexico. In parts of Mexico, drug cartels have accumulated military-style weapons, have counterintelligence capabilities, have accomplices among the authorities and an army of ordinary poor young people seeking to join to them. The Mexican police and armed forces and the US DEA anti-drug service are fighting against drug cartels. The government of Mexico under the rule of Felipe Calderon for the first time hit the smugglers, extradited them to foreign countries, confiscated their money and weapons.

The US State Department estimates that 90% of the cocaine entering the country comes from Mexico and Colombia, the main producer of cocaine, and that illicit drug proceeds range from $13.6 billion to $48.4 billion a year.

Military and forensic experts examine a handcuffed body outside a nightclub.

The body of a man on the side of the highway Acapulco-Mexico.

Soldiers enter the city of Ciudad Juarez to patrol the streets. The city is wholly owned by drug lord Vicente Carrillo Fuentes.

Arrested gang members and their weapons.

The body of one of the bandits killed during a special operation to free the hostages from the hands of drug dealers. Machine guns, cannons, ammunition, four trucks and about 2 tons of marijuana were also seized.

$206 million - police catch when arresting methamphetamine manufacturers.

Weapons, drugs, money and jewelry seized from several anti-narcotics operations in Mexico are on display during a press conference at the Attorney General's headquarters in Mexico City.

Arrested 1.2 tons of cocaine.

134 tons of marijuana at the Morelos military base in Tijuana, destined for destruction.

The scene of the murder of 8 people involved in the drug trade.

Gem-encrusted gold and silver pistols from members of one of the gangs, found during a search of houses.

An arrested drug dealer who held several people hostage.

Three-year-old Iliana Hernandez, shot together with her father by unknown persons, is in the coffin.

A friend mourns the body of Sergio Hernandez, a 14-year-old who tried to cross the US border and was apparently killed by US border guards.

The bodies of two men with their hands and faces tied. The reasons for the murder are unknown.

Two bodies hanging on a bridge in the center of a Mexican city. The reason for the execution is either a showdown within drug gangs, or an act of intimidation for everyone trying to cooperate with the police.

After a police shootout with a gang of drug dealers.

Search for bullets next to the shot young people in handcuffs. The reason for the murder is unknown.

More than a ton of cocaine, which was shown to the media after the seizure of a consignment of drugs.

A policeman guards the scene of a crime where four people were shot dead in the border town of Ciudad Juarez, the most dangerous place in Mexico. More than 2,000 people have died this year in Mexico's drug war, mostly between warring gangs, to control the US drug smuggling that runs through this city.

On the woman's nails are marijuana sheets and a portrait of one of the drug lords.

Marijuana plantation.

The box in which the body of a woman was found. Initially, it was thought that the box might contain a bomb.

After a shootout between bandits and police in Ciudad Juarez.

Approximately two tons of seized cocaine are being tested at a naval base.

Ciudad Juarez. Murdered members of the city's local government.

Arrest of a pregnant woman for possession and distribution of drugs.

A policeman stands outside a Mexican home where members of a mostly Colombian drug gang have been arrested.

Found corpses of employees of a law office, thanks to which drug dealers were previously arrested.

The body of a man in Guatemala after a shootout on the street.

Colombian police officers check packages of cocaine after a flight with drugs weighing 3 and a half tons is delayed.

One of 17 bodies dumped in prominent locations in Rio de Janeiro, just after the president announced a $60 million donation to fight crime ahead of the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.

The mafia and gangster groups of the countries of the world carefully observe their laws and customs - after all, this is their calling card, which distinguishes them from ordinary street robbers and helps to remain known in certain circles, which means fear, respect, and therefore money. When threats and intimidation do not work - the mafia immediately executes a person, reminding that there is nothing personal - "just business." The types of executions also have a peculiar handwriting, it can inform both the most criminal group-customer and the identity of the killer, and sometimes it will be easy for an insider to understand who and for what killed the unfortunate who dared somehow harm criminal clans.

Italian mafia

The sultry Sicilians, Cosa Nostra, 'Ndranghetta, and their American followers have gone down in history as the most inventive "classic" criminals in the massacre of their enemies.

Their superiority is held by strangulation with a garotte - a special noose with handles, made in the form of a very thin rope, most often a string. Interestingly, such an execution was not applicable to everyone, but only to family members, or those who used to be respected, but lost such an attitude.

For ill-wishers, “cement boots” were simpler. As a rule, the mafiosi always protected a couple of construction unions they knew, so it was not difficult for them to get a basin and cement. The victim was placed in a basin, poured with cement, waited for it to harden, and sent to the nearest reservoir "to the fish."

A rat in the mouth is a terrible kind of execution that was carried out on "snitches". Anyone who violated the law of "omerta" was tied to a chair, a rat was put into his mouth, after which his mouth was sealed with tape. The victim was terribly tormented, and if she did not die from a painful shock, then she was finished off with a firearm.

Yakuza

Influential Japanese mafiosi, as a rule, do not do chaos at first, but cut off the tip of the little finger for an insignificant offense. If a member of the clan is guilty again, they cut off the phalanx, and so on in ascending order, until the poor fellow realizes that the next cut off piece may be his head.

As for instant executions, the yakuza have a wide variety here: sepukku is still in use among high-ranking members of the clan, clogging with bamboo sticks, and even an execution with a historical touch: strangulation with a silk cord.

Triad

In the Triad, the most exotic method of execution is considered "Ling Shi" - incessant death or "death by a thousand cuts." The essence of the method is small incisions all over the body, like from a paper sheet. The executioner must have a special skill, and not let the victim die quickly from a painful shock or make a cut too deep and let the victim bleed.

By the way, Confucian teaching suggests that if a person’s body was severely cut before death, then in the afterlife it will no longer be able to be whole - so for believers in China, this type of execution was considered the most terrible.

Brazilian and South African mafia

The African necklace is a terrible torture that is still used today in Brazil and South Africa. A rubber tire filled with gasoline was put on a person's chest, after which the gasoline was set on fire. The burning rubber of the tire, which burns for a long time, is hot, and besides, due to gasoline it melts with twice the speed, turned the body into a molten mass in a person.

A painful death and a terrible spectacle - exactly the effect that violent black gangs are counting on.

Russian, American mafia

Burial alive is an execution that dates back to ancient times, and was massively used even at the beginning of the 20th century. The Russian and American mafia adopted this experience, and if the first one goes and buries competitors in forest plantations, then the American mafia takes its enemies into the desert, throws a shovel under their feet and orders them to dig at gunpoint.

They still argue: it is considered mercy or cruelty to put a flashlight and a flask of water into a boarded-up coffin, because this only prolongs the torment, while not everyone can refuse the last sip of water that you have at hand.

Colombian mafia

Among the members of the Colombian mafia, it is extremely difficult to find traitors and informers, because in the case of a "drain" of information, the victim's throat is cut and the tongue is pulled out, which is called the "Colombian tie".

Mexican drug cartels

Mexican drug cartels are still sadists, and dying from a bullet among them is considered a gift and an easy death. For example, they have a large arsenal of executions by our smaller brothers, from being bitten by poisonous snakes, being tortured by scorpions to putting their heads in a hornet hive.

However, the most “honorable and brutal” execution is considered to be chopping with a machete, when the victim’s arms and legs are sequentially cut off, the stomach is cut open and, finally, the head is cut off.

The fearsome female drug cartel boss, known for kidnapping victims and planting their dismembered bodies on the doorsteps of the murdered, has been detained in Mexico after her lover, horrified by the monster she has become, turned in a friend to the police.

Melissa "La China" Calderon, who her boyfriend and deputy Pedro "El Chino" Gomez calls a "maniac", is accused of killing 180 people. The biggest female drug dealer was captured on Saturday after El Chino turned over information, including about the secret burial sites of his girlfriend's victims, to authorities in exchange for a reduced sentence.

Melissa Margarita Calderon Ojeda, 30, known as "La China" (Chinese), became involved in organized crime in 2005, working for the Damaso drug cartel. This criminal organization has ties to the Sinaloa Cartel, which operates in the Mexican state of Baja California - one of the country's main regions in terms of drug smuggling - and is headed by recently escaped prison Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán.

Known for her ruthlessness and brutality, in 2008 she was appointed head of the cartel's armed wing. Her power extended to the city of La Paz and the popular tourist resort of Cabo San Lucas, which is visited by hundreds of thousands of people every year.

In the seven years she ran the armed wing of the cartel, the murder rate in Baja California Sur tripled. La China became infamous for kidnapping her victims from their homes and then tossing their dismembered bodies on doorsteps as a warning to local communities.

When she was offered to resign from her position in the Damaso cartel, she fled and declared war on her former associates. To motivate the gang members, La Chyna ordered bags of cocaine to be handed out to them. Rogelio "El Tyson" Franco (left) led the logistics, Sergio "El Scar" Beltrán (center) became the master killer, and Pedro "El Peter" Cisneros (right) ran the drug sales and disposal of the bodies. In addition, La China had more than three hundred street drug dealers and fighters who traveled on red motorcycles to identify themselves.

La China placed great importance on safety and constantly changed cars and places of residence. In early August, fearing that her vehicles were known to the authorities and being tracked, La China ordered logistics El Tyson to buy a pickup truck. El Tyson sent two friends of his parents to La Chine who wanted to sell the car, but she killed them without paying anything. El Péter buried their bodies in a secluded area north of the city.

When El Tyson arrived on the scene and saw his innocent friends brutally murdered, he got angry and threatened to go to the police. In a fit of rage at the alleged infidelity, La China cut off El Tyson's forearms before killing him.

Shortly thereafter, master assassin El Scar murdered his beloved prostitute after she refused further relationship with him due to his violent sexual tastes.

The last straw was a failed kidnapping attempt by El Tocho, a member of the Damaso drug cartel that was fighting for La China's territories in La Paz. The bandits managed to detain his girlfriend Lourdes, whom La China brutally tortured, trying to find out information, and then killed.

After that, El Chino, the lover of the head of the drug cartel, shocked by her cruelty, left the gang and was soon captured by the police. During interrogation, he spoke about how La Chyna's behavior got out of control. His words were soon confirmed by El Peter, who was detained a week later. El Peter showed the police the location of the secret graves.

La China was arrested without firing a shot on Saturday, September 19, at Los Cabos International Airport, while trying to flee the country. She was taken to a prison in La Paz, the city she controlled just three months ago. La China is currently being interrogated in Mexico City and will face trial next year for more than 150 murders.