The Tijuana Cartel, formerly also known as the Arellano-Félix Cartel, is a Mexican drug cartel based in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. Founded by the Arellano-Félix family, the cartel once was described as "one of the biggest and most violent criminal groups in Mexico". However, since the 2006 Sinaloa Cartel incursion into Baja California and the fall of the Arellano-Félix brothers, the Tijuana Cartel has been reduced to a few cells. In 2016, the organization became known as Cartel Tijuana Nueva Generación and began to align itself under the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, along with the Beltrán Leyva Organization (BLO) to create an anti-Sinaloa alliance, which the Jalisco New Generation Cartel heads. This alliance has since dwindled as the Tijuana, Jalisco New Generation, and Sinaloa cartels all now battle each other for trafficking influence in the city of Tijuana and the region of Baja California.
Don Winslow is an American political activist and retired author best known for his crime novels including Savages, The Force and the Cartel Trilogy.
Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo was an archbishop of the Catholic Church in Mexico who served as the eighth archbishop of the see of Guadalajara and as a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.
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.
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.
The Colima Cartel was a Mexican drug trafficking and methamphetamine producing cartel operating in Guadalajara, Jalisco. It was founded and led by José de Jesús Amezcua Contreras and supported by his brothers Adán and Luis.
José de Jesús Amezcua Contreras (born c. 1975, along with his brothers Adán and Luis, was a leader of the Colima Cartel, a Mexican methamphetamine and meth-precursor smuggling organization.
Luis Ignacio Amezcua Contreras, along with his brothers Adán and Jesús, was a leader of the Colima Cartel, a Mexican methamphetamine and precursor drug smuggling organization.
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.
Juan José Esparragoza Moreno, commonly referred to by his alias El Azul, was a Mexican drug lord and co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, a drug trafficking organization. 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, once considered Mexico's most-wanted, drug lord.
The Sinaloa Cartel, also known as the Guzmán-Loera Organization, the Federation, the Sinaloa Cartel, or the Pacific Cartel, is a large, transnational organized crime syndicate based in Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico, that specializes in illegal drug trafficking and money laundering.
The Sonora Cartel, also known as Caro Quintero Organization, was a Mexico based criminal cartel. Upon the cartel's disintegration, its leaders were incorporated into the Tijuana Cartel and Sinaloa Cartel.
A drug lord, drug baron, kingpin, or lord of drugs is a type of crime boss in charge of a drug trafficking network, organization, or enterprise.
Luis Fernando Sánchez Arellano, commonly referred to by the alias El Ingeniero ("The Engineer"), is a Mexican suspected drug lord and former leader of the Tijuana Cartel, a drug trafficking organization based in Tijuana, Baja California. He competed with three other major cartels, the Juárez Cartel, the Gulf Cartel, and the Sinaloa Cartel, for the illegal drug corridors into the United States.
Narcos is an American crime drama television series created and produced by Chris Brancato, Carlo Bernard, and Doug Miro. Set and filmed in Colombia, seasons 1 and 2 are based on the story of Colombian narcoterrorist and drug lord Pablo Escobar, leader of the Medellín Cartel and billionaire through the production and distribution of cocaine. The series also focuses on Escobar's interactions with drug lords, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents, and various opposition entities. Season 3 picks up after the fall of Escobar and continues to follow the DEA as they try to shut down the rise of the infamous Cali Cartel.
Jorge Luis Mendoza Cárdenas, commonly referred to by his alias La Garra, is a Mexican suspected drug lord and high-ranking leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), a criminal group based in Jalisco. Security forces suspect that La Garra heads the drug trafficking operations for the CJNG in the United States under Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, the top leader of the criminal group. La Garra reportedly coordinates marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine shipments to Los Angeles, San Jose, Atlanta, and New York City from Mexico.
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.
On 9 November 1999, two agents from the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were threatened at gunpoint and nearly killed in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, by gunmen of the Gulf Cartel, a criminal group based in the area. The two agents traveled to Matamoros with an informant to gather intelligence on the operations of the Gulf Cartel. As they cruised through one of the properties owned by the criminal group, they noticed several vehicles following them. The agents were forced to a stop and were corralled by a convoy of eight vehicles, from which 15 gunmen emerged and surrounded the agents' car. Some of them wore uniforms of the local police. Among the gunmen was the former kingpin Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, who recognized the informant and ordered the three of them to get out of their vehicle.
