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A drug cartel is any criminal organization with the intention of supplying 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 organizations reached an agreement to coordinate the production and distribution.the term used to refer to any criminal narcotics related organization.
The Medellín Cartel was a powerful and highly organized Colombian drug cartel and terrorist-type criminal organization originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia that was founded and led by Pablo Escobar. It is often considered the first major “drug cartel” and was referred to as such due to the organization's upper echelons being built on a partnership between multiple Colombian traffickers operating alongside Escobar. The cartel was loosely organized and informal/spontaneous in their operational style in comparison to other groups like the Cali Cartel. Included were Jorge Luis Ochoa Vásquez, Juan David Ochoa Vásquez, José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha and Carlos Lehder. The cartel operated from 1972 to 1993 in Bolivia, Colombia, Panama, Central America, Peru, the Bahamas, the United States, as well as in Canada. Although the organization started out as a smuggling network in the early 1970s, it wasn't until 1976 that the organization turned to trafficking cocaine. This was a result of Escobar getting introduced to the lucrative idea of cocaine smuggling by fellow Colombian trafficker Griselda Blanco. At the height of its operations, the Medellín Cartel smuggled multiple tons of cocaine each week into countries around the world and brought in up to US$60 million daily in drug profits.
Narco-state is a political and economic term applied to countries where all legitimate institutions become penetrated by the power and wealth of the illegal drug trade. The term was first used to describe Bolivia following the 1980 coup of Luis García Meza which was seen to be primarily financed with the help of narcotics traffickers. Other well-known examples are Colombia, Honduras, Guinea-Bissau, Afghanistan, Mexico, Myanmar and Syria, where drug cartels produce, ship and sell drugs such as captagon, cocaine and marijuana.
The Norte del Valle Cartel, or North Valley Cartel, was a drug cartel that operated principally in the north of the Valle del Cauca department of Colombia, most notably the coastal city of Buenaventura. It rose to prominence during the second half of the 1990s, after the Cali and Medellín Cartels fragmented, and it was known as one of the most powerful organizations in the illegal drug trade. The drug cartel was led by the brothers Luis Enrique and Javier Antonio Calle Serna, alias "Los Comba", until its takedown in 2008 by the authorities of the United States.
Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa was a Colombian politician and member of the Colombian Communist Party. Jaramillo started working primarily in the Urabá Antioquia region until 1987 when he assumed the presidency of the Patriotic Union Party (UP) after the assassination of Jaime Pardo.
Carlos Alberto "Beto" Rentería Mantilla was a former Colombian narcotrafficker and crime boss, presumed leader of the Norte del Valle Cartel. Rentería was believed by the United States government to be holding a leadership position within the drug cartel, he had been labeled "one of Colombia's most powerful and sophisticated narcotics traffickers" by Adam Szubin, Director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, United States Department of the Treasury. The Attorney General of Colombia and the Colombian National Police accuse Rentería of drug trafficking and money laundering.
Sandra Ávila Beltrán is a Mexican drug cartel member, dubbed "La Reina del Pacífico" by the media. She was arrested on September 28, 2007, and was charged with organized crime and conspiracy to drug trafficking. Some charges were later dropped but she was still held on possession of illegal weapons and money laundering, pending her extradition to the United States. On August 10, 2012, she was extradited to the United States to answer to criminal charges by the U.S. government.
Jorge Enrique Rodríguez Mendieta known by his nom de guerre Iván Vargas is a Colombian guerrilla leader member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP), former commander of the 24th Front of the Middle Magdalena Bloc of the FARC-EP. Vargas was arrested in late 2004 in the city of Bucaramanga by Colombian authorities and extradited to the United States on 3 November 2007 on charges of narcotrafficking.
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.
Roberto Suárez Gómez, also known as the King of Cocaine, was a Bolivian drug lord and trafficker who played a major role in the expansion of cocaine trafficking in Bolivia. In his prime, Suárez made $400 million annually, was one of the major suppliers of the Medellín Cartel as well as the leader of the largest Bolivian drug empire, and was considered to be the biggest cocaine producer in the world.
La Pipa de la Paz is the third studio album by Colombian band Aterciopelados. Produced by Phil Manzanera in London with this project they became the first Colombian artist to be nominated for a Grammy in the Best Latin Rock/Alternative Performance category. This album spawned some of their most well-known songs and greatest hits like Cosita Seria, Baracunatana, No Necesito, La Culpable, Expreso Amazonia, La Voz de la Patria, Te Juro Que No and the title track La Pipa de la Paz.
Cárteles Unidos, also known as La Resistencia is a Mexican criminal enforcer squad composed of well-trained gunmen from the Sinaloa Cartel, Gulf Cartel 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 Clan del Golfo, also known as Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia and formerly called Los Urabeños and Clan Úsuga, is a prominent Colombian neo-paramilitary group and currently the country's largest drug cartel. It is based in the Urabá region of Antioquia, and is involved in the Colombian armed conflict. Los Urabeños is one of the organizations that appeared after the demobilization of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia. In late 2011 Los Urabeños declared war on Los Rastrojos over the control of the drug trade in Medellín. Their main source of income is cocaine trafficking as they appear to be the largest distributors of cocaine in all of Colombia. As of late 2021, it is considered the most powerful criminal organization in Colombia, having some 3,000 members in the inner circle of the organization in 2016 with its current numbers unknown. Its rivals include the National Liberation Army. The Gulf Clan has recruited accomplices at the highest level of the military hierarchy, such as generals and colonels.
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel or CJNG, formerly known as Los Mata Zetas, is a semi-militarized Mexican criminal group based in Jalisco which is headed by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, one of the world's most-wanted drug lords. The cartel has been characterized by its aggressive use of extreme violence and its public relations campaigns. Although the CJNG is particularly known for diversifying into various types of criminal rackets, drug trafficking as well as stealing crude oil remain among their most profitable criminal activities. The cartel has also been noted for cannibalizing some of its victims, sometimes during the training of new sicarios or cartel members as well as using drones to attack their enemies. U.S. prosecutors have said operatives of the cartel tried to buy belt-fed M-60 machine guns in the United States, and once brought down a Mexican military helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade.
Gustavo de Jesús Gaviria Rivero was a Colombian drug trafficker. As Pablo Escobar's cousin and right-hand man, Gaviria controlled the Medellín cartel's finances and trade routes. He and Escobar had collaborated in their criminal careers since the early 1970s.
Jaime Ramírez Gómez was an official of the National Police of Colombia, who led a fight against the illegal drug trade in Colombia from the 1970s onwards.
Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, commonly referred to by his alias El Mencho, is a Mexican drug lord and leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), a trafficking group based in Jalisco. He is the most-wanted person in Mexico and one of the most-wanted in the U.S. Both governments are offering up to MXN$30 million and US$10 million, respectively, for information leading to his arrest.
Érick Valencia Salazar, commonly referred to by his alias El 85, is a Mexican suspected drug lord and high ranking leader in the Nueva Plaza Cartel. He previously served as a high-ranking leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), a criminal group based in Jalisco. The Mexican Army suspects he was responsible for supervising the CJNG's cocaine and ephedrine delivery shipments from Colombia and China to Mexico, and for coordinating attacks against rival groups like La Resistencia and Los Zetas in the 2010s. Before leading the CJNG, El 85 reportedly held a leadership role within the Milenio Cartel, the predecessor group where the CJNG originated from. When several of his superiors were arrested and/or killed, El 85 and several others from the Milenio Cartel reportedly formed the CJNG.
José González Valencia is a Mexican suspected drug lord and high-ranking leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), a criminal group based in Jalisco. He is part of a clan that heads a CJNG money laundering branch known as Los Cuinis. Since 2015, González Valencia reportedly held a leading role within the CJNG as the security chief of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, the top leader of the criminal group. Security forces in the U.S. and Mexico suspect he was also responsible for coordinating drug trafficking operations from Mexico to the U.S., Asia, and Europe.
The Chapare Drug Cartel is a Bolivian criminal organization dedicated to drug trafficking and human trafficking that operates in the Chapare region. For this, several journalists have baptized this organization simply as the Chapare Cartel
References
- ↑ "Narco Jets and Police Protection in Bolivia". December 1997.
- "Drugs and Democracy | Narco Jets and Police Protection in Bolivia". tni.org. Retrieved 2014-01-26.
- RADIO PATRIA NUEVA - BOLIVIA. "Radio Patria Nueva – Noticia". patrianueva.bo. Archived from the original on 2014-02-03. Retrieved 2014-01-26.
- "noticias/actualidad/narcotraficante-boliviano-detenido-en-paraguay/20071216/nota/520929". Archived from the original on 2013-06-16. Retrieved 2014-01-26.
- "García: Evo heredó un Gobierno penetrado por el narcotráfico". opinion.com.bo. Retrieved 2014-01-26.
- "EN DESBANDADA MAFIA DEL VALLE - Archivo - Archivo Digital de Noticias de Colombia y el Mundo desde 1.990 - eltiempo.com". eltiempo.com. 20 February 1994. Retrieved 2014-01-26.