Sinaloa Cartel Essay

When the Mexican drug cartel first started out in the 1950’s and 60’s there were not many cartels, but since then there has been a dramatic increase in the number of cartels and the cartels have had a significant impact on the U.S. Throughout the drug cartels’ existence, an estimated 60,000 drug cartel members have been killed fighting other drug cartels for territory. Mexico is a main supplier of marijuana and methamphetamine in the U.S. and nearly 90% of the cocaine that enters the U.S. transits through Mexico. The top Mexican drug cartels take in between 19 and 29 billion dollars annually from U.S. drug sales.

A major Mexican drug cartel is called the Sinaloa Cartel, which is still around today. The founders of the Sinaloa Cartel are: Jaime Herrera; Jorge Favela Escobar; Pedro Áviles Pérez, who was killed September 9, 1978; Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, captured in April 8, 1989; and Héctor Luis “El Guero Palmo, captured in June 24, 1995, and extradited to the U.S. to face drug-trafficking charges on January 19, 2007. The current leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel are Arturo Beltrán Leyva, and his brothers, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García.

The Sinaloa Cartel was founded in the 1970’s and its power and money grew in the 1980’s, because of the shipment of cocaine by the Columbians through Mexico. The Sinaloa Cartel’s dominant areas of operation are in Northwest Mexico and Southern California including: Sinaloa; Durango; Chihuahua; Baja California; Sonora; Tamaulipas; Nuevo León; Michoacán; and Guerrero. The Sinaloa Cartel’s goal is to move more and more cocaine, heroin, and marijuana to American consumers.

The Beltran Leyva Cartel was founded by the four Beltran Leyva brot...

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...e to illnesses, and heavy users report side effects, including severe depression, lethargy, anxiety and fearfulness. Methamphetamine is relatively simple to make and was the subject of the hit television series “Breaking Bad”.

So long as people continue to use illicit drugs, the drug trade and all the problems that go with it will continue. This fact has led to an enormous debate as to whether legalizing drug use will reduce the problem. Many think that, if drugs were legalized, this would take the profit out of the sales, and reduce the drug cartels’ ability to generate the revenues necessary to conduct their operations. Legalization of drugs also would enable the U.S. government to tax the sale of drugs, and to use those revenues for programs designed to help stop people from using them. That debate, however, is the subject of another civics presentation.