Sonora Cartel

Last updated
Sonora Cartel
Founded1987 [1]
Founded by Miguel Caro Quintero, Rafael Caro Quintero
Founding location Mexico
Years active1987−2007
Territory Hermosillo, Agua Prieta, Guadalajara, Culiacán, Durango, Nayarit, Arizona, Texas, California, Nevada
Ethnicitymostly Mexican
Criminal activitiesDrug trafficking, money laundering, extortion, murder and arms trafficking
Allies Colombian drug cartels, Guadalajara Cartel

The Sonora Cartel, also known as Caro Quintero Organization, was a Mexico based criminal cartel. [2] [3] [4] Upon the cartel's disintegration, its leaders were incorporated into the Tijuana Cartel and Sinaloa Cartel. [3]

Contents

By 2007, the Sonora Cartel, Colima Cartel, and Milenio Cartel became branches of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Background

The Sonora Cartel was considered by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to be one of the oldest and best-established cartels. The Sonora cartel was headed by Miguel Caro Quintero, brother to Guadalajara Cartel co-founder Rafael Caro Quintero, and operated out of Hermosillo, Agua Prieta, Guadalajara and Culiacán, as well as the Mexican states of Nayarit, Sinaloa and Sonora. The Sonora cartel's roots are in the Guadalajara Cartel, which dissolved after the 1989 arrest of its co-founder, Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo. The Sonora cartel had direct links to Colombian drug cartels and operated routes into California, Arizona, Texas and Nevada. [5]

Rafael Caro Quintero was arrested in Costa Rica in 1985 in connection with the torture and death of DEA Special Agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena. [2] Miguel Caro Quintero would eventually be arrested in 1989, however it was believed he still maintained control over the organization from behind bars. [2] [6] By 2007, however, the Sinaloa Cartel had acquired the Sonora Cartel. [7]

Operations

The Sonora Cartel is believed to be one of the earliest cartels to begin shipping cocaine from Colombia, particularly from the Cali Cartel. The cartel was involved in the cultivation and distribution of marijuana primarily, however secondary functions include the transportation and distribution of methamphetamine. [2] [3] [4]

Operating out of northern central Mexico, the cartel was believed to smuggle drugs into Arizona, Texas and California from a network of ranches along the northern border region where the drugs are stored prior to shipment. The Sonora Cartel has been specifically linked to operating out of Hermosillo and Agua Prieta in Sonora, but also less so in Guadalajara in Jalisco, Culiacán in Sinaloa, and the States of Nayarit and Durango. [3] [5]

Acquired by the Sinaloa Cartel by 2007, [7] the Sonora Cartel was reported as defunct at the time of Miguel Angel Caro Quintero's conviction in 2010. [8]

Despite their eventual releases from prison, the Caro Quintero brothers have lost influence in the Mexican drug business, with ex-DEA agent Mike Vigil even stating in the June 2020 that Rafael Caro Quintero "will fall before he dies of old age." [9] Vigil also revealed that Sinaloa Cartel's Los Salazar affiliate was now a major figure in Sonora's drug trafficking business. [9] However, both Rafael and Miguel Caro Quintero had recently rejected offers to join the Sinaloa Cartel due to a fallout with the sons of imprisoned former leader Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán over leadership status. [9] Despite this, both were said to be on good terms with de jure Sinaloa Cartel leader Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, who was now in poor health. [9]

Miguel Caro Quintero

Miguel Caro Quintero was born in Caborca, Sonora, Mexico, in 1963. Previously arrested in 1992 on charges of tax evasion, he was found not guilty, which the DEA attributes to the use of threats and bribes by Caro Quintero. While imprisoned, it is believed Caro Quintero was still running the Sonora Cartel, where he is purging a prison sentence for racketeering, drug smuggling and money laundering. Caro Quintero was arrested in December 2001 in Los Mochis, Sinaloa. Prior to his arrest he repeatedly stated he is innocent of the charges and has accused the DEA of pursuing a vendetta against him for his brother, Rafael Caro Quintero's, alleged role in the death of DEA Special Agent Enrique Camarena. Miguel Caro Quintero is noted as having called into a radio station to profess his innocence, stating: "If I had a cartel, I'd have a lot of money and my brother wouldn't be there (in jail)" and claiming to be an innocent rancher. He further stated he does not believe his brother was involved in the killing of the DEA agent. [3] [4]

Rafael Caro Quintero

Rafael Caro Quintero is the co-founder, with Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, of the Guadalajara Cartel and Sonora Cartel. He was arrested in Costa Rica on April 4, 1985, for the kidnapping, torture and murder of federal agent Enrique Camarena, and was also charged with violent crimes in aid of racketeering, possession with intent to distribute marijuana and cocaine, murder, continuing criminal enterprise. [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada</span> Mexican drug lord

Ismael Mario Zambada García is a Mexican drug lord, co-founder and current top leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, an international crime syndicate based in Sinaloa. Before he assumed leadership of the entire cartel, he allegedly served as the logistical coordinator for its Guzmán-Zambada organization, which has overseen the trafficking of cocaine and heroin into Chicago and other US cities by aircraft, narcosubs, container ships, go-fast boats, fishing vessels, buses, rail cars, tractor trailers, and automobiles. As of 2024, he has never been arrested or incarcerated and is the single last remaining fugitive on the list of Mexico's 37 most-wanted drug lords.

Juan Ramón Matta-Ballesteros is a Honduran former major narcotics trafficker who has been credited with being one of the first to connect Mexican drug traffickers with the Colombian cocaine cartels. This connection paved the way for a major increase in the amount of cocaine smuggled into the United States during the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. Matta was indicted for operating several major cocaine smuggling rings in United States in the early 1980s. He was also one of the narcotics traffickers accused of the kidnap and murder of American DEA agent Enrique Camarena in 1985.

<i>Drug Wars: The Camarena Story</i> 1990 American TV miniseries

Drug Wars: The Camarena Story is a 1990 TV miniseries that aired on January 7, 8 & 9 1990, based on Elaine Shannon’s book Desperados and the Time magazine article of the same name. It was directed by Brian Gibson and starred Steven Bauer, Miguel Ferrer, Benicio del Toro, Treat Williams and Craig T. Nelson. It was the second most watched NBC mini-series of the year following The Kennedys and was followed up in 1992 with the TV movie Drug Wars: The Cocaine Cartel, starring Dennis Farina.

Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, commonly referred to by his aliases El Jefe de Jefes and El Padrino, is a convicted Mexican drug kingpin who was one of the founders of the Guadalajara Cartel, which controlled much of the drug trafficking in Mexico and the corridors along the Mexico–United States border in the 1980s.

The Guadalajara Cartel, also known as The Federation, was a Mexican drug cartel which was formed in 1980 by Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, Rafael Caro Quintero, and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo in order to ship cocaine and marijuana to the United States. Among the first of the Mexican drug trafficking groups to work with the Colombian cocaine mafias, the Guadalajara Cartel prospered from the cocaine trade. Throughout the 1980s, the cartel controlled much of the drug trafficking in Mexico and the corridors along the Mexico–United States border. It had operations in various regions in Mexico which included the states of Jalisco, Baja California, Colima, Sonora, Chihuahua and Sinaloa among others. Multiple modern present day drug cartels such as the Tijuana, Juárez and Sinaloa cartels originally started out as branches or "plazas" of the Guadalajara Cartel before its eventual disintegration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rafael Caro Quintero</span> Mexican drug lord (born 1952)

Rafael "Rafa" Caro Quintero is a Mexican drug lord who co-founded the now-disintegrated Guadalajara Cartel with Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo and other drug traffickers in the late 1970s. He is the brother of fellow drug trafficker Miguel Caro Quintero, founder and former leader of the defunct Sonora Cartel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandra Ávila Beltrán</span> Mexican drug cartel leader

Sandra Ávila Beltrán is a Mexican drug lord, 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Héctor Luis Palma Salazar</span> Mexican drug trafficker (born 1960)

Héctor Luis Palma Salazar, commonly known as "El Güero Palma", is a Mexican former drug trafficker and leader of the Sinaloa Cartel alongside Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán and Ismael Zambada García. After his boss Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo ordered the brutal murder of his family, Palma set out to avenge them. Palma was arrested on June 23, 1995, and extradited to the United States, where he served a jail sentence until June 2016. He was then deported back to Mexico and charged with a double homicide for murdering two Nayarit police officers in 1995. Palma is currently incarcerated at the Altiplano Prison near Mexico City.

Javier Barba-Hernández was a Mexican former lawyer turned enforcer, hired by the Guadalajara Cartel to combat the Mexican Federal Judicial Police (FJP) and the American Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, commonly referred to by his alias Don Neto, is a Mexican drug lord and former leader of the Guadalajara Cartel, a defunct criminal group based in Jalisco. He headed the organization alongside Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, and Rafael Caro Quintero. Fonseca Carrillo was involved with drug trafficking since the early 1970s, primarily in Ecuador, and later moved his operations to Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juan José Esparragoza Moreno</span> Mexican drug trafficker (1949-2014)

Juan José Esparragoza Moreno, commonly referred to by his alias El Azul, was a Mexican drug lord and member of the Sinaloa Cartel, Guadalajara Cartel and Juárez Cartel, three large and powerful criminal organizations. Originally a member of the Dirección Federal de Seguridad (DFS) police agency, he founded the Guadalajara Cartel in the 1970s along with other drug kingpins in Mexico. Following its disintegration in the late 1980s, he went on to lead the Juárez Cartel and eventually settled in the Sinaloa Cartel. He worked alongside Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán and Ismael Zambada García, once considered world's most-wanted, powerful and rich drug lords.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sinaloa Cartel</span> Transnational drug-trafficking organization

The Sinaloa Cartel, also known as the Guzmán-Zambada Organization, the Federation, the Blood Alliance, or the Pacific Cartel, is a large, international organized crime syndicate based in the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico that specializes in illegal drug trafficking and money laundering.

Miguel Ángel Caro Quintero is a Mexican convicted drug lord and former leader of the Sonora Cartel, a defunct criminal group based in Sonora.

The Dirección Federal de Seguridad was a Mexican intelligence agency and secret police. It was created in 1947 under Mexican president Miguel Alemán Valdés with the assistance of U.S. intelligence agencies as part of the Truman Doctrine of Soviet Containment, with the duty of preserving the internal stability of Mexico against all forms of subversion and terrorist threats. It was merged into the Centro de Investigación y Seguridad Nacional (CISEN) in 1985.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carlos Arellano Félix</span> Mexican medical doctor (born 1955)

Carlos Alberto Arellano Félix is a Mexican medical doctor who is known for his illegal involvement in money laundering for the Tijuana Cartel. Carlos was born on the 20th of August in the year 1955 in the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa. Historian Paul Eiss states that Culiacán is the origin of modern drug trafficking and the home of Mexico's most powerful drug cartel. Carlos is currently working as a licensed surgeon. He finished his surgical training at the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara The Tijuana Cartel is an organisation that is notorious for being one of the most well-known drug trafficking groups in Mexico to smuggle goods into the United States. Carlos’ family is made up of seven brothers and four sisters who inherited the Arellano Felix Organisation from their godfather, Miguel Ángel Félix. Despite Carlos’ involvement in money laundering for the Tijuana Cartel, he is one of two brothers who remains free and is not wanted by the United States law enforcement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kiki Camarena</span> DEA agent murdered by drug traffickers (1947–1985)

Enrique "Kiki" Camarena Salazar was an American intelligence officer for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). In February 1985, Camarena was kidnapped by drug traffickers hired by Mexican politicians in Guadalajara, Mexico. He was interrogated under torture and murdered. Three leaders of the Guadalajara drug cartel were eventually convicted in Mexico for Camarena's murder. The U.S. investigation into Camarena's murder led to ten more trials in Los Angeles for other Mexican nationals involved in the crime. The case continues to trouble U.S.–Mexican relations, most recently when Rafael Caro Quintero, one of the three convicted traffickers, was released from a Mexican prison in 2013. Caro Quintero again was captured by Mexican forces in July 2022.

<i>Narcos: Mexico</i> Crime drama television series

Narcos: Mexico is an American crime drama television series created and produced by Chris Brancato, Carlo Bernard, and Doug Miro that premiered on Netflix on November 16, 2018. It was originally intended to be the fourth season of the Netflix series Narcos, but it was ultimately developed as a companion series. It focuses on the development of Mexico's illegal drug trade, whereas the parent series centered on the establishment of Colombia's illegal drug trade. The series' second season premiered on February 13, 2020. On October 28, 2020, Netflix renewed the series for a third and final season but announced that actor Diego Luna would not be returning to reprise his role as Félix Gallardo. The third and final season premiered on November 5, 2021.

The Last Narc is a docuseries about the 1985 death of U.S. DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena. The series interviews DEA agents and witnesses to Camarena's death who state that he was murdered by Mexican drug lords, with the complicity of the CIA. The series was released by Amazon in July 2020.

The Caborca Cartel is a Mexican criminal organization commanded by the veteran drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, and concentrating its drug trafficking operations in the border municipality of Caborca. At present, the group has a bloody dispute with the Los Salazar criminal cell, identified as the armed wing of the Sinaloa Cartel. The group allied with the Juárez Cartel to dispute the areas of Sonora and Chihuahua, having regrouped their forces and deciding to dispute the territory of his former partner Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.

References

  1. ↑ Beith, Malcolm (2010). The Last Narco. New York, New York: Grove Press. p.  47. ISBN   978-0-8021-1952-0.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Richards, James R. (1998). Transnational Criminal Organizations, Cybercrime, and Money Laundering. CRC Press. p. 320. ISBN   978-0-8493-2806-0.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Jesse Helms, ed. (1999). Mexican and American Responses to the International Narcotics Threat. U.S. Senate, Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, Narcotics and Terrorism of the Committee on Foreign Relations. pp. 61, 136, 137. ISBN   978-0-7881-8008-8.
  4. 1 2 3 Weiner, Tim (December 22, 2001). "Suspect in Vast Drug Ring Held in Mexico; May Be Sent to U.S." The New York Times . Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  5. 1 2 "DEA - Publications - Congressional Testimony - 09/12/96". United States Drug Enforcement Administration. September 12, 1996. Archived from the original on October 8, 1999. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
  6. ↑ Liddick, Donald R. (2004). The Global Underworld: Transnational Crime and the United States. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 33. ISBN   978-0-275-98074-0.
  7. 1 2 Grayson, George W. (August 2007). "Mexico and the Drug Cartels". Foreign Policy Research Institute. Archived from the original on 2012-03-09. Retrieved 2010-09-19.
  8. ↑ "Miguel Angel Caro Quintero, Former Sonoran Cartel Boss, Convicted In Denver". HuffPost . February 4, 2010.
  9. 1 2 3 4 ""Va a caer antes de que muera de viejo", la advertencia de Mike Vigil a Caro Quintero, "el Narco de Narcos"". 24 June 2020.
  10. ↑ 'Wanted' poster. Archived 2009-08-27 at the Wayback Machine
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.