La Familia Michoacana (drug cartel)
Encyclopedia
La Familia Michoacana, La Familia (English: The Family), or LFM was a Mexican
drug cartel
and an organized crime
syndicate based in the Mexican state of Michoacán
. Formerly allied to the Gulf Cartel
—as part of Los Zetas
—it split off since 2006.
The cartel's first leader, Nazario Moreno González
, known as El Más Loco (English: The Craziest One), preached his organization's divine right
to eliminate enemies. He carried a "bible" of his own sayings and insisted that his army of traffickers and hitmen
avoid using the narcotics they sell. Nazario Moreno's partners were José de Jesús Méndez Vargas
, Servando Gómez Martínez
and Enrique Plancarte Solís
, each of whom has a bounty of $2 million for his capture, and were contesting the control of the organization.
In July 2009 and November 2010, La Familia Michoacana offered to retreat and even disband their cartel, "with the condition that both the Federal Government, and State and Federal Police commit to safeguarding the security of the state of Michoacán." However, President Felipe Calderón's government refused to strike a deal with the cartel and rejected their calls for dialogue. Moreover, according to federal and state sources, La Familia Michoacana has been increasingly involved in Michoacan
's politics, impelling their favorite candidates, financing their campaigns, and forcing other parties to renounce their candidacies.
s, spurred to power to counter interloping kidnappers and drug dealers, who were their stated enemies. Since then, La Familia has capitalized on its reputation, building its myth, power and reach to transition into a criminal gang itself.
La Familia emerged to the foreground in the 1990s as the Gulf Cartel
's paramilitary group designed to seize control of the illegal drug trade
in Michoacán state from rival drug cartels. Trained with Los Zetas
, in 2006 the group splintered off into an independent drug trafficking operation. La Familia has a strong rivalry with both Los Zetas
and the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel
, but strong ties with the Sinaloa Cartel
of Joaquin Guzman
. La Familia Michoacana is one of the strongest and fastest growing cartels in Mexico.
After the death of Nazario Moreno González
, José de Jesús Méndez Vargas
(El Chango Méndez) took control of the cartel. However, his authority was disputed by the cartel co-founders Enrique Plancarte Solís and Servando Gómez Martínez
(La Tuta), who formed an offshoot of La Familia calling itself Caballeros Templarios (Knights Templar). Méndez Vargas was captured on 21 June 2011 by Mexican police in the state of Aguascalientes
.
, Tijuana Cartel
, Los Zetas
and the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel; the other faction made up of the Gulf Cartel
, Sinaloa Cartel
and La Familia Michoacana. La Familia Michoacana became a rival of its splinter group Knights Templar. Mexican Attorney General (PGR) reported that La Familia Cartel was "exterminated" by 2011.
and torture
to quash rivals, while building a social base in the Mexican state of Michoacán
. It is the fastest-growing cartel in the country’s drug war
and is a religious cult-like group that celebrates family values. In one incident in Uruapan
in 2006, the cartel members tossed five decapitated heads onto the dance floor of the Sol y Sombra night club along with a message that read: "The Family doesn’t kill for money. It doesn’t kill women. It doesn’t kill innocent people, only those who deserve to die. Know that this is divine justice."
The cartel has moved from smuggling and selling drugs and turned itself into a much more ambitious criminal organization which acts as a parallel state in much of Michoacán. It extorts "taxes" from businesses, pays for community projects, controls petty crime, and settles some local disputes. Despite its short history, it has emerged as Mexico’s largest supplier of methamphetamines to the United States, with supply channels running deep into the Midwestern United States, and has increasingly become involved in the distribution of cocaine, marijuana, and other narcotics. Michael Braun, former DEA chief of operations, states that it operates "superlabs" in Mexico capable of producing up to 100 pounds of meth in eight hours. However, according to DEA officials, it claims to oppose the sale of drugs to Mexicans. It also sells pirated DVDs, smuggles people to the United States
, and runs a debt-collecting service by kidnapping
defaulters. Because often times they use fake and sometimes original uniforms of several police agencies, most of their kidnap victims are stopped under false pretenses of routine inspections or report of stolen vehicles, and then taken hostage.
La Familia has also bought some local politicians. 20 municipal officials have been murdered in Michoacán, including two mayors. Having established its authority, it then names local police chiefs. On May 2009, the Mexican Federal Police detained 10 mayors of Michoacán and 20 other local officials suspected of being associated with the cartel.
On July 11, 2009, a cartel lieutenant— Arnoldo Rueda Medina
—was arrested; La Familia members attacked the Federal Police station in Morelia to try to gain freedom for Rueda shortly after his arrest. During the attacks, two soldiers and three federal policemen were killed. When that failed, cartel members attacked Federal Police installations in at least a half-dozen Michoacán cities in retribution.
Three days later, on July 14, 2009, the cartel torture
d and murder
ed twelve Mexican Federal Police agents and dumped their bodies along the side of a mountain highway along with a written message: "So that you come for another. We will be waiting for you here." The federal agents were investigating crime in Michoacán state; President Calderón, responded to the violence by dispatching additional 1,000 Federal Police officers to the area. The infusion, which more than tripled the number of Federal Police officers patrolling Michoacán, angered Michoacán Governor Leonel Godoy Rangel, who called it 'an occupation' and said he had not been consulted. Days later, 10 municipal police officers were arrested in connection with the slayings of the 12 federal agents.
The governor's half-brother Julio César Godoy Toscano
, who was just elected July 5, 2009, to the lower house of Congress, was accused to be a top-ranking member of La Familia Michoacana drug cartel and of providing political protection for the cartel. Based on these charges, on 14 December 2010, Godoy Toscano was impeached from the lower house of Congress and therefore lost his parliamentary immunity; he fled and remains a fugitive.
President Calderón stated that the country's drug cartels had grown so powerful that they now posed a threat to the future of Mexican democracy. His strategy of direct confrontation and law enforcement is not popular with some segments of Mexican society, where battling violent drug gangs has brought out several human rights
charges against the Mexican military.
operating in the U.S. In 19 different states, 303 individuals were taken into custody in a coordinated effort by local, state, and federal law enforcement over a two-day period. Seized during the arresting phase was over 62 kilograms (136.7 lb) of cocaine
, 330 kilograms (727.5 lb) of methamphetamine
, 440 kilograms (970 lb) of marijuana, 144 weapons, 109 vehicles, two clandestine drug laboratories
, and $3.4 million in U.S. currency.
Since the start of "Project Coronado", the investigation has led to the arrest of more than 1,186 people and the seizure of approximately $33 million. Overall, almost 2 metric tons (2.2 ST) of cocaine, 1240 kilograms (2,733.7 lb) of methamphetamine, 13 kilograms (28.7 lb) of heroin, 7430 kilograms (16,380.3 lb) of marijuana, 389 weapons, 269 vehicles, and the two drug labs were seized.
Multi-agency investigations such as Project Coronado were the key to disrupting the operations of complex criminal organizations like La Familia. The investigative efforts in Project Coronado were coordinated by the multi-agency Special Operations Division, comprising agents and analysts from the DEA, FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Marshals Service and ATF
, as well as attorneys from the Criminal Division's Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section. More than 300 federal, state, local and foreign law enforcement agencies contributed investigative and prosecutorial resources to Project Coronado through the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.
.
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
drug cartel
Drug cartel
Drug cartels are criminal organizations developed with the primary purpose of promoting and controlling drug trafficking operations. They range from loosely managed agreements among various drug traffickers to formalized commercial enterprises. The term was applied when the largest trafficking...
and an organized crime
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
syndicate based in the Mexican state of Michoacán
Michoacán
Michoacán officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Michoacán de Ocampo is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 113 municipalities and its capital city is Morelia...
. Formerly allied to the Gulf Cartel
Gulf Cartel
The Gulf Cartel is one of the most powerful drug cartels in Mexico, and perhaps the oldest organized crime group in the country...
—as part of Los Zetas
Los Zetas
Los Zetas is the second most powerful drug cartel in Mexico and considered by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as the most violent drug cartel and paramilitary enforcement group in Mexico...
—it split off since 2006.
The cartel's first leader, Nazario Moreno González
Nazario Moreno González
Nazario Moreno González was a Mexican drug lord of the La Familia drug cartel, headquartered in the state of Michoacán.-Biography:...
, known as El Más Loco (English: The Craziest One), preached his organization's divine right
Divinity
Divinity and divine are broadly applied but loosely defined terms, used variously within different faiths and belief systems — and even by different individuals within a given faith — to refer to some transcendent or transcendental power or deity, or its attributes or manifestations in...
to eliminate enemies. He carried a "bible" of his own sayings and insisted that his army of traffickers and hitmen
Hitman
A hitman is a person hired to kill another person.- Hitmen in organized crime :Hitmen are largely linked to the world of organized crime. Hitmen are hired people who kill people for money. Notable examples include Murder, Inc., Mafia hitmen and Richard Kuklinski.- Other cases involving hitmen...
avoid using the narcotics they sell. Nazario Moreno's partners were José de Jesús Méndez Vargas
José de Jesús Méndez Vargas
José de Jesús Méndez Vargas is a Mexican drug lord and leader of the La Familia drug cartel, headquartered in the state of Michoacán....
, Servando Gómez Martínez
Servando Gómez Martínez
Servando Gómez Martínez, a.k.a. La Tuta and El Profe is a Mexican drug trafficker who worked for La Familia Michoacana drug cartel, headquartered in the Mexican state of Michoacán. However, Martinez and Dionicio Loya Plancarte later broke with La Familia and formed the Knights Templar Cartel...
and Enrique Plancarte Solís
Enrique Plancarte Solís
Enrique Plancarte Solís is the second-in-command or lieutenant at the service of the La Familia Michoacana drug cartel, an organized crime gang based in the Mexican state of Michoacán....
, each of whom has a bounty of $2 million for his capture, and were contesting the control of the organization.
In July 2009 and November 2010, La Familia Michoacana offered to retreat and even disband their cartel, "with the condition that both the Federal Government, and State and Federal Police commit to safeguarding the security of the state of Michoacán." However, President Felipe Calderón's government refused to strike a deal with the cartel and rejected their calls for dialogue. Moreover, according to federal and state sources, La Familia Michoacana has been increasingly involved in Michoacan
Michoacán
Michoacán officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Michoacán de Ocampo is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 113 municipalities and its capital city is Morelia...
's politics, impelling their favorite candidates, financing their campaigns, and forcing other parties to renounce their candidacies.
History
Mexican analysts believe that La Familia formed in the 1980s with the stated purpose of bringing order to Michoacán, emphasizing help and protection for the poor. In its initial incarnation, La Familia formed as a group of vigilanteVigilante
A vigilante is a private individual who legally or illegally punishes an alleged lawbreaker, or participates in a group which metes out extralegal punishment to an alleged lawbreaker....
s, spurred to power to counter interloping kidnappers and drug dealers, who were their stated enemies. Since then, La Familia has capitalized on its reputation, building its myth, power and reach to transition into a criminal gang itself.
La Familia emerged to the foreground in the 1990s as the Gulf Cartel
Gulf Cartel
The Gulf Cartel is one of the most powerful drug cartels in Mexico, and perhaps the oldest organized crime group in the country...
's paramilitary group designed to seize control of the illegal drug trade
Illegal drug trade
The illegal drug trade is a global black market, dedicated to cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of those substances which are subject to drug prohibition laws. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs by drug prohibition laws.A UN report said the...
in Michoacán state from rival drug cartels. Trained with Los Zetas
Los Zetas
Los Zetas is the second most powerful drug cartel in Mexico and considered by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as the most violent drug cartel and paramilitary enforcement group in Mexico...
, in 2006 the group splintered off into an independent drug trafficking operation. La Familia has a strong rivalry with both Los Zetas
Los Zetas
Los Zetas is the second most powerful drug cartel in Mexico and considered by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as the most violent drug cartel and paramilitary enforcement group in Mexico...
and the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel
Beltrán-Leyva Cartel
The Beltrán-Leyva Cartel was a Mexican drug cartel and organized crime syndicate founded by the four Beltrán Leyva brothers: Marcos Arturo, Carlos, Alfredo and Héctor....
, but strong ties with the Sinaloa Cartel
Sinaloa Cartel
The Sinaloa Cartel is the most powerful drug cartel in Mexico and considered by the United States Intelligence Community as "the most powerful drug trafficking organization in the world." The Sinaloa Cartel is based in the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa, but also operates in the Mexican states of Baja...
of Joaquin Guzman
Joaquín Guzmán
Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera nicknamed "El Chapo" for his stature, is a Mexican drug lord who heads Mexico's and the world's largest and most powerful drug trafficking organization referred to as the Sinaloa Cartel, named after the Mexican Pacific coast state of Sinaloa where it was initially...
. La Familia Michoacana is one of the strongest and fastest growing cartels in Mexico.
After the death of Nazario Moreno González
Nazario Moreno González
Nazario Moreno González was a Mexican drug lord of the La Familia drug cartel, headquartered in the state of Michoacán.-Biography:...
, José de Jesús Méndez Vargas
José de Jesús Méndez Vargas
José de Jesús Méndez Vargas is a Mexican drug lord and leader of the La Familia drug cartel, headquartered in the state of Michoacán....
(El Chango Méndez) took control of the cartel. However, his authority was disputed by the cartel co-founders Enrique Plancarte Solís and Servando Gómez Martínez
Servando Gómez Martínez
Servando Gómez Martínez, a.k.a. La Tuta and El Profe is a Mexican drug trafficker who worked for La Familia Michoacana drug cartel, headquartered in the Mexican state of Michoacán. However, Martinez and Dionicio Loya Plancarte later broke with La Familia and formed the Knights Templar Cartel...
(La Tuta), who formed an offshoot of La Familia calling itself Caballeros Templarios (Knights Templar). Méndez Vargas was captured on 21 June 2011 by Mexican police in the state of Aguascalientes
Aguascalientes
Aguascalientes is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 11 municipalities and its capital city is Aguascalientes....
.
Alliances
On February 2010, the major cartels aligned in two factions, one made up of the Juárez CartelJuárez Cartel
The Juárez Cartel , also known as the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Organization, is a Mexican drug cartel based in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, across the border from El Paso, Texas...
, Tijuana Cartel
Tijuana Cartel
The Tijuana Cartel is a Mexican drug cartel based in Tijuana. The cartel has been described as "one of the biggest and most violent criminal groups in Mexico"...
, Los Zetas
Los Zetas
Los Zetas is the second most powerful drug cartel in Mexico and considered by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as the most violent drug cartel and paramilitary enforcement group in Mexico...
and the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel; the other faction made up of the Gulf Cartel
Gulf Cartel
The Gulf Cartel is one of the most powerful drug cartels in Mexico, and perhaps the oldest organized crime group in the country...
, Sinaloa Cartel
Sinaloa Cartel
The Sinaloa Cartel is the most powerful drug cartel in Mexico and considered by the United States Intelligence Community as "the most powerful drug trafficking organization in the world." The Sinaloa Cartel is based in the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa, but also operates in the Mexican states of Baja...
and La Familia Michoacana. La Familia Michoacana became a rival of its splinter group Knights Templar. Mexican Attorney General (PGR) reported that La Familia Cartel was "exterminated" by 2011.
Operations
La Familia has been known to be unusually violent. Its members use murderMurder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
and torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
to quash rivals, while building a social base in the Mexican state of Michoacán
Michoacán
Michoacán officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Michoacán de Ocampo is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 113 municipalities and its capital city is Morelia...
. It is the fastest-growing cartel in the country’s drug war
Mexican Drug War
The Mexican Drug War is an ongoing armed conflict taking place among rival drug cartels who fight each other for regional control, and Mexican government forces who seek to combat drug trafficking. However, the government's principal goal has been to put down the drug-related violence that was...
and is a religious cult-like group that celebrates family values. In one incident in Uruapan
Uruapan
Uruapan is a city and municipality in the west-central part of the Mexican state of Michoacán. The city is the municipal seat of the municipality...
in 2006, the cartel members tossed five decapitated heads onto the dance floor of the Sol y Sombra night club along with a message that read: "The Family doesn’t kill for money. It doesn’t kill women. It doesn’t kill innocent people, only those who deserve to die. Know that this is divine justice."
The cartel has moved from smuggling and selling drugs and turned itself into a much more ambitious criminal organization which acts as a parallel state in much of Michoacán. It extorts "taxes" from businesses, pays for community projects, controls petty crime, and settles some local disputes. Despite its short history, it has emerged as Mexico’s largest supplier of methamphetamines to the United States, with supply channels running deep into the Midwestern United States, and has increasingly become involved in the distribution of cocaine, marijuana, and other narcotics. Michael Braun, former DEA chief of operations, states that it operates "superlabs" in Mexico capable of producing up to 100 pounds of meth in eight hours. However, according to DEA officials, it claims to oppose the sale of drugs to Mexicans. It also sells pirated DVDs, smuggles people to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and runs a debt-collecting service by kidnapping
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
defaulters. Because often times they use fake and sometimes original uniforms of several police agencies, most of their kidnap victims are stopped under false pretenses of routine inspections or report of stolen vehicles, and then taken hostage.
La Familia has also bought some local politicians. 20 municipal officials have been murdered in Michoacán, including two mayors. Having established its authority, it then names local police chiefs. On May 2009, the Mexican Federal Police detained 10 mayors of Michoacán and 20 other local officials suspected of being associated with the cartel.
On July 11, 2009, a cartel lieutenant— Arnoldo Rueda Medina
Arnoldo Rueda Medina
Arnoldo Rueda Medina is a Mexican criminal dedicated to drug trafficking and formerly employed as a lieutenant for La Familia Cartel, which is based in Michoacán, Mexico...
—was arrested; La Familia members attacked the Federal Police station in Morelia to try to gain freedom for Rueda shortly after his arrest. During the attacks, two soldiers and three federal policemen were killed. When that failed, cartel members attacked Federal Police installations in at least a half-dozen Michoacán cities in retribution.
Three days later, on July 14, 2009, the cartel torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
d and murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
ed twelve Mexican Federal Police agents and dumped their bodies along the side of a mountain highway along with a written message: "So that you come for another. We will be waiting for you here." The federal agents were investigating crime in Michoacán state; President Calderón, responded to the violence by dispatching additional 1,000 Federal Police officers to the area. The infusion, which more than tripled the number of Federal Police officers patrolling Michoacán, angered Michoacán Governor Leonel Godoy Rangel, who called it 'an occupation' and said he had not been consulted. Days later, 10 municipal police officers were arrested in connection with the slayings of the 12 federal agents.
The governor's half-brother Julio César Godoy Toscano
Julio César Godoy Toscano
Julio César Godoy Toscano is a Mexican businessman, politician and a former member of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution . He is half-brother of Leonel Godoy Rangel, current governor of the state of Michoacán...
, who was just elected July 5, 2009, to the lower house of Congress, was accused to be a top-ranking member of La Familia Michoacana drug cartel and of providing political protection for the cartel. Based on these charges, on 14 December 2010, Godoy Toscano was impeached from the lower house of Congress and therefore lost his parliamentary immunity; he fled and remains a fugitive.
President Calderón stated that the country's drug cartels had grown so powerful that they now posed a threat to the future of Mexican democracy. His strategy of direct confrontation and law enforcement is not popular with some segments of Mexican society, where battling violent drug gangs has brought out several human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
charges against the Mexican military.
Project Coronado
On October 22, 2009, U.S. federal authorities announced the results of a four-year investigation into the operations of La Familia Michoacana in the United States dubbed Project Coronado. It was the largest U.S. raid ever against Mexican drug cartelsMexican Drug War
The Mexican Drug War is an ongoing armed conflict taking place among rival drug cartels who fight each other for regional control, and Mexican government forces who seek to combat drug trafficking. However, the government's principal goal has been to put down the drug-related violence that was...
operating in the U.S. In 19 different states, 303 individuals were taken into custody in a coordinated effort by local, state, and federal law enforcement over a two-day period. Seized during the arresting phase was over 62 kilograms (136.7 lb) of cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
, 330 kilograms (727.5 lb) of methamphetamine
Methamphetamine
Methamphetamine is a psychostimulant of the phenethylamine and amphetamine class of psychoactive drugs...
, 440 kilograms (970 lb) of marijuana, 144 weapons, 109 vehicles, two clandestine drug laboratories
Clandestine chemistry
Clandestine chemistry is chemistry carried out in secret, and particularly in illegal drug laboratories. Larger labs are usually run by gangs or organized crime intending to produce for distribution on the black market...
, and $3.4 million in U.S. currency.
Since the start of "Project Coronado", the investigation has led to the arrest of more than 1,186 people and the seizure of approximately $33 million. Overall, almost 2 metric tons (2.2 ST) of cocaine, 1240 kilograms (2,733.7 lb) of methamphetamine, 13 kilograms (28.7 lb) of heroin, 7430 kilograms (16,380.3 lb) of marijuana, 389 weapons, 269 vehicles, and the two drug labs were seized.
Multi-agency investigations such as Project Coronado were the key to disrupting the operations of complex criminal organizations like La Familia. The investigative efforts in Project Coronado were coordinated by the multi-agency Special Operations Division, comprising agents and analysts from the DEA, FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Marshals Service and ATF
ATF
- Places :* ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country code of French Southern and Antarctic Lands* Chachoan Airport , Ambato, Ecuador- Organizations :...
, as well as attorneys from the Criminal Division's Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section. More than 300 federal, state, local and foreign law enforcement agencies contributed investigative and prosecutorial resources to Project Coronado through the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.
Project Delirium
In July of 2011, the United States Department of Justice announced that a 20-month long operation, known as "Project Delirium" had resulted in more than 221 arrests of La Familia cartel members in the United States, along with significant seizures of cash, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine. Outside of the United States, the operation resulted in the arrest of more than 1,900 members. Cartel members were arrested across the United States, and face charges in Alabama, California, Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Washington, DC. This announcement came just a month after Mexican authorities announced the capture of cartel leader, José de Jesús Méndez VargasJosé de Jesús Méndez Vargas
José de Jesús Méndez Vargas is a Mexican drug lord and leader of the La Familia drug cartel, headquartered in the state of Michoacán....
.
External links
- U.S. Department of Defense open source report by the Strategic Studies Institute: "La Familia Drug Cartel: Implications for U.S.-Mexican Security"