Government Report Points to Ongoing Fragmentation of Mexico's Criminal Groups Patrick Corcoran - Insight Crime
go to original April 17, 2015

Vice President of Tactical Intelligence Scott Stewart looks at the potential for an escalation of violence as Mexican drug cartels fight for power and control. (STRATFOR)

A series of high-profile takedowns have ensured that the fragmentation of Mexico’s criminal groups has continued apace, with several of the largest groups now operating as little more than collections of allied cells rather than coherent organizations under a unified chain of command.

A recent article from Razon, based on a confidential report from Mexico’s office of the Attorney General (known by its Spanish initials as the PGR), detailed the breakdown of some of Mexico’s most important criminal organizations: the Gulf Cartel, the Tijuana Cartel, the Sinaloa Cartel, the Zetas, the Beltran Leyva Organization, and the Familia Michoacana. These groups collectively control virtually the entire border region, as well as some of the most sought-after criminal real estate elsewhere in the nation, from key port cities to fertile production areas to key transport zones.

They all emerged as large organizations whose public face was a single individual or small group of leaders. In other words, they were hierarchical. That perception may have been exaggerated; the degree of influence that a fugitive drug lord like Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman could exercise over the inner-workings of a vast organization with countless moving parts was likely somewhat limited, and different figures within the organization likely enjoyed much autonomy. But the popular perception clearly reflected some version of reality, and internal rivalries between different wings of an organization were once quite rare.

The PGR report offers further evidence that this has changed. The large organizations have all been surpassed to some degree or another by the smaller cells of which they have long been made up. The difference today is that the cells are more autonomous, more geographically isolated, and less referential to any single leader. As a result, the old conceptualization of the cartel as a coherent nationwide organization with contacts around the globe is fading.

Read the rest at Insight Crime

Photo: Mexico Museum of Drugs

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