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Updated March 19th, 2020 at 11:11 IST

A look at Mexico's fastest-rising cartel

Mexico's fastest-rising cartel, the Jalisco New Generation gang, has a reputation for ruthlessness and violence unlike any since the fall of the old Zetas cartel.

A look at Mexico's fastest-rising cartel
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Mexico's fastest-rising cartel, the Jalisco New Generation gang, has a reputation for ruthlessness and violence unlike any since the fall of the old Zetas cartel. In parts of the country it is fighting medieval-style battles, complete with fortified redoubts, to expand nationwide, from the outskirts of Mexico City, into the tourist resorts around Cancun, and along the northern border.

Jalisco so likes violence and heavy armament that U.S. prosecutors said its operatives tried to buy belt-fed M-60 machine guns in the United States, and once brought down a Mexican military helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade.

But Jalisco is also mounting a propaganda campaign, using videos and social media to threaten rivals while promising civilians that it won't prey on them with extortion and kidnappings. It is a promise that cartels in Mexico have long made, and always broken. But Jalisco's onslaught is so powerful that the cartel appears to have convinced some Mexicans, especially those who are tired of local gangs, to accept control by one large, powerful cartel.

Sofia Huett, the head security official in the central state of Guanajuato, has been on the receiving end of what she calls a propaganda war between Jalisco and the Santa Rosa gang.

"What is striking is the propaganda campaign in all media. What we are seeing today, we haven't seen" since Mexico's 2006-2012 drug war, she said, referring to decapitation videos, threats, and social media messages warning people to stay indoors.

To those lured by the promises of the cartel, Huett said: "We cannot leave in the hands of the public these doubt about criminals, these false promises of protection and these false promises of well-being. This always ends badly."

Jalisco is accustomed to attacking law enforcement directly. The cartel is blamed for two of the worst attacks in recent memory: in October, cartel gunmen ambushed and killed 14 state police officers in Michoacán, and there are indications they killed some with gunshots to the head.

Jalisco really only understands force, a tactic that Mexico's government has sidelined. Indeed, López Obrador said his administration no longer seeks to detain drug lords.

Moises Guerrero, mayor of Apaseo El Grande, also minimizes the spillover of the gang war onto citizens and investors. Referring to targeted killings by cartel gunmen, Guerrero said: "They don't make mistakes. They go after the person they are after."

Meanwhile, many of Jalisco's front-line battlegrounds look almost medieval.

In Michoacán, Jalisco controls the south bank of the Rio Grande river, while the north bank remains in the hands of the rival New Michoacán Family cartel and its armed wing, the Viagras. The other gangs' terror of Jalisco is evident; in September, they hijacked and burned a half-dozen trucks and buses to block the bridge over the river, to prevent Jalisco convoys from entering in a surprise assault.

One thing is clear: Jalisco wants people to know that they're in town. They post videos on social media, usually with a few dozen heavily-armed, camouflage-clad men with helmets in the background, announcing they have come to "clean up the town."

While extreme violence is hardly new in Mexico,  Jalisco is more fearsome than other cartels, more worrisome than even the notorious Zetas, who left piles of as many as 50 bodies on roads, kidnapped hundreds of people and forced them to fight each other to the death with sledgehammers, and burned their victims alive in gasoline drums.

The Zetas were never particularly good at carving out new drug routes or laundering money; Jalisco, with years of experience in methamphetamine production through their allies, the "Cuinis" gang, is in a prime position to capitalize on new synthetic drugs like fentanyl.

And the cartel - like its main rival, Sinaloa - has been able to branch out into new regions of the world, turning to India when China cracks down on fentanyl shipments, and establishing connections with Chinese and other Asian gangs to launder drug proceeds that help wealthy Chinese get around their government's currency flow limits and move their wealth abroad.

Now, experts say, much of the violence in Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez and Tamaulipas state is fueled by offensives by the Jalisco cartel, often in alliance with local gangs, to take control of key drug routes.

And under the steely command of Nemesio Oseguera, "El Mencho" _ who is now the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's most-wanted fugitive, with a 10 million US dollars price on his head -  the Jalisco cartel has a more unified leadership than Sinaloa, whose command structure was fractured after the arrest, extradition and conviction of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

(Picture Credit: pixabay)

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Published March 19th, 2020 at 11:15 IST

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