Historical Context
Drug cartels originated with a man by the name of Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo or El Padrino (The Godfather); he oversaw an entire empire and industry of illegal smuggling known as the Mexican Cartel. For years El Padrino was untouchable. He reached out and began relationships with the Colombians which was worth more than he ever thought possible. There was nothing anyone could do about El Padrino or his organization until the death of Enrique Camarena, an agent with the Drug Enforcement Agency who began working in Mexico in 1981. At the time he was only one of a handful of agents working within Mexico. He spent years investigating the Mexican Cartel for the DEA and had built close ties to El Padrino. In 1984 Camarena led a raid on a 10,000 acre plantation. El Padrino quickly found out of Camarena’s role in the raid. The plantation was reportedly worth 8 billion dollars. El Padrino had Carmarena kidnapped, tortured, and killed. The United States began a large murder investigation and identified El Padrino as a target of interest. It took them 5 years to arrest him in 1989. Prior to his arrest he held a meeting with his top lieutenants; Arellano Felix, Carrillo Feuntes, Miguel Quintero, Juan Abergo, Chapo Guzman and Mayo Zambada, where he divided up his empire in hopes that what he built could keep going. The lieutenants came up with new tactics to intimidate enemies which they used to get Cocaine from the Colombians after other drug routes were sealed off. Cocaine brought insane amounts of money, but with that money came violence. This is when the Mexican Cartels became the main suppliers of drugs to the United States. Then large meth labs were created in Mexico which gave the cartels there own source of money without having to rely on other countries. Meth became more and more popular in the US and Mexico which kept these labs in business. The cartels then came up with a new way to get the money they wanted, and that was by forming armed wing man groups called the Zetas. They used fear and intimidation. No longer were acts of terror hidden. They advertised the horror, using public displays of death marked with a trademark Z, a letter which struck fear in all those who came across it. The Zetas began to obtain territories and expanded to include traditional crimes such as extortion and kidnapping but also incorporated more exotic crimes such as oil theft and human smuggling to their list of crimes. With this warlord like mentality they became the fastest growing Cartel in Mexico.