Top U.S. Cities that are crowded with Mexican Cartels

Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat TY Gus   Sources Yahoo and Inside Monkey

There are at least 13 U.S. cities that are used as distribution hubs by the Mexican drug cartels. Click to skip ahead and see the list of top 5 cities that are crowded by Mexican drug cartels.

According to the DEA, Mexican drug cartels continue to expand their presence and forge partnerships with other transnational gangs, U.S. street gangs, prison gangs, and Chinese money laundering organizations. 

The DEA "assesses that the following six Mexican TCOs as having the greatest drug trafficking impact on the United States: Sinaloa Cartel, CJNG, Beltran Leyva Organization, Juarez Cartel, Gulf Cartel, and Los Zetas Cartel".

Sinaloa Cartel is one of the oldest and most successful drug cartels in Mexico. It is also the most significant drug trafficking organization in the United States.

Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) is the youngest of the top 6 Mexican drug cartels. Based in the city of Guadalajara, CJNG is the fastest growing drug cartel and the second biggest player in the United States. This is probably not the last time you hear about CJNG as it is more willing to engage in violent confrontations with rival cartels and security forces.

Beltran-Leyva Organization (BLO) is the third most significant Mexican drug cartel in the United States, followed by Juarez Cartel, Gulf Cartel, and Los Zetas Cartel. "Consistent with previous years, the Sinaloa Cartel maintains the widest national influence, with its most dominant positions along the West Coast, in the Midwest, and in the Northeast. CJNG continues to be the Mexican TCO with second-most widespread national influence. BLO activities remain more dispersed throughout the United States, with heavier concentrations in areas with large heroin markets," said the DEA.

These cartels primarily employ Mexican nationals to oversee their distribution operations in the United States. Their second choice for leadership positions are U.S. citizens of Mexican origin. They clearly don't care about violating the employment discrimination laws.

According to the DEA, these six Mexican drug cartels generate tens of billions of dollars every year and employ a multitude of financial transactions and arrangements to launder and smuggle their earnings into Mexico. "There has also been evidence of the utilization of cryptocurrencies by Mexican TCOs as a means by which to transfer their wealth internationally" said the DEA. Mexican drug cartels also convert wealthy Chinese nationals' Renminbi (RMB) to US dollars at a lower rate than the prevailing market rate. Chinese nationals aren't allowed to transfer their wealth outside of China, so they are willing to pay Mexican drug cartels a premium for the cartels' US dollar cash holdings in exchange for RMB payments in China. We have no idea what the Mexican drug cartels do with all that RMB and how they smuggle all that cash out of China.

Our ranking methodology is quite simple. We ranked each city by the number of different Mexican cartels that use as a distribution hub. In case of a tie, we rank the city with more powerful cartels higher. We bet you won't be able to guess the #1 U.S. city that is crowded by these violent Mexican drug cartels. Here are our rankings using DEA's data:

13. New Orleans

Los Zetas Cartel is the only Mexican cartel that uses New Orleans as a major hub. Los Zetas Cartel is the least influential of the 6 Mexican cartels, but this doesn't mean that its members aren't dangerous people.

12. Dallas

Los Zetas Cartel is also the only Mexican cartel that uses Dallas as a major hub.

11. Laredo

Los Zetas Cartel is also the only Mexican cartel that uses Laredo as a major hub.

10. Detroit

Gulf Cartel is the only Mexican cartel that uses Detroit as a major hub. Gulf Cartel is the 5th most influential Mexican drug cartel in the U.S..

9. Houston

Gulf Cartel is also the only Mexican cartel that uses Houston as a major hub.

8. Oklahoma City

Juarez Cartel is the only Mexican cartel that uses Oklahoma City as a major hub. It is the 4th most powerful Mexican drug cartel operating in the United States.

7. El Paso

Juarez Cartel is also the only Mexican cartel that uses El Paso as a major hub.

6. New York City

Jalisco New Generation Cartel is the only Mexican cartel that uses New York City as a major hub. Mexican cartels aren't prevalent in New York City probably because smaller Colombian drug operations still supply large quantities of cocaine and heroin into New York City.

5. Denver

Sinaloa Cartel and Juarez Cartel both use Denver as a major distribution hub. Juarez Cartel is the fourth powerful Mexican drug Cartel operating in the U.S..

4. Phoenix

Sinaloa Cartel and Beltran-Leyva Organization both use Phoenix as a major distribution hub. Beltran-Leyva Organization is the third most powerful Mexican drug cartel in the U.S..

3. Atlanta

Sinaloa Cartel and Jalisco New Generation Cartel both use Atlanta as a major distribution hub. Jalisco New Generation Cartel is the second most powerful Mexican cartel in the United States.

2. Los Angeles

We bet you were thinking that Los Angeles is the #1 city that is crowded by Mexican drug cartels. There are only 3 major Mexican drug cartels based in Los Angeles: Sinaloa Cartel, Cartel Jalisco New Generation, and Beltran-Leyva Organization.

1. Chicago

Are you surprised to see Chicago at the top of this list?  (nope)

Sinaloa Cartel, Cartel Jalisco New Generation, Beltran-Leyva Organization, and Juarez Cartel operate out of Chicago even though it is such a long distance from Mexico. Chicago isn’t the murder capital of the United States, but its reputation in this regard is pretty bad. There were 750 murders in Chicago in 2016 and the rivalries among Mexican drug cartels and the gangs that help them distribute their illegal drugs definitely contributed to the Chicago’s murder tally. According to our latest calculations Chicago also has an average of 2.1 murders per day so far in 2020 and currently sits at the top of our list of 15 U.S. cities with the highest number of murders.