Supply Chains of Mexican Drug Cartels

April 7, 2014Georgia Tech

Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI): 1929-2000; 2012-Present

Dominated Most Aspects of Society * Captive Labor Movement

* Educational System * The petroleum sector (PEMEX)

* Mass media* Transportation

* Economic policy Mining

Mexico’s Approaches to Drug Cartels Institutional Revolutionary Party

(PRI): 1970s to early 1990sFernando Gutierrez Barrios

Rules of the Game

National Action Party (PAN): 2000 to 2006

Vicente Fox Quesada

Two Major Types of CartelsTransactional

(Moving commodities from point A to point B)

• Trafficking narcotics• Money laundering• Front businesses• Importance of logistics • More personnel • Cell-like organization

Territorial Control & Taxation of an area

• Enemies of states because they are so much alike;

• Hierarchical;• Resilient;• Prone to Violence• Funded by Taxation

(extortion, kidnapping, graft, etc.

• Dual Sovereignty

La Familia Michoacana and the Knights Templars

Mexico’s Pacific Coast

Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan Importance of port for Drug Cartels

* Relatively new (1970s)• Built near steel mills• Within 160 miles of 2/3rds

of the nation’s population• Attracted uprooted young

people• Economic downturn of the

mid-1990s

Sources of Drugs

Cocaine from Colombia

Precursor Chemicals from Asia

Trans-Ocean Cargo Ships

Semi-Submersible Submarine

Drug Export Honchos Enrique “Kiki” Plancarte

Export Boss “Oscar” (Command and Control Agent)

Shipments to the Border

Other Delivery Devices Pozo Seco, Sonora to Naco, Arizona 2011

Catapulting to Success

Super Tunnel 600-yard “Super Tunnel” Snaked from Tijuana to San Diego

Electricity, Ventilation, and Electric rail system

Major Mexican Highways

Crossing Points into U.S.

Dallas Main Hub in U.S. Extremely large, sprawling city • Interstate Highways

35 and 20; and • Major Airports (in area)• Large Hispanic-

American Population

Transfer to Smaller Vehicles Before Reaching Chicago

Pick-up Trucks SUVs

To the “Windy City”

Distribution Supervisors in Chicago AREARemain in the City of One Year ($100,000) + Bonus

Jose “Panda” Gonzalez Zavala

Luis Torres Galvan

• Arrested in June 2009(Operation Coronado); sentenced to 40 years in prison) • Arrested in June 2009(Operation Coronado);

Cocaine Delivery to Wholesalers

Average Suburban Home Appearance of Normal Mexican-

American Family

Cocaine Dropped off on Consignment

Collector of Sales of Cocaine

Safe House for Money

Unobtrusive Home from Outside Look What’s Inside!

Preparing the Dollars for Return to Michoacan

Encase Dollars in Durable Plastic BagsEncase in Concrete Used to Make

Pothole Covers

Return to Michoacan

Use Smaller Vehicles Leaving Chicago; make Transfer to Larger Vehicle on to the Border; & take Least Dangerous Route

Take Least Dangerous Route; From U.S. Border to Michoacan, Use corridors where mayors and other politicians are linked to the cartel

Self-Defense Forces Challenge Knights Templarios

Active in Stealing and Producing Iron Ore

Back to the Port of Lazaro Cardenas(Managed by a Hong Kong-based Firm)

Ore-Carrying Vessel Shanghai Skyscrapers

Return of Virgin of Guadalupe

W&M Professor Shamelessly Seeking a Job in Pemex—For one week