The Intelligence Review | volume 3 | issue 5 |

Background
Mexican cartels were forever altered by the criminal rise of Escobar.
Throughout the 1970s, as he networked with other criminals to form
the Medellín Cartel of Colombia, Escobar acquired control of the
production of nearly 80 percent of the cocaine disseminated into the
United States (US). His approach to leadership, infrastructural tactics,
drug trafficking, and territorial domination appealed immensely to
Gallardo. The success of Gallardo, the chief of Mexico’s Guadalajara
Cartel, mirrored the successes of Escobar and his Medellín Cartel, so
the two were in close cooperation as producers (Medellín Cartel) and
distributors (Guadalajara Cartel) of cocaine (Becerra and Parra 2012:1).
By the 1980s, the Guadalajara Cartel had control of nearly all drug
trafficking in Mexico and across the border into the US. While still very
much operating under the shadow of the overall efficiency and productivity
of the Colombian cartels, Gallardo modeled the Guadalajara Cartel as a
template for the future growth of all other Mexican cartels (Longmire
2016). In 1985, Gallardo was incarcerated for the murder of the Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Enrique Camarena, and
was thus effectively taken off the streets. But his legacy is imprinted
upon Mexico’s modern-day cartels, which have since evolved from the
now defunct Guadalajara Cartel. Today, key players in Mexico’s drug
war are the Sinaloa Cartel, the CJNG, the Gulf Cartel, and both factions
of the Los Zetas Cartel (US Drug Enforcement Administration 2017).
Once working as Gallardo’s logistics supervisor, Joaquín ‘El Chapo’
Guzmán became a recognized leader of the Sinaloa following the
dismantlement of the Guadalajara Cartel. Throughout the 1990s and
early 2000s, El Chapo gained exclusive power over the Sinaloa and its
operations. But thirst for power caused fragmentation within the cartel
(Beittel 2017:13). In 2010, the paramilitary wing of the Sinaloa, referred
to as the Milenio Cartel, splintered when Sinaloa leaders refused to
promote Rubén ‘El Mencho’ Cervantes as the leader of the wing.
Following the split, El Mencho and trained operatives of the Milenio
Cartel formed the CJNG (Beittel 2017:22).
The Rise of the CJNG
The CJNG strategically centered its foundation on the geographical
habitat of its membership in Guadalajara, the largest city and capital of
the Mexican state of Jalisco. The new cartel had several opportunities
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