The most notorious drug traffickers in Mexico

( Spanish) — They have been persecuted by Mexican and US authorities for being leaders and prominent members of the largest Mexican drug cartels.

These are the most notorious drug lords in Mexico:

1. Hector Beltran Leyva

Leader of the Beltrán Leyva Cartel was arrested in 2014 and died on November 18, 2018 of cardiac arrest. The Mexican government came to offer more than 2 million dollars for his capture, and the US a reward of up to 5 million dollars. Since 2016, he has been in custody facing federal prosecution.

2. Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, El Mencho

In 2018, the Attorney General’s Office offered a little more than US$ 1.5 million for information leading to his capture for alias “El Mencho”. Meanwhile, the United States is offering up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest. The PGR accuses him of organized crime and other crimes.

3. Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman

He was one of the most powerful drug traffickers in the world, and one of the richest men, according to Forbes magazine. El Chapo Guzmán was extradited to the United States in 2017. There he faced a judicial process in which, in 2019, he was sentenced to prison for 10 charges, including participation in an ongoing criminal enterprise, drug trafficking and firearms charges. . He was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years and ordered to pay $12.6 billion in forfeiture.

4. Miguel Angel and Omar Treviño

Miguel Angel Trevino

Leaders of the Los Zetas Cartel, one of the bloodiest. Of Miguel Ángel, El 40 or Z-40, it was said that he burned his victims alive. He was arrested in 2013 and extradited to the US in July 2018. His brother Omar, who took over the leadership of the group, was also arrested in 2015. In 2018, Omar told the Prosecutor’s Office to look for the victims of he in the ditches. None have been convicted.

5. Mario Cardenas Guillen

Members of the Mexican Navy escort Mario Cárdenas Guillén, alias “El M-1” and alleged leader of the Gulf drug cartel, during his presentation to the press in Mexico City on September 4, 2012. (Credit : According to the Navy spokesman, Cárdenas was detained during a military operation in Altamira, Tamaulipas on September 3. (Credit: YURI CORTEZ/AFP/GettyImages)

The leader of the Gulf Cartel and successor to Ezequiel and Osiel Cárdenas Guillén was captured in September 2012. This cartel has fragmented in recent years, but it became one of the main competitors of the Chapo cartel, the Sinaloa cartel. Former head of the Gulf Cartel was delivered to the United States on May 17, 2022 by the Attorney General of Mexico. According to the indictment, beginning in 2000 and continuing through 2012, Cárdenas Guillén allegedly conspired with others to possess more than five kilograms of cocaine, which he intended to distribute to others.

6. Vicente Carrillo Fuentes

El Viceroy was one of the most wanted suspects in Mexico, the leader of the Juárez Cartel for whom up to 5 million dollars in reward was offered. He was captured in October 2014. In May 2018, he received an injunction against his imprisonment because it was considered that the accusations against him are not substantiated.

7. The Arellano Felix brothers

Benjamin Arellano Felix.

Most of the seven brothers who led the family cartel have been captured or killed. In 2012, Benjamín Arellano Félix, who was the leader of the Tijuana Cartel, pleaded guilty in the US to charges of criminal association and conspiracy to launder money.

8. Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada

(Credit: DEA)

It is believed that he has been in charge of the Sinaloa Cartel since El Chapo was recaptured in 2016. He is one of the most wanted suspects in Mexico and the US is offering $5 million for his capture. A Texas district court accuses him of conspiracy to possess and import more than 5 kg of cocaine and more than 1,000 kg of marijuana, drug trafficking, as well as money laundering, conspiracy to possess firearms, among others, according to the DEA.

9. Beloved Carrillo Fuentes

Mexican authorities show the alleged body of Amado Carrillo Fuentes in July 1997 (OMAR TORRES/AFP/Getty Images)

Known as the Lord of the Skies, for the large fleet of planes he used to bring cocaine from Colombia to Mexico, he died in 1997 after undergoing plastic surgery to change his appearance and avoid capture.

10. Rafael Caro Quintero

Caro Quintero, considered the “narco of narcos” and who had been a fugitive since 2013, was arrested on July 15, 2022, by the Mexican Navy. The drug lord, who was born in 1952, founded the now disintegrated Guadalajara Cartel with Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo and other drug traffickers in the 1970s and was allegedly responsible for the cultivation, shipment and distribution of large amounts of marijuana in Mexico, according to the Department of US State

In August 2022, a judge definitively suspended the extradition process against him to the United States.

Caro Quintero is accused of kidnapping, torturing and murdering DEA special agent Enrique Kiki Camarena in 1985, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

— This note was updated in January 2023.