The Fuerza Especial Conjunta (Joint Special Operations Command) or FEC, previously known as Fuerza Especial de Reaccion (FER) or Fuerza Especial del Alto Mando (FEAM) (High Command Special Force) is a special unit of SEDENA, under operational control of the Joint National Defense Staff (Estado Mayor Conjunto de la Defensa Nacional). The unit's missions primarily involve counterterrorism, hostage rescue, direct action, and special reconnaissance against high-value targets.
Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, commonly known as "El Chapo", is a Mexican former drug lord and a former leader within the Sinaloa Cartel. Guzmán is believed to be responsible for the deaths of over 34,000 people, and was considered to be the most powerful drug trafficker in the world until he was extradited to the United States and sentenced to life in prison.
Operation Tijuana or Operation Baja California of the Government of Mexico is taking place in Tijuana and the surrounding areas of Baja California and Baja California Sur. This operation is part of the Joint Operation Against Drug Trafficking.
Los Negros was a criminal organization that was once the armed wing of the Sinaloa Cartel and after a switch of alliances, became the armed wing of the Sinaloa splinter gang, the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel. In 2010 it went independent and had been contesting the control of the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel. It was then the criminal paramilitary unit of Édgar Valdez Villarreal in Mexico. Valdez was arrested on August 30, 2010, near Mexico City. Los Negros was led by Valdez at the time they merged with the Sinaloa Cartel.
Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel Villarreal was a Mexican suspected drug lord and a founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, a criminal group based in Sinaloa. He worked alongside Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, Mexico's most-wanted drug lord. His stronghold was Jalisco.
The timeline of some of the most relevant events in the Mexican drug war is set out below. Although violence between drug cartels had been occurring for three decades, the Mexican government held a generally passive stance regarding cartel violence through the 1980s and early 2000s.
The Beltrán Leyva Organization (BLO), also known as the Beltrán Leyva Cartel; Spanish: Cártel de los Beltrán Leyva (CBL), was a Mexican drug cartel and organized crime syndicate, formerly headed by the five Beltrán Leyva brothers: Marcos Arturo, Carlos, Alfredo, Mario Alberto, and Héctor. Founded as a Sinaloa Cartel, the Beltrán Leyva cartel was responsible for transportation and wholesaling of cocaine, heroin and marijuana. It controlled numerous drug trafficking corridors, and engaged in human smuggling, money laundering, extortion, kidnapping, murder and gun-running.
Marcos Arturo Beltrán Leyva was a Mexican drug lord who, alongside his brothers, founded and led the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel. Prior to founding his own organization, Beltran-Leyva was a longtime high-ranking member of the Sinaloa Cartel. His organization was responsible for cocaine, marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine production, transportation and wholesaling. It controlled numerous drug trafficking corridors into the United States and was responsible for money laundering, gun-running, and other acts of violence against men, women, and children in Mexico. The organization was connected with the assassinations of numerous Mexican law enforcement officials.
Héctor Manuel Beltrán Leyva was a Mexican drug lord and leader of the Beltrán Leyva Cartel, a drug-trafficking organization. He was the brother of Arturo Beltrán Leyva (deceased), former leader of the cartel. Héctor was the second-in-command and rose to the leadership of the criminal organization after his brother's death on 16 December 2009 during a confrontation with Mexican marines.
Carlos Beltrán Leyva is a Mexican incarcerated drug lord with the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel. The cartel was created by the four Beltrán Leyva brothers: Carlos, Héctor, Alfredo and Arturo. Born in the Sinaloan countryside in the late 1960s, Carlos and his brothers worked closely with Joaquín "Chapo" Guzmán, the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, during decades of smuggling.
Operation Sinaloa or Operation Culiacan - Navolato is an ongoing anti-drug trafficking operation in the Mexican state of Sinaloa by the Federal Police and the Mexican Armed Forces. Its main objective is to cripple all cartel organizations such as the Sinaloa Cartel, Beltrán-Leyva Cartel and Los Zetas that operate in that state. The Military was deployed in response to the murder of Mexico's Federal Police commissioner Édgar Eusebio Millán Gómez.
Alfredo Beltrán Leyva, commonly referred to by his alias El Mochomo, is a Mexican convicted drug lord and former leader of the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, a drug trafficking organization. He was one of Mexico's most-wanted drug lords. Beltrán Leyva was responsible for smuggling multi-ton shipments of cocaine and methamphetamine to the United States from Mexico and South America between the 1990s and 2000s. He worked alongside his brothers Héctor, Carlos, and Arturo.
This is a list of Mexico's 37 most-wanted drug lords as published by Mexican federal authorities on 23 March 2009. According to a BBC Mundo Mexico report, the 37 drug lords "have jeopardized Mexico national security."
Cárteles Unidos, also known as La Resistencia is a Mexican criminal enforcer squad composed of well-trained gunmen from the Sinaloa Cartel, Gulf Cartel, La Familia Michoacana, and Knights Templar Cartel originally formed to expel the Los Zetas Cartel from the states of Michoacán and Jalisco. However, Cárteles Unidos' current main rival has now become the Jalisco New Generation Cartel; a paramilitary criminal organization based in the neighboring state of Jalisco.
The 2012 Nuevo Laredo massacres were a series of mass murder attacks between the allied Sinaloa Cartel and Gulf Cartel against Los Zetas in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, across the U.S.-Mexico border from Laredo, Texas. The drug-violence in Nuevo Laredo began back in 2003, when the city was controlled by the Gulf Cartel. Most media reports that write about the Mexican Drug War, however, point to 2006 as the start of the drug war. That year is a convenient historical marker because that's when Felipe Calderón took office and carried out an aggressive approach against the cartels. But authors like Ioan Grillo and Sylvia Longmire note that Mexico's drug war actually began at the end of Vicente Fox's administration in 2004, when the first major battle took place in Nuevo Laredo between the Sinaloa Cartel and Los Zetas, who at that time worked as the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel.
La Barredora is a criminal gang based in the Mexican resort city of Acapulco, Guerrero and its surrounding territories. The criminal group came into existence during the rapid decentralization of Mexico's drug trafficking organizations and as a split-off group of the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel. Originally, the Beltrán Leyva cartel operated in the city, but the group no longer has presence in Acapulco. After the Mexican military gunned down the top boss of the cartel – Arturo Beltrán Leyva – in December 2009, his brother Héctor Beltrán Leyva took control of one of the factions of the cartel and declared war on Edgar Valdez Villarreal, who had long been the right hand of Arturo. Amidst the violence, Valdez Villarreal tried to appoint a successor, but those in Acapulco broke off and formed their own criminal gang: the Independent Cartel of Acapulco. Within weeks, however, the group had splintered too, forming a new and rival group known as La Barredora. Villarreal Valdez was then captured by the Mexican Federal Police in August 2010, but the violence between the groups for the control of Acapulco continued.
Fausto Isidro Meza Flores alias "El Chapo Isidro", is a Mexican drug lord and leader of Los Mazatlecos. He has a high-ranking in the Beltrán Leyva Cartel and was the right-hand man of Alfredo Beltrán Leyva before he got incarcerated in United States.
Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, the former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, dodged international manhunt for more than a decade after escaping from a maximum-security prison in the Mexican state of Jalisco in 2001. Throughout his criminal career following his escape, Guzmán was pursued all across Mexico and abroad, and went from being an average-level drug lord to arguably the world's most-wanted man. Mexico offered MXN$30 million for his capture, while the United States offered up to US$5 million for information leading to his arrest and conviction. In 1993, he was arrested and imprisoned for murder and drug trafficking, facing a 20-year sentence. Fearing his extradition to the U.S., Guzmán fled from prison by reportedly hiding in a laundry cart in 2001. He quickly reincorporated back in the Sinaloa Cartel while authorities continued their manhunt to re-arrest him.
The 2023 Sinaloa unrest began on January 5, 2023, following the arrest of Ovidio Guzmán, son of jailed drug lord Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán, sparking a wave of violence in the state of Sinaloa. In retaliation for the arrest of Ovidio Guzmán, cartel members blocked highways with burning vehicles and began attacks against the armed forces. The Culiacán International Airport was closed after gunfire was opened on two planes. On January 13, the Mexican Secretary of the Interior Adán Augusto López Hernández declared that "order has been reestablished" in Sinaloa.
Operation Mongoose Azteca is the code name for a joint operation carried out by US and Mexican intelligence and military forces to detect the criminal activities of the Sinaloa Cartel and which led to the capture of the son of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, Ovidio Guzmán López, aka "El Ratón". After this successful operation, several municipalities including the capital of the state of Sinaloa, Culiacán, were the target of road blockades, gun fights and several other riots, orchestrated by militant forces of the Sinaloa Cartel. After constant tracking and joint intelligence activities between the United States and Mexico, a Sinaloa Cartel convoy was located in the town of Jesus María, where Ovidio Guzmán was recaptured.
Mexico 
