1. History

North American Drug Wars of the 1980’s

History :
The United States government has been battling the war against drugs since the 1960’s. America in the 80’s saw a spike in drug use, causing a great hysteria. Some of the main substances abused were marijuana, heroin, cocaine, and the most popular crack cocaine, which is the most addictive form of cocaine. The southern borders of the U.S acted as the easiest route for smugglers to import these hot commodities. In the 1980’s, the Mexican drug cartels in collaboration with Colombian drug leaders formed an alliance to illegally import cocaine using already established pathways into the U.S. As much as 15 tons of cocaine was imported onto the United Stated territory a day worth half a billion dollars.

Here are some major events surrounding the North American war on drugs during the 1980’s: (source: npr.org Timeline: America’s war on drugs, 2, April 2007)

1981: The Medellin cartel rises to power. The alliance includes the Ochoa family, Pablo Escobar, Carolos Lehder and Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha. The drug kingpins work together to manufacture, transport and market cocaine. The United States and Colombia ratify a bilateral extradition treaty.

1982: Panamanian leader Gen. Manuel Noriega allows Pablo Escobar to ship cocaine through Panama. In the United States, Vice-President George H.W. Bush combines agents from multiple agencies and military branches to form the South Florida Drug Task Force, Miami being the main entry point at the time. In March, Pablo Escobar is elected to the Colombian congress; he gained support by building low-income housing, doling out money in Medellin slums and campaigning with Catholic priests. He’s driven out of Congress the following year by Colombia’s minister of justice.

1984: Nancy Reagan launches her “Just Say No” anti-drug campaign. In July, The Washington Times publishes a story about DEA informant Barry Seal’s infiltration of the Medellin cartel’s operations in Panama. The story shows that Nicaraguan Sandanistas are involved in the drug trade. As a result of Seal’s evidence, a Miami federal grand jury indicts Carlos Lehder, Pablo Escobar, Jorge Ochoa and Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha. (In February 1986, Seal is assassinated in Baton Rouge, La., by gunmen hired by the cartel.)

1985: Colombia extradites drug traffickers to the United States for the first time. U.S. officials discover that the Medellin cartel has a “hit list” that includes embassy members, their families, U.S. businessmen and journalists.

Mid-1980s: Because of the South Florida Drug Task Force’s work, cocaine trafficking slowly changes transport routes. The Mexican border becomes the major point of entry for cocaine headed into the United States. Crack, a cheap, addictive and potent form of cocaine, is first developed in the early ’80s; it becomes popular in the New York region, devastating inner-city neighborhoods.

October 1986: Reagan signs the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, which appropriates $1.7 billion to fight the drug war. The bill also creates mandatory minimum penalties for drug offenses, which are increasingly criticized for promoting significant racial disparities in the prison population because of the differences in sentencing for crack and powder cocaine. Possession of crack, which is cheaper, results in a harsher sentence; the majority of crack users are lower income.

February 1987: In February, Carlos Lehder is captured by the Colombian National Police and extradited to the United States, where he’s convicted of drug smuggling and sentenced to life in prison without parole, plus an additional 135 years.

May 1987: After receiving personal threats from drug traffickers, the justices on the Colombian Supreme Court rule by a vote of 13-12 to annul the extradition treaty with the United States.

1988: Carlos Salinas de Gortari is elected president of Mexico, and President-elect George H.W. Bush tells him he must demonstrate to the U.S. Congress that he is cooperating in the drug war. This process is called certification.

1989: President George H.W. Bush creates the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and appoints William Bennett as his first “drug czar.” Bennett aims to make drug abuse socially unacceptable. That same year, Forbes magazine lists Pablo Escobar — known for his “bribes or bullets” approach to doing business — as the seventh-richest man in the world.

December 1989: the United States invades Panama. Gen. Manuel Noriega surrenders to the DEA on Jan. 3, 1990, in Panama and is sent to Miami the next day. In 1992, Noriega is convicted on eight counts of drug trafficking, money laundering and racketeering, and sentenced to 40 years in prison.

 

introducing the Drug Lords & Cartels of the 80’s!!

Mexico:

Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo

•former Mexican Judicial Federal Police Agent
• The birth of all Mexican drug cartels
• Founded the Guadalajara Cartel in 1980
• Controlled all illegal drug trade & trafficking corridors across the Mexican & U.S borders throughout the 80’s
• Exported Marijuana and Opium
• Gallardo was the first Mexican drug Chief to partnership with Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar in the 80’s

 

Guadalajara Cartel

• Founded in 1980
• Founders: Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, Rafael Caro Quintero and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo
• Founding location: Guadalajara, Mexico
• Years active: 1980-1989
• Territory: Guadalajara, Mexico
• Ethnicity: Mexican
• Exported: cannabis, heroin & Colombian cocaine. The Guadalajara Cartel prospered from the cocaine trade.
• Criminals activities included: Drug trafficking, money laundering, extortion, murder and arms trafficking
• Allies: Tiajuana cartel, Medellin Cartel and the Cali Cartel

Mexican Cartel History:

In 1985 the Guadalajara Cartel suffered a huge blow when the arrests of two of their co-founders, Rafael Caro Quintero & Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo were captured and convicted for the kidnapping, torture and murder of DEA agent Enrique Camarena, whom was in Mexico on a special assignment.
After Quintero’s and Carrillo’s arrests, Gallardo maintained a low profile. Gallardo then decided to divide up the trade in which he controlled as he thought it would be more efficient and less likely to be taken down in one law enforcement raid. Gallardo then convened with all the nation’s top drug narcos where he then designated the turfs: The Tijuana route would go to his nephews, the Arellano Felix brothers. The Ciudad Juárez route was granted to the Carrillo Fuentes family, headed by Amado Carrillo. Miguel Caro Quintero would run the Sonora corridor. Control of the Matamoros, Tamaulipas corridor – then becoming the Gulf Cartel- would be left undisturbed to Juan García Abrego. Meanwhile, Joaquín Guzmán Loera and Ismael Zambada García would take over Pacific coast operations, becoming the Sinaloa Cartel. This is how other major cartels were born & came into power.
Félix Gallardo still planned to oversee national operations, he had the contacts so he was still the top man, but he would no longer control all details of the business. On April 8, 1989 Felix “The Godfather” Gallardo was arrested in connections to the kidnapping, torture and murder of DEA agent Enrique Camarena. “El Padrino” is serving a 40 year sentence.

 

Colombia:

Pablo Escobar
• December 1,1949 – December 2, 1993
• Colombian drug lord & exclusive cocaine trafficker
• Head of the Medellin Cartel
• The “Robin Hood” of Colombia- many people looked up to him as a hero. Escobar gave to the poor communities of Colombia. Build schools, hospitals and churches throughout Comombia
• In 1989 Forbes Magazine named Escobar as being one of the 200 billionaire in the world with an estimated net worth close to U.S $30 billion dollars (equivalent of US$58 billion in 2014)

 

Medellin Cartel
• Founded in 1976 in Medellin, Colombia
• Years active: 1976- 1993
• Founders: Pablo Escobar, Ochoa family: Jose Luis, Fabio & Juan Davis Ochoa, Carlos Lehder & Rodriguez Gacha
• Territory: Colombia
• Manufacture and distributed Colombian cocaine
• Exported cocaine through Mexico & Caribbean routes & into the U.S.A
• For a time the Medellin Cartel supplied at least 84%-90% of the United States and 80% of the World wide cocaine market.
• Criminal activities: Drug trafficking, money laundering, assassinations, bombing, extortion, bribery, kidnapping, murder, political corruption, arms trafficking, racketeering, terrorism.

 

***WATCH THIS COOL, SHORT VIDEO ON THE ANATOMY OF A DRUG CARTEL****

 

Mexican Drug Cartel and Terrorism:

The abduction, torture and murder of U.S Drug Enforcement                 Administration agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena

37-year-old U.S DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena was on assignment in Mexico working undercover posing as a potential buyer to narcotics traffickers. His main mission was to investigate who these drug lords were, what kind of drugs they were dealing and in what quantities. On February 7, 1985 Camarena was abducted outside of the heavily protected U.S Consulate building in Mexico. His friend, Alfredo Zavala Avelar, a Mexican pilot used by the DEA was also abducted separately on the same day.
The Regan Administration put great pressure on the government of Mexico. The United States Customs Agency took the unprecedented step of all by closing the border to traffic from Mexico.

30 days after the Camaren was abducted, his body was found along with the pilot turned up in the Mexican state of Michoacan. Their beaten and cut up bodies were dumped on the roadside.

The three men identified as having ordered the kidnappings, torture and murder of Camarena & Zavala were Ernesto “Don Neto” Fronseca, Rafael Caro Quintero and Migiel Angel Felix Gallardo, the heads of the then all-powerful Guadalajara drug cartel. Fronseca was arrested in April of that year, as well as Quintero who was later apprehended iin a wire tap operation. Felix Gallardo was able to evade capture until 1989.

 

 

According to reporter Chivis of Borderlandbeat.com stated that, “Many analysts of this case believe that the killing of DEA agent Enrique Camarena was a major turning point in the fight against drug trafficking throughout Mexico. In result to this case the Guadalajara cartel was broken up into splinter groups, which formed the basis of today’s powerful drug organizations. Also, this case marked a new level of shameless boldness by the cartels. To seize a DEA agent in broad daylight outside the extremely- protected U.S Consulate building, and to torment & murder him was ruthless and was further than the cartels had ever gone before at the time.”