Drug Wars The Barrios Azteca Prison Gang
This show features the
Barrio Azteca, a
Mexican prison gang that was formed in
1986. The episode details how the gang has become the largest in the
El Paso region and its subsequent infiltration into the Mexican prison system. It also discusses how local law enforcement, including the
El Paso County Sheriff's Office, has tried to curb the gang's activity.
The Barrio Azteca (
Spanish pronunciation: [ˈbarjo asˈteka]), or Los Aztecas (pronounced: [los asˈtekas]), is a Mexican-American gang originally based in
El Paso, Texas. The gang was formed in the jails of El Paso in 1986 and expanded into a transnational criminal organization. They are currently one of the most violent gangs in the
United States and are said to have over 3,
000 members in the
U.S. in locations such as
New Mexico,
Texas,
Massachusetts and
Pennsylvania and at least 5,000 members in
Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
In 2008, Barrio Azteca formed an alliance with
La Línea, the armed wing of the
Juárez Cartel, to fight off the forces of the
Sinaloa Cartel, who were attempting to take over the drug smuggling routes in the area. The control of the routes in
Ciudad Juárez, known as the "
Juárez plaza," are vital for the drug trafficking organizations since they are the major illicit conduit into the United States. The
DEA estimates that about 70% of the cocaine that enters the United States flows through the area. The gang's main source of income derives from smuggling drugs across the border from
Mexico into the United States. They are also responsible for the distribution and sale of narcotics in and outside of prisons. Aside from drug trafficking, they have been charged with a number of different crimes.
The gang, which operates in the U.S. and Mexico, has morphed into a prime example of the "cross-border nature of Mexico's drug war." Members of the Barrio Azteca gang usually have
U.S. citizenship, making them ideal cross-border killers that move back and forth across the U.S.-Mexico border.
Background
The Barrio Azteca gang was formed in the jails of El Paso in 1986 and gained an image of being a tough and loyal gang willing to commit murder of civilians in order to keep fear in the minds of its members and ensure their loyalty/obedience.
Some believe that the growth of Barrio Azteca in Mexico is due to the area's distinctive cross-border nature. The area of El Paso and Ciudad Juárez is in many ways one community, with families, friends, businesses -- and even gangs -- joined in the same urban sprawl. Some illegal
Mexicans arrested in the United States are imprisoned in Texan prisons and consequently join Barrio Azteca. When they are absolved from their sentences, they are sent back across the border into Mexico, where they quickly join the gang's ranks and carry out a number of crimes. The Barrio Azteca has long sold drugs moved by the Juárez Cartel. As Barrio Azteca grew in power, it began to work directly with the
Juarez Cartel and their alliance grew stronger. The gang began to directly buy large sums of cocaine from the cartel at cheaper rates, and in return the gang would buy weapons in so called straw purchases from Texan gun shops and then smuggle them across the border. Furthermore, if the cartel needed to intimidate or carry out an assassination in the United States, they would simply call on the Barrio Azteca. When the Sinaloa Cartel made its first incursion into Ciudad Juárez in 2008, Barrio Azteca was called to defend the plaza. They are alleged by the Mexican authorities to have committed numerous brutal assassinations in the city, although the exact numbers are unknown. In addition, Barrio Azteca controls most of the drug sales for the Juárez Cartel in Ciudad Juárez's streets and prisons, although other gangs and independent operators abound.
Barrio Azteca is also reported to have kidnapped people in El Paso and drive them south into Ciudad Juárez to kill them. A murder in Texas drives a huge investigation which often leads to an arrest. But in Ciudad Juárez, it is one of the more than ten corpses found dead on a daily basis. The gang also tortures and murders its victims in front of a large and cheering gang audience. According to the testimony of an alleged Barrio Azteca member, gang members torture and kill their victims by digging up holes in the ground, throwing a bunch of mesquite, and then pouring in some gasoline. The gang members then beat up their victims and throw them in the
hole. Then they light the whole thing on fire.