Sinaloa Cartel vs Tijuana
Scarlett Counts
2001 - Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman escapes from a Mexican prison in a laundry van. Mexico’s most-wanted drug lord, he builds a coalition of drug gangs from the western state of Sinaloa and vows to take control of Mexico’s vast drug trade.
2002 - Police weaken the Tijuana cartel by killing drug boss Ramon Arellano Felix and arresting one of his brothers.
2003 - Mexican soldiers capture Osiel Cardenas, leader of the Gulf cartel based in eastern Mexico, after a shootout between troops and gunmen in the border city of Matamoros.
2004 - Trying to take advantage of Cardenas’ arrest, Guzman sends well-armed enforcers to border cities south of Texas to take over Gulf cartel smuggling routes. Heavy fighting breaks out before Guzman’s fighters are eventually repelled.
2005 - Guzman seeks control of the border city of Tijuana and trafficking routes into California. Violence escalates across Mexico and about 1,500 people are killed over the year.
2006 - Killings spread to the resort of Acapulco, the industrial city of Monterrey and to Michoacan in western Mexico, the home state of Felipe Calderon. After taking over as president on December 1, Calderon immediately sends out troops and federal police to stem the violence.
2007 - Calderon extradites Gulf cartel leader Cardenas to the United States and makes a historic 23-tonne cocaine seizure. U.S. President George W. Bush pledges $1.4 billion in drug-fighting gear and training for Mexico and Central America. Violence escalates and more than 3,000 people are killed over the course of the year.
2008 - Guzman’s hitmen take on the Juarez cartel in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, which quickly becomes the drug war’s bloodiest flashpoint.
2008
2009 - Calderon sends 10,000 more troops to Ciudad Juarez but the killings continue. Violence spills over the border into Arizona. U.S. President Barack Obama visits Mexico and vows to clamp down on smuggled guns but the annual drug war death toll soars above 7,000.
2009
2010 - In January police capture drug kingpin Teodoro “El Teo” Garcia Simental, known for having rivals tortured, killed and then dissolved in acid.
2010
1988: At a meeting, President-elect Bush tells President-elect Salinas he must prove to the U.S. Congress that he is cooperating in the drug war—a process called certification. The U.S. pressures Mexico to arrest Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, the drug lord believed to have been responsible for the murder of DEA Agent Enrique Camarena.
1988
1991, November*: While attempting to stop an air shipment of Colombian cocaine, Mexican Federal Police are killed by Mexican army members under payroll of the traffickers.
1991
1998, July*: As a result of Mexico's anger about U.S. actions in Operation Casablanca, Attorneys General Janet Reno and Jorge Madrazo Cuellar draft the Brownsville Agreement. Both nations pledge to inform each other about sensitive cross-border law enforcement operations.
1998
1991*: Mexican President Carlos Salinas allows DEA officers to conduct investigations on Mexican soil, although the regulations limit the number of agents in Mexico, designate certain cities in which they must live, deny the officers diplomatic immunity, require all information collected to be turned over to Mexican authorities, and prohibit agents to carry weapons.
1991
2000, May 11*: The Arellano-Félix brothers are charged with ten counts of drug trafficking, conspiracy, money laundering and aiding and abetting violent crimes. The U.S. State Department offers a $2 million reward for information leading to their arrest and conviction.
2000