Dangerous neighbour

Mexico: Organized Crime and DrugTrafficking Organizations

Reversing a fairly robust record of capturing and imprisoning leaders of Mexico’s drug trafficking organizations (DTOs), the escape of notorious cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán on July 11, 2015, was a huge setback for the Mexican government already beleaguered by charges of corruption and low approval ratings. Mexico’s efforts to combat drug traffickers have touched all of the major organizations that once dominated the illicit drug trade: for example, the February 2014 capture of Guzmán who leads Sinaloa, Mexico’s largest drug franchise; top leaders of Los Zetas in 2013 and March 2015; the October 2014 arrests of Hector Beltrán Leyva of the Beltrán Leyva Organization and, later, of Vicente Carrillo Fuentes of the once-dominant Juárez cartel.