Mexican cartels

os Zetas (pronounced [los ˈsetas], Spanish for "The Zs") is a Mexican criminal syndicate. Considered by the US government to be "the most technologically advanced, sophisticated, efficient, violent, ruthless and dangerous cartel operating in Mexico", the organization has expanded beyond the traditional purview of drug trafficking and also runs profitable sex trafficking and gun running rackets. The origins of Los Zetas date back to the late 1990s when commandos of the Mexican Army deserted their ranks and began working as the enforcement arm of the Gulf Cartel.

The Sinaloa Cartel (Spanish: Cártel de Sinaloa) is an international drug trafficking, money laundering, and organized crime syndicate. Established during the mid-1980s,[ the Sinaloa Cartel is based primarily in the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa, with operations in the Mexican states of Baja California, Durango, Sonora, and Chihuahua. The cartel is also known as the Guzmán-Loera Organization and the Pacific Cartel, the latter due to the coast of Mexico from which it originated. The cartel has also been called the Federation and the Blood Alliance. The 'Federation' was partially splintered when the Beltrán-Leyva brothers broke apart from the Sinaloa Cartel.

The Tijuana Cartel (Spanish: Cártel de Tijuana) or Arellano-Félix Organization (Spanish: Cártel Arellano Félix - CAF) is a Mexican drug cartel based in Tijuana. The cartel once was described as "one of the biggest and most violent criminal groups in Mexico." However, since the 2006 Sinaloa Cartel incursion in Baja California and the fall of the Arellano-Félix brothers, the Tijuana Cartel had been reduced to few cells. In 2016, the organization has become known as Cartel Tijuana Nueva Generación (New Generation Tijuana Cartel) and has begun to aligin itself under the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, along with Beltrán Leyva Organization (BLO) to create an anti-Sinaloa alliance, in which the Jalisco New Generation Cartel heads, creating a possible powershift in Mexico

The Mexican Drug War (also known as the Mexican War on Drugs; Spanish: guerra contra el narcotráfico en México) is the Mexican theater of the United States' War on Drugs, involving an ongoing low-intensity asymmetric war between the Mexican Government and various drug trafficking syndicates. Since 2006, when the Mexican military began to intervene, the government's principal goal has been to reduce the drug-related violence. The Mexican government has asserted that their primary focus is on dismantling the powerful drug cartels, rather than on preventing drug trafficking, which is left to U.S. functionaries