MEXICO CITY: It has the drugs and distribution system of a traditional cartel —
and it has the modern weapons and audacity of an army. After attacking federal
forces, downing a military helicopter and shutting down streets in Mexico’s
second-largest city last week, the New Generation Jalisco cartel is now the
main enemy in the country’s fight with drug cartels.
In just a few years, New Generation has grown from being an offshoot of the
powerful Sinaloa cartel to one of Mexico’s strongest criminal groups in its own
right, according to the U.S. Treasury Department, whose Office of Foreign
Assets Control maintains a “black list” of drug trafficking organizations.
Its quick rise reflects a rapidly changing organized-crime landscape in Mexico
as the government targets top leaders of established cartels. More than any
other criminal group, New Generation has taken advantage of the government’s
top-capo strategy, strengthening and grabbing territory from other cartels as
they are weakened.
“You’re talking about a powerful, large organization with grand logistics, well-
made structures, a strong group of assassins, and dedicated and qualified
people with high-caliber weaponry,” Guillermo Valdes, a security expert and
former director of the Mexican intelligence agency, told The Associated Press.
“It’s a new cartel, a second generation born in a restructuring process.”
The strategy of hitting top leadership began in 2006 under President Felipe
Calderon and has continued under his successor, Enrique Pena Nieto. As a
result, large organizations have been fragmented, leaving smaller, leaderless
groups to fight among themselves over control of local organized crime
activities and drug-smuggling routes to the north.
When Calderon was in office, there were five major cartels. Today, the Mexican
attorney general lists nine major groups and 43 smaller factions.
New Generation has its origin in that fragmentation. While it has operated for
years, it surged in public notoriety last week after it waged brazen attacks in and
around Guadalajara, a major technology and manufacturing hub and the capital
of Jalisco state, which is a popular retirement spot for U.S. and Canadian
expats. But the city, some 290 miles (460 kilometers) northwest of Mexico City,
is also where Mexico’s largest drug cartels were born.
Leaders of the original Guadalajara cartel were captured in the 1980s, provoking
a surge in what Valdes calls the first generation of cartels, many of which still
exist, including Sinaloa, Beltran Leyva, Gulf, Zetas and Juarez cartels. But hits
on their leaders have left all but Sinaloa as just remnants of their former selves.
In little more than a year, the government has arrested Sinaloa’s Joaquin “El
Chapo” Guzman, Beltran Leyva’s Hector Beltran Leyva, Juarez’s Vicente Carrillo
Fuentes, Knights Templar’s Servando “La Tuta” Gomez, and the Zetas’ Omar
Trevino Morales. It killed Knights Templar leader Nazario Moreno.
Such blows have allowed New Generation to grow. Jalisco Gov. Aristoteles
Sandoval told Mexican media Wednesday that he warned the federal government
more than a year ago that its attacks on a rival cartel, the Knights Templar,
would strengthen New Generation but the reaction by authorities was
insufficient.
“The attorney general, overall, made three changes in his delegates but honestly
with zero results,” Sandoval told Universal television. “In this matter, from the
attorney general there was nothing. Same with the federal police. Zero.”
According to the U.S. Treasury Department, New Generation is mainly devoted
to trafficking cocaine and methamphetamines. Working with an associated
group known as Los Cuinis — a phonetic rendering of “The Queenies” — the
cartel has a presence in at least eight of Mexico’s 31 states and connections in
the U.S., Latin America, Africa, Europe and Asia. A U.S. indictment in 2013 said
New Generation leader Nemesio Oseguera and his brother-in-law, Cuinis leader
Abigael Gonzalez Valencia, move multi-ton quantities of cocaine from South
America to Mexico and facilitate its transport to the U.S., earning at least $10
million a year.
The indictment charged them with running a criminal enterprise and conspiracy
to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine. New Generation has its origin in
the now-defunct Milenio cartel and it later operated as an affiliate of Ignacio
“Nacho” Coronel, the Sinaloa cartel leader who was responsible for the group’s
methamphetamine division.
When Coronel was killed in a July 2010 federal operation, the New Generation
fragment started to grow. One reason, some speculate, is that Oseguera, alias
“El Mencho,” was very close to Coronel and may have inherited his contacts. He
also maintained a good relationship with the Sinaloa cartel. Others say New
Generation has been able to take advantage of suppliers and distributers who
have worked in the area for decades, even predating Coronel.
Whatever its source, the strength of New Generation surprised many on May 1
when federal authorities mounted an operation, reportedly targeting Oseguera:
The cartel responded almost immediately with roadblocks and arson attacks in
Guadalajara and two dozen other cities. It used an RPG to force down a military
helicopter carrying 16 military personnel and two federal police officers, killing
eight people.
New Generation’s expansion in just five years has not been replicated by any
other of the cartel fragments. On the contrary, many areas are seeing the violent
fallout of factional infighting. Sinaloa sub-groups battle each other in the
northern states of Sonora and Baja California Sur. Knights Templar, La Familia
and Beltran Leyva factions fight for control of the lucrative and growing opium
paste business in the southern state of Guerrero. Gangs affiliated with the Gulf
cartel are warring along the Tamaulipas border with Texas.
“Why do they need bosses when they’re their own operators?” said a
Tamaulipas state official, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security
reasons. “(Gang) soldiers are deciding to be generals without the permission of
anybody.” Antonio Mazzitelli, representative in Mexico for the U.N. Office on
Drugs and Crime, said fragmentation generates more violence as small groups
try to expand their territory, where they kidnap and collect extortions to make up
for cash they once made running drugs.
In the long run, the better-structured and quieter cartels are the ones that
survive, he said.
“The first principle for a drug trafficking organization is to minimize risk, to use
violence in a very hidden way and operate through corruption,” Mazzitelli said.
Unlike the old major cartels, New Generation is willing to wage war on the state
and federal government. The younger drug lords like to show off their money
and flaunt their power, even if it brings a direct assault from the government.
For that reason, the May 1 clash may be the beginning of the end of New
Generation, said Valdes, the former intelligence agency director.
“The drug business is not going away while we have such a large demand in the
United States, but that does not give immortality to any particular group,” he
said.
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