Narconomics: How To Run a Drug Cartel

by Tom Wainwright

Drug cartels go through a similar process. Unable to persuade Ciudad Juárez’s regulator—the local police—to allow his takeover of the city’s drugs business to go ahead, El Chapo appealed to a different authority. Fortunately for him, Mexico’s multilayered policing system made this possible. In Mexico, each of the 2,000-plus local governments has its own police force (at least in theory; some rural ones are all but nonexistent). On top of that, each of the thirty-one states has its own, separate force. The final layer is the federales (federal police), an elite squad—all things being relative—of more heavily armed, better trained officers, which operates around the country and was significantly expanded during the Calderón presidency.