La Familia: Mexican Drug Cartel

At a May 30, 2009 news conference, Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza labeled La Familia Michoacána (or La Familia) Mexico’s most dangerous cartel. He based this assessment on the bloodcurdling cruelty perpetrated by the shadowy, pious organization; its ability to bribe and threaten politicians; its spectacular surge in producing methamphetamines; and its access to high-powered weapons in Michoacán state, in southwestern Mexico, where 10,311 arms were confiscated last year—more than in any other state in the country.

Several factors explain why La Familia has shoved Michoacán to the brink of becoming a no-man’s land. First, the state is home to Lazaro Cardenas, the seaport that, along with nearby Manzanillo, Colima, provides the entry portal for cocaine from Andean nations and precursor chemicals for producing methamphetamines from China, Holland, Bulgaria, and other countries. Second, it forms part of the Tierra Caliente, an avocado, mango, and marijuana growing region where Michoacan, Guerrero, and Mexico State intersect. Finally, it bristles with hidden super-laboratories for manufacturing meth.

Michoacán has attracted not only La Familia, but other potent, deadly crime syndicates: the Beltrán Leyva brothers, who cooperate with Los Zetas, a paramilitary force created by the Gulf Cartel earlier in the decade; and the Guadalajara and Milenio Cartels, elements of which collaborate with the powerful Sinaloan Cartel headed by the legendary Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera. As of July 31, 254 drug-related deaths had occurred in Michoacan—well ahead of the 233 for 2008 and 238 for 2007.

"La Familia Michoacána: A Deadly Mexican Cartel Revisited", Foreign Policy Research Institute, August 2009.