Gangs and Drug Cartels

Gangs and Drug Cartels


• While most gangs are the predominant retailers of drugs across the US

• There are some gangs that have close working relationships with Drug Cartels

• These gangs provide everything from border crossing to murder


Department of Homeland Security and the FBI have identified the following gangs as working closely with Mexican Drug Cartels• 18th Street• Artistas Asesinos• Aryan Brotherhood of Texas/Aryan Circle• Avenues• Bandidos Motorcycle Gang• Barrio Azteca• Barrio Westside• Big Time Locotes• Black Guerilla Family• Bloods• Crips• Hardtimes 13• Happytown• Pomona• Hells Angels• Hermanos Pistoleros Latinos• Logan Heights/Calle 30

• Latin Kings• Los Wonder Boys• Mexican Mafia• Mara Salvatrucha• Mexicles• Nogalitos• Nortenos• Nuestra Familia• Partido Revolucionario Mexicano• Paisas• Other Sureno gangs• Satan’s Disciples• Tango Blast• Texas Mexican Mafia• Texas Syndicate• Tri-City Bombers• Vagos• Vatos Locos• Wetback Power 31 Avenue

Cartel Aligned With RivalsThe Sinaloa Cartel (aka Guzman-Loera Organization or

Pacific Cartel)Hermanos de Pistoleros Latinos

New Mexico SyndicateLos CarnalesLatin Kings

Mexican Mafia (California)SureñosMS-13

Arizona Mexican Mafia (Old & New)Wet Back PowerSinaloa Cowboys

West Texas TangosLos Negros

Valencia Cartel (Considered a branch of the Sinaloa Cartel)

Sonora Cartel (Considered a branch of the Sinaloa Cartel)

Colima Cartel (Considered a branch of the Sinaloa Cartel)

Border Brothers (California)Border Brothers (Arizona)

Los ZetasCardenas-Guillen Cartel (Gulf)

Tijuana CartelBeltran-Leyva Cartel

Juarez Cartel

La Familia Michoacana Cartel (Formerly part of Los Zetas under the authority of the Gulf Cartel)

Sinaloa CartelCardenas-Guillen Cartel (Gulf)

SurenosMS-13

West Texas Tangos

Los ZetasCardenas-Guillen Cartel (Gulf Cartel)

The Beltran-Leyva CartelVincente Carrillo-Fuentes Cartel

(Juarez Cartel)Los Zetas Vincente Carrillo-Fuentes Cartel

(Juarez)Beltran-Leyva Cartel

Barrio AztecaHermanos de Pistoleros Latinos

MexikanemiTexas Syndicate

MS-13

Arellano-Felix Cartel (Tijuana)Cartel de la Sierra (Sierra Cartel)

Sinaloa CartelLa Familia Michoacana CartelCardenas-Guillen Cartel (Gulf)

Cardenas-Guillen Cartel (Gulf Cartel) Sinaloa CartelLa Familia Michoacana Cartel

Hermanos de Pistoleros LatinosPartido Revolutionary Mexicano

Raza UnidaTexas Chicano Brotherhood

Los ZetasLa Familia Michoacana Cartel

The Sinaloa Cartel

Vincente Carrillo-Fuentes Cartel (Juarez Cartel) Los ZetasHermanos de Pistoleros Latinos

Barrio AztecaNew Mexico Syndicate

Los Carnales

The Sinaloa CartelLa Familia Michoacana Cartel

The Beltran-Leyva Cartel (expected to soon be taken over by the Sierra Cartel)

Los Zetas Los ZetasLa Familia Michoacana Cartel

Arellano-Felix Cartel (Tijuana Cartel) Mexican Mafia (California)Sureños

Arizona Mexican Mafia (Old & New)Border Brothers (California)

Los ZetasThe Sinaloa Cartel

Gang and Drug Criminal Activities• Illegal Border Crossing• Human Trafficking• Sex Trafficking• Prostitution• Child Prostitution• Murder• Extortion• Kidnappings• Fraudulent Documents• Drug Transportation• Transport of other illegal goods across the

border• Auto Theft• Weapons trafficking• Set up transshipment hubs and trafficking

sites across the US

Other Activities and Criminal Conspiracies

• American culture and language training• Establish residences across the US• Obtain legitimate ‘cover’ jobs in the US• Navigate/circumvent the immigration system• Identify/hire US citizens (Latino and Non-

Latino) to help facilitate drug trafficking and other illegal businesses

Examples

BARRIO AZTECA PARTNER WITH JUAREZ DRUG CARTEL

• Barrio Azteca, considered El Paso’s largest prison gang, once focused in black tar heroin distribution, but recently has partnered with the Juarez Cartel since 2001.

• Together, both gangs control the import of narcotics and export of firearms into El Paso and other regions near the Texas/New Mexico – Mexico Border.

• The Juarez cartel supplies the prison gang with drugs, firearms and Mexican police protection, and in return the Barrio Aztecas traffic and distribute the cartel’s narcotics, as well as provide security and murder for hire.

• The Barrio Azteca use female heroin addicts to smuggle narcotics through their body cavities.

Barrio Azteca and Cartel events• In 2001, Barrio Azteca form an alliance with the Juarez Drug Cartel.• In 2003, the Barrio Azteca and Juarez drug cartel vow to eliminate every PRM

(Partido Revolucionario Mexicano) member in northern Mexico. • In 2004, the Sinaloa drug cartel and Juarez cartel form alliances and create a

federation between the two. The Barrio Azteca is included and carries out executions for the Federation.

• In early 2005, Barrio Azteca members brutally murder a member of the rival Border Brothers gang in Mexico’s Cereso prison.

• In February 2005, the Azteca’s pay Cereso guards to supply the gang with hammers and shields. The Azteca then break down a wall that separates the Azteca majority with the PRM minority. 6 members of the PRM are brutally murdered by Azteca’s.

• On August 2005, Barrio Azteca member Chato Flores is kidnapped and murdered by fellow Azteca members for stealing millions of dollars from the Juarez cartel.

• On April 17, 2008, Barrio Azteca leader David "Chicho" Meraz, 49, is found slain in Juárez. Meraz who was the gangs Juarez Capo was murdered by fellow Azteca members.

• On March, 4, 2009, dozens of members of the Barrio Azteca murder 20 PRM prison gang rivals at the Cereso State prison in Chihuahua, Mexico.

• On May 18, 2009, 15 Barrio Azteca members are arrested by the FBI for cocaine dealing, including Azteca gang captain Gualberto "Bird". (El Paso Times)

• On September 03, 2009, 18 Barrio Azteca members were gunned down in a Juarez rehab center.

ARMED COMMANDOS RAID REHABILITATION CENTER IN JUAREZ AND MURDER 18 BARRIO AZTECA MEMBERS

• September 03, 2009, Armed commandos entered the Colonia Bellavista rehabilitation center in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, dragged out their victims, lined them up and executed them, police reported. The establishment is located two blocks from the Transit Department.

• The incident took place shortly after 7 pm. Most of the victims were people who were hospitalized for rehabilitation for drug addiction. According to witnesses, the masked men entered the building after breaking the doors of the center then ordered each inmate to their knees and shot them dead with machine-gun bursts, said a senior official of the Municipal Public Security Ministry. The victims were all reported to be Barrio Azteca gang members officials said.

• Five people survived the attack, one of which left the place and was lying on the sidewalk outside the rehabilitation center where she received help. The three survivors were transported under heavy guard by military and federal police to the General Hospital where one died.

• Witnesses indicated that they heard at least 100 shots. A neighbor said that he ran home out of fear and failed to identify the offenders who manned vehicles.

• After the attack, at least a hundred military, municipal police, federal agents, including the Attorney General's Office (PGR) attended the scene, cordoned off the area and minutes later they mounted a fenced area with no results Downtown.

• Earlier this year, on May 31, five men were killed in the rehabilitation center.

MEXICAN DRUG VIOLENCE SPILLS INTO AMERICAN SOIL

• Mexico’s twisted drug related killings have officially spilled into America.

• The Sheriff's Office in El Paso confirmed that it was Sergio Rene Saucedo, 30, who was found brutally murdered in Juarez after gunmen kidnapped him at his home in Horizon City, Texas.

• According to witnesses, including several students in a school bus, armed men kicked down the door of the Saucedo residence and shot Sergio Rene Saucedo in front of his wife on September 3, 2009.

• The killers then dragged Saucedo out of the house and into a get away car.

Saucedo Murder• "Obviously this crisis is here and the violence has hit El Paso,"

said County Sheriff's spokesman Jesse Tovar.• According to information from the El Paso Sheriff's Office, at

approximately 10:55 Tuesday night, the mutilated body of Saucedo was found dumped on a street in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

• The victim’s hands were severed and placed on his chest, with wrists still wrapped in gray tape.

• Saucedo’s legs were also tied together with duct tape. • The body was wearing only underpants and a pair of jeans

that was down to the feet.

Saucedo Murder• The victim had a distinctive tattoo of the Buddha

image on his right pectoral region, a heart with the name "Leslie" on the left pectoral and a cross on the right side.

• He also had a tattoo of two hands holding a rosary with the name "Yolanda" in the right arm.

• “This murder has the signature of the Barrio Azteca and Juarez cartel” said J.J, a confidential informant and former Azteca gang member.

• “When the cartel wants someone in El Paso, the Barrio Azteca is sent to pick them up.”

Saucedo Murder

• The three kidnappers were described by the Sheriff's Office as being thin and standing 5'2 to 5'8.

• The kidnappers were wearing blue jeans, black shirts, black hats and baseball style tennis shorts.

• According to sheriff's reports, Saucedo had arrest warrants for two criminal charges against him: one for possession of marijuana and one for money laundering.

Sergio Rene Saucedo

Surenos and Tijuana and Sinaloa Drug Cartel

• The National Gang Threat Assessment reported that Sureños have been allied with the Tijuana drug cartel and the Sinaloa cartel, which for nearly four years has been at war with the Juárez cartel for control of drug routes in the state of Chihuahua.

• In recent years in El Paso, there has been hostility between Barrio Azteca and Sureño gangsters that has escalated into stabbings and assaults, investigators have said, that may be fueled by each gang’s connections to rival drug cartels..

Zetas and MS13 (2013)• Zetas form a close alliance to MS 13 and are training MS13

members in Mexico on Military and drug trafficking related operations.

• "There have been important efforts, many of them successful, by Los Zetas to recruit the best and most skilled MS-13 killers and gunmen, both in El Salvador and Guatemala," the IASC report says. "Many of the recruits receive enhanced military training in the Petén region of Guatemala and then operate either in Guatemala or Mexico."

• Gang members receive a monthly salary of $400, which is sometimes paid to the member's clica.

Zetas and MS13 (2013)• "In the past few months, according to gang members and

Salvadoran police officials, Los Zetas and the MS-13 have reached a more favorable and lucrative arrangement in human trafficking, whereby the Mexicans have greatly expanded their reach," said a report called Central American Gangs and Transnational Criminal Organizations: The Changing Relationships in a Time of Turmoil," from the International Assessment and Strategy Center (IASC), a Washington-based think-tank.

• The report was co-authored by former Washington Post Central America correspondent Douglas Farah.

• "All the middlemen traffickers (polleros or coyotes) who use the routes controlled by Los Zetas are MS-13 members."

MS13, Zetas and Human Trafficking

• According to the IASC report, MS-13 is closely working with Los Zetas on human trafficking across Central America.

• MS13 has a complex coyote network that can reportedly move individuals from Mexico's Northern Triangle to the U.S. in less than 72 hours, and Los Zetas are using it to the mutual benefit of both groups.

MS13 and Colombia’s FARC

• MS-13 is currently escalating its weapons and drug trafficking.

• The gang's arms caches now include high-powered weapons like RPGs and surface to air missiles, some of which are being sold to terrorist organizations such as Colombia's FARC, according to the ISAC report.

• Meanwhile, the group appears to be expanding its role in the cocaine trade, as suggested by the dramatic increase in arrests of MS-13 drug lords in the past few years.

MS13 and the Sinaloa Drug Cartel• Recent violence in Mexico’s Pacific resort town, Acapulco, indicates that the MS-13

may have grown beyond street gang status, working now as muscle for the Sinaloa Cartel.

• Recently Mexican authorities found four bodies in Acapulco. One victim had been beheaded. They later announced that the bodies belonged to four local cops who had gone missing a week earlier. Bodies littered with bullets have become a weekly affair in Acapulco since the cartels have begun fighting over access to the Pacific to receive shipments of cocaine from South America.

• What captured Mexican media attention, however, was the one body found without a head. In the early days beheadings had traditionally not been common in Mexico, and the change in tactics has led many to believe that the MS-13 gang may be behind some of the killings in Acapulco.

• Deputy Attorney General Vasconcelos believes that MS-13 gang members have been employed by the Sinaloa Cartel. Yet the MS-13 is not known for beheadings, which has led Mexican media and others to speculate that Kaibiles are involved in the increase in violence in Acapulco who have a reputation to do such atrocities in places like Guatemala.