The horrors of drug cartels. The most criminal city in the world. The most dangerous regions of the country

The war against drug cartels in Mexico has been going on for several years now, claiming many lives every day.

(Total 26 photos)

1. Doctors and nurses during a protest against violence in the Mexican town of Ciudad on December 7. On December 2, traumatologist and orthopedist Dr. Alberto Betancourt Rosales was kidnapped and his body was discovered two days later. (Dario Lopez-Mills/AP)

2. A policewoman stands near a car abandoned by attackers suspected of killing two of their fellow officers in the city on December 6. One police officer was killed in the shootout. (Dario Lopez-Mills/AP)

3. The bodies of three young people killed by armed criminals in the back of a pickup truck in the city of Acapulco on December 5. During the first weekend of December, 11 people were killed in drug wars. (Bernandino Hernandez/AP)

4. A soldier accompanies Edgar Jimenez Luga, nicknamed "El Ponchis", during his presentation to the press in Cuernavaca on December 3. Soldiers arrested a 14-year-old drug cartel gang leader as he tried to cross into the United States. Jimenez - by the way, a US citizen - is suspected of participating in a drug cartel in the state of Morelos, consisting of several teenagers who brutally killed their competitors. (Margarito Perez / Reuters)

5. Members of a forensic team work at a mass grave in Palomas, Chihuahua, on the other side of Big Bend National Park in Texas. Investigators recovered 18 bodies from 11 graves. (Reuters)

6. Mexican Federal Police escort 32-year-old Arturo Gallegos Castrellon, leader of the Aztec drug gang. The gang is suspected of several murders, with Gallegos being blamed for the murder of 15 young people in January this year during a party in Ciudad Juarez, as well as the murder of an American consulate employee in March. (Marco Ugarte/AP)

7. A Mexican soldier squats in a tunnel found under the Mexico-US border in Tijuana. US border agents have found a small tunnel under the Mexico-US border and seized a significant amount of marijuana from a warehouse in San Diego. About 30 tons of marijuana passed through this 548-meter-long tunnel, equipped with a guide system, lighting and ventilation. (Jorge Duenes/Reuters)

A forensic scientist places "Damaged" stickers on a car window at a crime scene in Guadalajara on November 22. According to local media, three men in the car were killed by unknown assailants. (Alejandro Acosta / Reuters)

9. Christians pray for peace at Macroplaza in downtown Monterrey on November 13. More than 30,000 people have died in drug violence since late 2006, when President Felipe Calderon launched his sweeping campaign against the cartels. (Tomas Bravo / Reuters)

10. Eight-year-old Galia Rodriguez, the daughter of reporter Armando Rodriguez, who died in Ciudad Juarez, came to the anniversary of his death in the journalist's park on November 13. Earlier this year, Rodriguez, who worked for the publication El Diario de Ciudad Juarez, was shot and killed by unknown drug traffickers. (Gael Gonzalez/Reuters)

11. A man walks past a poster hung by members of the Zetas gang on a pedestrian bridge in Monterrey. Zetas criminals posted messages between trees and over bridges in Reynosa and other cities throughout the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, celebrating the death of Gulf Cartel gang leader Ezekel "Tony Tormenta" Cardenas, who was shot and killed by Marines the previous day. (Tomas Bravo / Reuters)

12. A forensic scientist examines a car containing the body of bodyguard Carlos Reis Almaguer on the outskirts of Monterrey on November 4. The bodyguard of the mayor of the municipality of San Pedro Garza Garcia Mauricio Fernandez was shot dead by unknown criminals. (Carlos Jasso/AP)

13. Relatives and friends attend the funeral of a drug war victim killed during a birthday party in Ciudad Juarez. (Gael Gonzalez/Reuters)

14. People clean up the bloody courtyard of a house in Ciudad Juarez. Thirteen people were killed and 15 injured when the house was attacked at a teenager's 15th birthday party. (Raymundo Ruiz/AP)

15. Morgue workers place coffins in graves at the San Rafael cemetery on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez. The bodies of 21 men and four women killed in the drug wars were buried in the city morgue for months after relatives failed to come forward to claim them. (Gael Gonzalez/Reuters)

16. Confiscated weapons from members of the Zetas gang found in a horse trailer, including rifles with enhanced ammunition, grenades and various ammunition. As a result, two people were arrested. (Miguel Tovar/AP)

17. Soldiers unload 134 tons of marijuana intended for burning at the Morelos military base in Tijuana. Soldiers seized the drugs earlier in the week during a raid. Heavily armed soldiers raided several houses in a poor neighborhood of Tijuana. As a result, 11 people were arrested and the drugs were burned. (Jorge Duenes/Reuters)

18. People gathered around a dove of peace made of candles in the courtyard of the Autonomous University of Nuevo Eon during a protest against violence and in memory of the murdered student Lucila Quintanilla in Monterrey. Once an oasis of peace and tranquility, this one of Mexico's richest cities has now become a battlefield for bloody drug wars. (Edgar Montelongo/Reuters)

19. A forensic scientist looks at a package with a human head and a message in Tijuana. (Alejandro Cossio/AP)

20. Mexican police work next to the body of a murdered man in Ciudad Juarez. Since the government declared war on drug cartels in late 2006, 30,000 people have died. (Jesus Alcazar / AFP - Getty Images)

21. The bound bodies of 72 migrant workers at a ranch in San Fernando, Tamaulipas state. Marines discovered the bodies after several shootouts with drug dealers. (Tamaulipas "State Attorney General"s Office via Reuters)

22. Residents came to the funeral of the mayor of the tourist town of Santiago Edelmiro Cavazos in the city center. Drug traffickers have killed 17 mayors in Mexico since the beginning of 2008. (Tomas Bravo / Reuters)

23. Gold pistol with engraving and diamonds at the Drug Museum in Mexico City on August 18. In this unique museum you can see golden weapons, children's clothing with LSD stickers and religious paintings with cocaine. (Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP - Getty Images)

24. The grandmother of slain police officer Jose Ramirez cries over his body in Acapulco's Las Joya district on July 17. The attack also killed three of Ramirez's comrades. (Bernardino Hernandez/AP)

25. Security film at a crime scene in Ciudad Juarez on January 31. Gunmen stormed a birthday party, killing 13 people, mostly teenagers. (Alejandro Bringas / Reuters)

26. Police officers work at the scene of a terrorist attack on the main road in the center of Ciudad Juarez on July 16. The criminals blew up a car near three patrol cars, killing two police officers and injuring 12 others. Another grenade exploded as medics and journalists arrived at the crime scene, leaving one person seriously injured. (Jesus Alcazar / AFP - Getty Images)

Mexican drug lords, their cronies and those who simply imitate them today have their own music, their own cinema and even their own patron saint. The Mexican drug culture did not leave the country for many decades, remaining a completely unknown phenomenon to the rest of the world.

Everything has changed in recent years, when, following migrants and smugglers, the drug culture literally poured into the United States. Today, documentaries are made about her, books are written and even plays are staged.

The prerequisites for the emergence of a drug culture should be sought in the distant past - when Mexico was not yet Mexico, and the Indians who inhabited these lands could no longer imagine their life without peyote. In the 16th century, Spanish conquerors brought hemp here, and at the end of the 19th century, opium poppy arrived in the country along with Chinese immigrants.

Peasants treated drugs as ordinary agricultural crops, with little difference in importance from potatoes or corn. But when a ban on the same opium and hemp was introduced in the United States, the cunning Mexicans quickly realized that they could make good money by transporting prohibited plants abroad. The ban on the cultivation of cannabis and poppy was introduced only at the beginning of the 20th century, and even then under pressure from the United States. In the country itself, peasants continued to quietly grow, transport and sell poppy and hemp. True, now it was necessary to unfasten local officials, ranging from minor police ranks all the way up to the governor.
The Great Depression in America became a real high point for drug-growing artisans. It was about completely different money, and small groups in which peasants united to protect their business began to sort things out not with their fists, but with the help of weapons.

Years passed, whole caravans with drugs stretched from Mexico to the USA, and other caravans - loaded with money - came towards them.

Major drug cartels in Mexico

№ 1
SINAOLA CARTEL (PACIFIC CARTEL)
Originating in the state of Sinaola on the west coast of Mexico, this cartel quickly spread its influence to several states: Baja California, Durango, Chihuahua and Sonora. The cartel is headed by Joaquin Guzman Loera, nicknamed El Chapo, who after the murder of Osama bin Laden became the first on the list of the most wanted criminals.

№ 2
GOLF CARTEL (GULF CARTEL)
Based in the city of Matamoros on the Gulf Coast. A small number of fighters of the head of the cartel were compensated by mercenaries from the former military. In the late 1990s, this mercenary army became a separate cartel - Los Zetas.

№ 3
LOS SETAS CARTEL
Los Zetas fighters are among the most trained, as they are recruited from retired police and military personnel. In skirmishes with competitors or federal troops, the cartel uses a rich arsenal of weapons that not every army can boast of. In addition, Los Zetas is distinguished by the fact that they conduct real special operations, actively using special forces tactics, weapons and technical equipment.

№ 4
TIJUANA CARTEL
A major cartel that controls the northwestern part of Mexico. It was formed around the same time as the Sinaol cartel, so it is considered one of the oldest in the country. Interestingly, the founder of the cartel is a peasant from Sinaola, Luis Fernando Sanchez Alleriano. Steven Soderbergh made his famous film “Traffic” about the life of his family.

№ 5
TEMPLE CARTEL
This organization was created after the collapse of the La Familia cartel. Much attention is paid to the ideological training of fighters, forcing them to take an oath to “fight and die for social justice.” True, it is not very clear what meaning these guys mean by the concept of “social justice”.
Has its own combat wing - grouping
La Resistencia, whose main task is the war with Los Zetas.

Over time, the image of the smuggler has also changed. Where once the drug smuggler was just a guy living next door, he has now become a legendary figure, a defender of the poor and a cruel executioner of those who wrong the common people. Considering that many Mexican states live solely on the production or transportation of drugs, drug lords in the eyes of local residents really look like benefactors, providing work and not allowing them to starve.

Mexican youth, especially from poor neighborhoods, sought to join the ranks of drug cartels because they simply had no other prospects for a better life. Some succeeded in this, while others were forced to only imitate the appearance, manner of speaking and habits of local smugglers. This is how narcos appeared, who became the main drivers and figures of the Mexican drug culture.

The cradle of drug culture is considered to be the state of Sinaola, where the cartel of the same name is based - one of the largest and most influential in Mexico. It is a rare resident of the state who is not associated with the production or smuggling of drugs, and drug lords and cartel members are respected here by everyone without exception.

The clothing style of narcos has undergone major changes since its inception, following the fashion of a particular period. But the enduring classic remains the commitment to the cowboy style characteristic of the border regions of Mexico: hats with curved brims, classic jeans, belts with weighty badges, embroidered shirts and pointy boots made of genuine leather. Among young drug addicts today, T-shirts with aggressive prints on the theme of drug trafficking and cartel life, embroidered leather jackets and fake polo shirts with giant logos are in fashion.

More serious guys prefer popular European brands such as Guess, Gucci, Burberry or Ralph Lauren. The latter was a total embarrassment: drug lords Edgar Valdez Villarreal, nicknamed Barbie, and Jose Jorge Balderas, arrested in 2010 and 2011, were wearing polo from this manufacturer at the time of their arrest. The exhaust was so loud that now in Mexico and the neighboring American states these shirts are associated exclusively with the drug business in the eyes of the average person.

Catholic Latin America has always been famous for the abundance of saints invented by the people, who are responsible for almost every aspect of the life of a believer. The mixture of Christianity and Indian totemism gave rise to a bizarre religion, in which there is a place for both the baby Jesus in a poncho and the Virgin Mary in the image of Saint Death.

Narcos also have their own patron saint. Jesus Malverde - “drug saint”, “generous bandit”. It is not known for certain whether such a person actually existed. It is believed that the prototype of Jesus Malverde could be a certain “noble robber” who robbed the rich and distributed goods to the poor. In 1903, this nameless folk hero fell into the hands of the authorities and was executed. According to legend, the tree on which he was hanged withered and never turned green again.

The cult of Jesus Malverde, whom the official Catholic Church does not want to recognize as a saint, is especially widespread in the state of Sinaola. There is even a chapel dedicated to the “generous bandit” in the state capital of Culiacan.

The children of drug lords, raised in luxury, have become a separate phenomenon within the Mexican drug culture. Unlike their fathers and grandfathers, they were born in cities, in luxurious conditions, never wanting for anything. They are not very concerned about the practical side of their parents’ business, but they borrow the external environment very willingly.

Kilograms of jewelry, hefty wads of money, luxurious clothes, expensive cars and gold-trimmed weapons are the main attributes of any self-respecting drug junior.

The main difference between drug juniors and their fathers and grandfathers is moral principles, or rather the lack thereof. If old-school narcos always put family and neighbors at the forefront, then for junior narcos all these words are an empty phrase. As a result, the poor, who were once supported by old-school cartel gangsters, today often suffer from the unmotivated aggression of drug juniors who live by the principle “I’ll do it because I can.”

In the US, the "war on drugs" involves arresting and incarcerating people for carrying a small bag of marijuana, but in Mexico the "war" is something more real.

The whole truth about life in drug cartel-controlled Mexico is told by a citizen who fled the daily shootings to Canada.

The drug trade is a quirky culture.

Drug dealers here are not afraid to say they are drug dealers. Each cartel has its own emblem. You join any of them and receive a “branded” large bag, only it will not have the Adibas logo, but the cartel logo.

People actually brag about their cartel membership on Facebook. Cartels post photos of murdered bloggers and anti-drug activists as if they were pictures of kittens. This is called drug culture, and it is what happens to you when you deal with various gangs for long enough. It becomes a kind of football fans' club, but with a hint of cocaine and marijuana.

The drug culture has its own patron saint - Malverde. Mexicans call him the "guardian angel of the poor" or the "generous bandit," and all smugglers pray to him before setting off with a shipment to America or before raiding another cartel's hideout. If everything goes well, Saint Melverde receives a new thanksgiving candle.

The drug culture also has its own multi-million dollar musical style, beloved by all the poor youth of Mexico. They dream of wealth and power, and only the drug trade can help them achieve this. This style is called "narcocorridos", and many have heard at least one song without even knowing it.

And if it seems cool and cool to you, then...

This is a real war.

Here's a little story. The cartels started having problems during Prohibition in the United States. It all started with small family-owned beer cartels that smuggled their product into the United States. When America repealed Prohibition, bootleggers were confused... but then the United States banned marijuana. This was an opportunity for drug manufacturers and murderers. The players have changed, but the meaning remains the same. America bans something, and in Mexico people start shooting at each other for a piece of the pie called the black market, estimated at tens of billions of dollars.

But in 2006 everything changed. It was then that Mexican President Felipe Calderon decided to turn the “war on drugs” into a real war. He invaded the drug world with the help of the army and a real bloody war began. While everyone agrees that the cartels will never go away as long as there is still easy money to be made, at least 80,000 people have died, making the Mexican drug war a bloodier affair than the American war was in Vietnam.

The drug war is touching every aspect of life in Mexico's northern cities and in cities dominated by cartels. In cities where gangs still compete with each other, shootings are perceived as bad weather and traffic jams. Murders have become commonplace in the endless cartel wars. The cartels even issue warnings so ordinary people know not to leave the house after 7:00 pm or 8:00 pm, or whenever the gangs decide it's time to kill. Yes, this can be called caring for ordinary citizens, but everything would be much better if they did not kill ordinary road workers in order to warn the cartel in the area.

Ordinary citizens began to form groups called "autodefensas". They also have guns because they take them from killed cartel members. They've cleared out about 5 percent of Mexico within a year, but it's clear the government doesn't approve of a vigilante army operating outside the law. It doesn't help that the cartels have money and influence - they control most of Mexico's government and police, even in a time when the president has been harshly critical of the situation.

What's even more incredible is that the government is attacking the vigilante groups with tanks and helicopters to "disarm" them. And then the cartels tap their badge-wearing buddies on the back and prove that mass murder, like riding a bike, is a skill you'll never forget, no matter what uniform you wear.

The cartels have an advanced PR campaign.

When I got into [a city that they refused to name for fear of being executed], I saw a billboard: "Mexican soldier! You only get $800 a month. You eat unhealthy food. Join us and you will earn at least $1000-2000 a month. And at the same time you will get more free time!" Similar cartel advertisements offering cash to soldiers for their weapons or loyalty can be seen in various parts of the country.

They also have their own news form. Distributed primarily through Facebook, the cartel's news contains less information for people and more intimidating slogans and photos and videos of gruesome executions. And of course selfies, because even brutal killers feel the need to snap their face whenever possible.

But no good PR campaign is limited to the Internet. The cartels also make every effort to spread propaganda to people who live near where they operate. If a hurricane, flood or other disaster strikes, you can be sure that the cartel trucks will be the first to help. They will instantly fill the affected area, and the cartel’s “ministers” will painstakingly film it all for YouTube. And all because a few trucks filled with food and water at the right moment completely erase all memories of the murders.

For many Mexicans, the cartels are the government.

Successful cartels control Mexican society through more than just fear. The cartels give out gifts at Christmas like Santa Claus with a beard full of cocaine. In addition, they allocate money. Yes, they just give money.

Since the Mexican government simply does not have any leverage in some parts of the country, the cartels have taken on the mission of building schools and hospitals. But it is not out of the goodness of their hearts that they recruit their members from these institutions. We are talking about poor children in rural areas of Mexico where there are no other opportunities. Imagine, your dad worked all week seven days a week for $20, and then a kid at school with an iPad and designer jeans starts saying, “You know, you can make $800 or $900 a month, and I can introduce you to people who will tell you how..."

They will begin to listen carefully to such a child and will begin to consider him a true “friend.” It's not even a question of money; most of us would do exactly the same if we were faced with a choice between “wages and starvation” and “fast, illegal, but huge money.” It's the same with the police; You can earn as little as $11,000 a year as a city police chief, but if you're flexible enough, you can earn three times that amount or more. Integrity disappears pretty quickly when it stands between you and things like antibiotics for your children or just money for booze.

And for those who don't join...

This is worse than dictatorship.

The cartels have their own checkpoints, just like the government. While government checkpoints are looking for drugs and weapons, cartel checkpoints are looking for anyone who may be working for a rival cartel.

For example, a guy born near the Bay Area decided to drive across the country towards the Pacific Ocean. Real police officers won't worry because it's completely normal. But the cartels may suspect that he is working for their enemies from the other coast, and therefore this guy simply will not make it to the opposite coast. There is no need to prove anything, no trial or investigation. If they suspect something, they will simply kill you.

Living under cartel surveillance changes everything you can talk about with friends. With a dictatorship, as long as you stay out of politics, you are safe. But in a cartel-run area, if a drug dealer likes your girlfriend, he will kill you. You have no right to exist. If you are a woman and he wants to "date" you, you have no right to refuse. Complained about a cartel on a blog? You will be lucky if you live to see your next birthday.

Two people I know were in a restaurant (in another city that I won't name) when two thugs entered the premises. They grabbed the guy in front of his family and dragged him outside. Another bandit told the other customers: "Be quiet or we will kill you all." The guy they took was never found and most likely never will be found.

If you're asking yourself why all this is happening in Mexico, there's one thing to keep in mind...

Money and weapons come from America.

I'm irritated by the way Americans don't take cocaine seriously, like in American movies like The Wolves of Wall Street, because 90 percent of the coke Americans buy goes through Mexico on its way to the American nose. Cartels make up to $64 billion a year selling drugs in the United States. Marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington may have cut their revenues by as much as $3 billion, but coke and meth remain a lucrative business, and no one in the US is going to legalize them.

All of these drug profits do not stay in Mexico. The money flows back across the border to the 6,700 American firearms dealers who operate near the border. Nearly half of all gun dealers in the United States depend on arms trade with Mexican cartels. You'll never hear about this in an NRA (National Rifle Association) ad, and when you hear people complaining that they need big walls along the border to keep drugs and immigrants out, they forget about the flow of deadly weapons going the other way . Rather, it is precisely because of this that the United States is not seeking to strengthen control on the border of the two countries.

Gun trafficking is illegal in Mexico. There is only one legal gun store in all of Mexico City, and you can only buy guns with permission from the country's armed forces. So while the US fights armed attacks, weapons of all kinds are flowing into Mexico and killing people. And no one in the US, when talking about a gun ban, will think of Mexico, because who cares about the suffering of others, right?

In US political circles, there has recently been discussion of the ATF program or the program of "selling weapons directly to the cartels to see what happens." Isn't this wild? The issue was quickly hushed up when a US border patrol member was shot and killed with weapons smuggled from the US. And no one counts the people who died from the same weapons in Mexico itself. Maybe their names are too complicated for dumb Americans to spell?

And can you imagine the anger of American politicians if, say, seven people in southern Arizona were killed in an ambush by a Mexican drug cartel? But if you go about a mile south, you will find yourself in Mexico, and even the shooting of 100 people will not be noticed. This is the magic of the US-Mexico border and it is this amazing quality that allows everyone to believe that what happens on the other side will never be their problem.

Don't bring evil into someone else's house and you won't get it back.

Material prepared by GusenaLapchataya

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Mexico known for its drug cartels and frequent kidnappings of wealthy people, which was the subject of the popular feature film “Wrath” (2004) with Denzel Washington and the TV series “Narcos” (2015). As a result of the latest large-scale clashes between government troops, police and drug traffickers, more than 50 thousand people were killed. The colossal drug trafficking has led to a sharp increase in the circulation of various firearms on the black market, supplied from the United States. Weapons are mainly acquired by cartels to wage wars for territory and protect their areas from law enforcement officials.

The rampant crime is well illustrated by the well-known case of 2014, when 43 college students in Iguala were kidnapped during a trip to a demonstration. There is still no exact information about their fate. It's no surprise that experts are seeing increased rates of violent crime across the country. But statistically, most of the officially registered crimes occur in the northern states of Mexico, bordering the United States, where all the drug traffic goes. The crime leaders are the following states:

• Tamaulipas;
• Michoacan;
• Guerrero (but the resort of Acapulco is considered relatively safe).

Tourists should also not travel away from large population centers in the states of Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Baja California and Sonora. If we take separately “simple” robberies on the street, kidnappings for ransom, then such crimes are widespread, as are car thefts, especially in large populated cities, where inequality between rich and poor is high.

Safe areas are the territories of the southern states, Cancun and the resort area of ​​the Riviera Maya. In most of Mexico, including large parts of the colonial highlands, the Yucatan and Baja California peninsulas, there is little danger for tourists. That is, there is a risk, but it is no greater than when walking around Moscow.

Crime statistics in Mexico

From December 2006 to August 2015, 151,233 people were killed in the country, 26 thousand people are considered missing. At the moment, the average murder rate is about 20 thousand per year (17 people per 100 thousand population). The majority of crimes (98%) are considered unsolved; many criminal facts are simply not recorded due to the corruption of the police and courts. But in general, the average statistics for individual prosperous regions are even better than in the United States. It is not surprising that about 150 thousand Americans come to visit each day rest to Mexico.

Crime and corruption related to foreign business in Mexico

The United Mexican States is a bureaucratic paradise where corruption is considered an unofficial norm, no matter how much it is fought in public and no matter how much it is lynched. But foreign business feels relatively well (with the support of the Mexican army and police), but only in territories not controlled by the drug mafia. Thus, many American oil producers refuse to do business in the oil-rich eastern state of Tamaulipas, because it is ruled not even by corrupt officials, but by real bandits who, as a convincing argument that they are right, can easily shoot up a hotel with foreign workers.

Here it can also be noted that recently drug cartels have created their own corporations that illegally extract minerals, primarily oil, and also engage in deforestation. Additional sources of income for crime are:

• illegal migration in USA;
• traffic of prostitutes;
• trade in counterfeit goods and software.

North America is welcoming to guests, but, as in any other region, tourists should not walk through deserted places late at night, especially in the outskirts, where the private sector and slums are typically located. The remaining places popular with travelers are well guarded. However, while sightseeing, you don’t need to often flash your wallet or hold an expensive phone in your hands. The most common types of theft:

• snatching a purse;
• cutting backpack straps;
• deftly removing everything from pockets in a crowd.

Tourism Mexico is thriving, but at the same time the number of people wishing to profit from other people's goods is increasing. Be vigilant, withdraw cash less often (it is better to do this inside bank offices, and not at lonely street ATMs, since card cloning is widespread in the country), do not pay with a bank card in dubious establishments and small retail outlets. At the same time, cards are accepted in car rentals, restaurants and shops, but when visiting the outback you still need to have cash with you.

Never leave things unattended anywhere, except in your own hotel room or storage room.