- published: 04 Aug 2015
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The Sinaloa Cartel (Spanish: Cártel de Sinaloa or CDS) is a drug-trafficking and organized crime organization based 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. The 'Federation' was partially splintered when the Beltrán-Leyva brothers broke apart from the Sinaloa Cartel.
The United States Intelligence Community considers the Sinalo Cartel "the most powerful drug trafficking organization in the world" and in 2011, the Los Angeles Times called it as "Mexico's most powerful organized crime group."
The Sinaloa Cartel is associated with the label "Golden Triangle", which refers to the states of Sinaloa, Durango, and Chihuahua. The region is a major producer of Mexican opium and marijuana. According to the U.S. Attorney General, the Sinaloa Cartel is responsible for importing into the United States and distributing nearly 200 tons of cocaine and large amounts of heroin between 1990 and 2008.
Sinaloa (Spanish pronunciation: [sinaˈloa]), officially Free and Sovereign State of Sinaloa (Spanish: Estado Libre y Soberano de Sinaloa), is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 18 municipalities and its capital city is Culiacán Rosales.
It is located in Northwestern Mexico. It is bordered by the states of Sonora to the north, Chihuahua and Durango to the east (separated from them by the Sierra Madre Occidental) and Nayarit to the south. To the west, Sinaloa has a significant share of coastline on the Gulf of California.
The state covers an area of 57,377 square kilometers (22,153 sq mi), and includes the Islands of Palmito Verde, Palmito de la Virgen, Altamura, Santa María, Saliaca, Macapule and San Ignacio.
In addition to the capital city, the state's important cities include Mazatlán and Los Mochis.
Prior to the coming of the Spaniards, much of Sinaloa was inhabited by the Cáhita.
In 1531 Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán with a force of over 10,000 defeated a force of 30,000 Cáhita at the site of Culiacan. Beltran de Guzman established a Spanish and allied Indian outpost at Culiacan. Over the next decade, the Cáhita suffered severe depopulation from smallpox and other diseases the Spanish brought.
The Mexican Drug War is an ongoing armed conflict between rival drug cartels fighting each other for regional control, and Mexican government forces. The government's principal goal has been to put down the drug-related violence that was raging between different drug cartels before any military intervention was made. In addition, the Mexican government has claimed that their primary focus is on dismantling the powerful drug cartels, rather than on drug trafficking prevention, which is left to U.S. functionaries.
Although Mexican drug cartels, or drug trafficking organizations, have existed for several decades, they have become more powerful since the demise of Colombia's Cali and Medellín cartels in the 1990s. Mexican drug cartels now dominate the wholesale illicit drug market by controlling 90% of the drugs that enter the United States. Arrests of key cartel leaders, particularly in the Tijuana and Gulf cartels, have led to increasing drug violence as cartels fight for control of the trafficking routes into the United States.