Mexican cartels are kitted out like military units – how did they turn into so well armed? | News World

After chaos erupted across Mexico following the killing of a key cartel leader, photos of heavily armed gang members have circulated online.

Armed with semi-automatic rifles, tactical gear and even tanks, the pictures have led many to query just how these criminal organisations became so well-armed.

A part of the large flow of weaponry is the ‘Iron River’ – the movement of some 200,000 to 500,000 firearms smuggled from the USA into Mexico yearly.

Wholesalers of military surplus are sometimes unaware of where the weapons they sell are ending up.

The US gun market can also be hard to observe, with tens of hundreds of gun dealers across the country.

The cartel often weaponsies individuals with clean criminal records to purchase these weapons and smuggle them into the country.

Anti-tank rifles, rocket grenades and even tanks have found their way into the hands of cartel members around Mexico.

Those tanks seen in photos this week in Jalisco? That’s a distinct story.

Moderately than smuggling army tanks across the border – a feat which might almost undoubtedly be noticed by patrols – cartels have a distinct tactic.

Heavy modifications of economic vehicles create what’s referred to as ‘narco tanks’, fitted with steel armour, firing ports and more.

Most of this heavy weaponry is utilized in local clashes against other cartels, but a few of it’s utilised to fight against state police and the military.

Various cartels are at war with each other, vying for control of a multi-billion-pound illicit industry.

Of their fight to regulate the drug industry, cartels are turning to more modern weaponry, including drones and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Mexico’s drug war began as a civil war contained in the cartels, triggered by the 1989 arrest of ‘the Godfather, Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, for the torture and murder of an American agent.

While Mexico’s politics modified, the cartels were splintering. Turf wars steadily ratcheted up within the early 2000s despite some modest government motion against the once-untouchable traffickers.

Then in 2006, war was declared. The newly elected president sent hundreds of troops into the state of Michoacán to drive out the narcos, an operation wherein lots of died.

In 2018, Andrés Manuel López Obrador took power and promised to finish the drug war by promising amnesty for traffickers, reforming the police and pulling the military off the streets.

This hasn’t exactly worked out well. After Donald Trump retook office for the second time, his administration declared a brand new ‘war on drugs’, designating most of the Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organisations.

Current Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, like her predecessor, has criticised the ‘kingpin’ strategy of previous administrations that took out cartel leaders only to trigger explosions of violence as cartels fractured.

While she has remained popular in Mexico, security is a persistent concern, and she or he has been under tremendous pressure to indicate results against drug trafficking.

What to learn about cartels in Mexico

This week’s chaos in Mexico was sparked by the killing of the Jalisco Latest Generation Cartel leader, ‘El Mencho’, real name Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes.

The Jalisco Latest Generation Cartel is taken into account to be as powerful because the Sinaloa cartel, certainly one of Mexico’s most infamous criminal groups, with a presence in all 50 US states.

It’s certainly one of the predominant suppliers of cocaine to the US market and, just like the Sinaloa cartel, earns billions from the production of fentanyl and methamphetamines.

Sinaloa, nevertheless, has been weakened by infighting after the lack of its leaders Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada and Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, who’re each in US custody.

Los Zetas is one other dangerous cartel, known for brutal violence resembling beheadings and torture of their enemies.

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