Thoughts on the "Terrorist" Cartels

 By Itzli 

One of, if not the biggest story of last week was the United States government declaring multiple Mexican cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and even though there has already been a few articles about it on Borderland Beat there’s some things I want to cover which will serve as a launching point for another article/project to come.

Words matter when it comes to the United States government as once something is labeled it can trigger how the government treats it as can be seen on the State Department’s website. I don’t want to get into any politics around this but it should be pointed out the vast majority of FTOs have been Islamic groups and up until now there has only been a handful of groups in the Americas that have been designated. It looks like all of those groups are seen as communist/Marxist revolutionaries with the only ones with some drug connections being the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia and two Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) groups prior to this.

The term cartel started as a passing reference to the way that Pablo Escobar and his associates from Medellín dominated the cocaine market in the 1980s and since then drug cartels have become defined by the Depart of Justice as “large, highly sophisticated organizations composed of multiple DTOs and cells with specific assignments such as drug transportation, security/enforcement, or money laundering. Drug cartel command-and-control structures are based outside the United States; however, they produce, transport, and distribute illicit drugs domestically with the assistance of DTOs that are either a part of or in an alliance with the cartel.” DTOs stand for drug trafficking organizations, which are defined as “complex organizations with highly defined command-and-control structures that produce, transport, and/or distribute large quantities of one or more illicit drugs.”

In my own personal writing and research I take this a step further by coming up with five roles that a Mexican cartels may be involved in when it comes to drugs:

1. Cultivation- this involves growing and harvesting marijuana and/or opium poppy in certain parts of Mexico where they can be grown.

2. Importation- this involves direct involvement in smuggling or receiving drugs from other countries, including the above, cocaine, and precursor chemicals used to make other drugs.

3. Production- while marijuana doesn’t have to be processed in the same manner as other drugs and transforming coca leaves into cocaine generally takes place in South America, drug production involves taking the raw ingredients and transforming them into usable drugs, for instance opium poppy into heroin and precursor chemicals into manufactured drugs such as methamphetamines and fentanyl. 

4. Distribution- this involves the straightforward process of selling drugs at a retail level to local drug markets in Mexico.

5. Exportation- this involves the most recognized role of drug cartels, smuggling drugs from Mexico into the United States. 

The press release doesn’t have much information on the six Mexican drug cartels that were labeled as FTOs but all were listed as transnational organizations, in other words organizations that operate in multiple countries, specifically Mexico and the United States. The phrase “drug trafficking, kidnapping, (and) extortion” is used to describe the CDN, LNFM, and CDG while the Cártel de Sinaloa lacks reference to extortion and CJNG lacks kidnapping. The CU is unique, with only its “violent activities which have resulted in numerous civilian, military, and law enforcement casualties.” being mentioned.

One thing that isn’t obvious based upon the information in the press release is the issue of scale, in other words where exactly these drug cartels operate in Mexico. Let’s take a look at what the press release mentions and flesh it out with the Milenio report that incorporates Mexican government information.

Cártel de Sinaloa is said to be “based in Sinaloa” and that’s it. Milenio reports it as the dominant cartel in 12 states (Baja California Norte, Baja California Sur, Sonora, Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Durango, Coahuila, Zacatecas, Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan, Quintana Roo) and having a presence in 6 others (Nuevo Leon, Nayarit, Tlaxcala, Puebla, Veracruz, Oaxaca).

CJNG is said to have “a presence in nearly every part of Mexico”. Milenio reports it as the dominant cartel in 13 states (Jalisco, Nayarit, Aguascalientes, Colima, Michoacan, Guanajuato, Queretaro, Guerrero, Estado de Mexico, Morelos, Tlaxcala, Puebla, Veracruz) and a presence in 10 others (Baja California Norte, Sonora, Zacatecas, Tamaulipas, Oaxaca, Tabasco, Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan, Quintana Roo).

CDN is said to be “based in northeastern Mexico”. Milenio reports it as dominating Tamaulipas with a presence in 4 states (Nuevo Leon, Jalisco, Guanajuato, Tabasco), although this information is quite questionable.

LNFM is said to operate in “Guerrero, Morelos, and Mexico”. This matches the 3 states that Milenio reports.

CDG is said to be “based in northeast Mexico” and Milenio reports it having a presence in Tamaulipas and San Luis Potosi.

CU is said to be in Michoacán, with it specified that it as “an alliance of multiple cartels and other groups”. This matches the reporting of Milenio, which further states that the most notable criminal groups that are part of it are La Familia Michoacana, Los Caballeros Templarios, Los Viagras, and Los Pájaro Sierra.

We’ll leave it at that for now and build off of this information next time. I’m sure at least one reader will want to say that this is once again “full of misinformation, missing actual facts, full of speculation, boring and too long” but the simple fact is it doesn’t matter if I put hours, days, weeks, or months into an article, it’s never good enough for certain individuals. Doesn’t matter though, we’re back to the old school forum Itzli, we’ll start getting to stuff quicker and try to foster good discussion moving forward. La Plata, Bjeff, or anyone that wants to reach out to me outside of comments, you can reach me at itzli.borderland.beat@gmail.com.