The ongoing Mexican government campaign has led to the killing of two major drug lords, Nazario Moreno Gonzalez and Antonio Ezequiel Cardenas at the end of 2010, and the arrest in June 2011 of Moreno's apparent successor Jesus Mendez Vargas. All this, however, offers small encouragement as Mexico tries to rein in the powerful drug cartels that have wreaked havoc across the country.
(See also Top 20 Notorious Female Gangsters)
(See also Top 10 Richest Gangsters Of All Time)
(See also Top 15 Richest Drug Lords of All Time)
(See also Top 25 Extremely Notorious Gangsters)
(See also 10 Most Powerful Female Crime Lords Ever)
(See also Top 10 Most Notorious Female Drug Kingpins)
13. Luis Fernando Sánchez Arellano
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| (Luis Fernando Sánchez Arellano) |
Alias: El Ingeniero (The Engineer)
Affiliation: Tijuana cartel
Born: Circa 1980 in Tijuana
Bounty: $2 million (U.S.), 30 million pesos (Mexico)
What We Know: The heir of the Arellano Félix clan that has held sway over the border city of Tijuana since the 1980s. His uncles were portrayed in the movie Traffic as the Obregón brothers. Although weakened by the rise of other criminal outfits, the Tijuana cartel still controls a valuable piece of trafficking turf along the Mexican border.
UPDATE: Still at large.
12. Antonio Ezequiel Cárdenas
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| (Antonio Ezequiel Cárdenas) |
Alias: Tony Tormenta
Affiliation: Gulf cartel
Born: March 5, 1962, in Matamoros
Bounty: $5 million (U.S.), 30 million pesos (Mexico)
What We Know: He was the brother of Osiel "the Friend Killer" Cárdenas, who led the Gulf cartel until his arrest in 2003. He now runs the organization along with Jorge Eduardo Costilla. Ezequiel Cárdenas allegedly forged links with the Italian Mafia to move drugs through the U.S. and on to Europe. On November 5, 2010, the Mexican government announced that Cardenas had died that day in a shootout with security forces in the border city of Matamoros. The death came after hundreds of soldiers moved into Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas, and launched a full-scale assault on Cardenas' cartel.
UPDATE: Cardenas was killed during an encounter with the Mexican Marines in November 2010. The gun battle lasted six hours and saw over 300 grenades go off.
11. Juan José Esparragoza
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| (Juan José Esparragoza) |
Alias: El Azul (The Blue)
Affiliation: Sinaloa cartel
Born: Feb. 3, 1949, in Chuicopa, Sinaloa
Bounty: $5 million (U.S.), 30 million pesos (Mexico)
What We Know: Esparragoza is allied to Joaquín Guzmán and Ismael Zambada. His nickname is linked to the complexion of his skin, which is considered by some as dark enough to be blue. He is believed to have had plastic surgery and sources say he recently had a huge wedding-anniversary bash in central Mexico.
UPDATE: Still at large.
Alias: El Mencho
Affiliation: Head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel
What We Know: Nemesio Oseguera is considered a rising star in the drug-trafficking world, controlling the strategic state of Jalisco in the heart of the country. In 2011 he headed death squads against the Zetas. The Jalisco cartel has historical links with the Sinaloans and is believed to work closely with them. However, Oseguera is originally from Michoacan state and the Jalisco cartel is also expanding there following the demise of the Knights Templar gang.
Alias: La Tuta, El Profe (The Teacher).
Affiliation: Knights Templar cartel
Born: February 6, 1966 (age 49) Arteaga, Michoácan, Mexico
Bounty: $5 million (U.S.), 30 million pesos (Mexico)
What We Know: Servando Gomez was No. 2 to the late Nazario Moreno in charge of the Knights Templar gang. Now on top of the cartel famous for meth trafficking, he’s considered less bloodthirsty than his late boss. He craves media attention and has given interviews to TV stations as well as releasing many of his own videos on YouTube. In some of those clips, he’s shown with public officials, causing scandals that rock his Michoacan state. Gomez has managed to escape thousands of soldiers, police and vigilantes combing Michoacan for him.
10. Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes
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| (Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes) |
Affiliation: Head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel
What We Know: Nemesio Oseguera is considered a rising star in the drug-trafficking world, controlling the strategic state of Jalisco in the heart of the country. In 2011 he headed death squads against the Zetas. The Jalisco cartel has historical links with the Sinaloans and is believed to work closely with them. However, Oseguera is originally from Michoacan state and the Jalisco cartel is also expanding there following the demise of the Knights Templar gang.
9. Servando Gomez
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| (Servando Gomez) |
Affiliation: Knights Templar cartel
Born: February 6, 1966 (age 49) Arteaga, Michoácan, Mexico
Bounty: $5 million (U.S.), 30 million pesos (Mexico)
What We Know: Servando Gomez was No. 2 to the late Nazario Moreno in charge of the Knights Templar gang. Now on top of the cartel famous for meth trafficking, he’s considered less bloodthirsty than his late boss. He craves media attention and has given interviews to TV stations as well as releasing many of his own videos on YouTube. In some of those clips, he’s shown with public officials, causing scandals that rock his Michoacan state. Gomez has managed to escape thousands of soldiers, police and vigilantes combing Michoacan for him.
8. Nazario Moreno González
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| (Nazario Moreno González) |
Alias: El Mas Loco (The Maddest One), El Chayo
Affiliation: La Familia Michoacana
Born: March 8, 1970, in Guanajuatillo, Michoacan
Bounty: $5 million (U.S.), 30 million pesos (Mexico)
What We Know: González specializes in trafficking crystal meth. He converted to evangelical Christianity while in the U.S. and has since written his own Bible, which is compulsory reading for his troops. He invokes principles of divine justice when setting out to defeat his enemies and is also a fan of the Godfather trilogy and the film Braveheart.
UPDATE: Moreno was allegedly shot dead by federal police in Apatzingan in December 2010. His men apparently escaped with his corpse.
7. Héctor Beltrán Leyva
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| (Héctor Beltrán Leyva) |
Alias: El H (The H)
Affiliation: Beltrán Leyva Organization
Born: Feb. 15, 1965, in Sinaloa
Bounty: $5 million (U.S.), 30 million pesos (Mexico)
What We Know: He was one of five brothers who trafficked tons of drugs to the U.S. The brothers used to work with other Sinaloan gangsters but took their leave in 2008 and have been in a violent turf war with Joaquín Guzmán's faction since. His brother Arturo was shot dead by marines in December 2009. Gunmen then massacred a marine's family in what appears to be an act of retribution. Leyva has been indicted in New York and the District of Colombia.
UPDATE: Still at large.
6. Jorge Eduardo Costilla
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| (Jorge Eduardo Costilla) |
Alias: El Coss
Affiliation: Gulf cartel
Born: Aug. 1, 1971, in Matamoros
Bounty: $5 million (U.S.), 30 million pesos (Mexico)
What We Know: Costilla heads a cartel that supposedly first grew out of a gang of bootleggers back in the days of American prohibition. Costilla was indicted in the U.S. for being part of a group that threatened an FBI and DEA agent with Kalashnikov rifles. He used to work closely with the Zetas cartel, but now is at the forefront of a war to exterminate them.
UPDATE: On Sept. 12, 2012, Costilla was arrested in Tampico in Mexico's Tamaulipas state.
5. Vicente Carrillo Fuentes
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| (Vicente Carrillo Fuentes) |
Alias: The Viceroy
Affiliation: Juarez cartel
Born: Oct. 16, 1962, in Guamachilito, Sinaloa
Bounty: $5 million (U.S.), 30 million pesos (Mexico)
What We Know: Vicente Carrillo Fuentes inherited the cartel leadership from his brother, who was known as “Lord of the Skies” because of he used a fleet of Boeing 727 airliners to transport cocaine. He led a ruthless group of killers called La Linea and was also said to work with a US prison gang, the Barrio Azteca. More than 9,000 people were murdered in Ciudad Juarez between 2008 and 2012. Carrillo Fuentes is in prison in Mexico, awaiting initial proceedings.
4. Heriberto Lazcano
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| (Heriberto Lazcano) |
Alias: The Executioner, El Lazca, Z-3
Affiliation: Los Zetas
Born: Dec. 25, 1974, in Veracruz
Bounty: $5 million (U.S.), 30 million pesos (Mexico)
What We Know: Lazcano served in the Mexican armed forces as part of the elite Airborne Special Forces Group. He reportedly received U.S. and Israeli military training, but defected in the late 1990s to work as an enforcer for the Gulf cartel. He has since broken off to head one of the most murderous gangs in the Mexican drug war, the Zetas — allegedly responsible for the recent massacre of 72 migrants.
UPDATE: Lazcano was reportedly killed on October 9, 2012 in a gunfight with marines in Coahuila, a northern Mexico border state, according to information from the Mexican navy.
3. Ismael Zambada
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| (Ismael Zambada) |
Alias: El Mayo (named after a native Sinaloan tribe), El Rey (The King), The MZ
Affiliation: Sinaloa cartel
Born: Jan. 1, 1948, in Sinaloa
Bounty: $5 million (U.S.), 30 million pesos (Mexico)
What We Know: Zambada reportedly once worked as a furniture removal man before becoming a gangster. He's an old ally and friend of Joaquín Guzmán and appeared on the front cover of Mexico's top newsmagazine Proceso this year. He said in the interview he had one wife and five mistresses and claimed that the army had been close to catching him several times.
UPDATE: Still at large.
Alias: L-40, La Mona, El Cuarenta, (40, Z-40, Zeta 40), David Estrada-Corado, Comandante Cuarenta
2. Miguel Angel Treviño
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| (Miguel Angel Treviño) |
Alias: L-40, La Mona, El Cuarenta, (40, Z-40, Zeta 40), David Estrada-Corado, Comandante Cuarenta
Affiliation: Los Zetas cartel
Born: 18 November 1970 (age 44) Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico
Bounty: $5 million (U.S.), 30 million pesos (Mexico)
What We Know: Peña Nieto’s first major narco arrest came seven months into his mandate in July 2013. Miguel Angel Treviño, 43, was head of the Zetas, responsible for many of the worst massacres and atrocities in Mexico’s drug war. He also laundered money into the United States in stables with award winning racehorses. Officials arrested him in the middle of the night without firing a shot, reportedly when he was visiting his newborn baby. Treviño is imprisoned in Mexico awaiting trial.
1. Joaquín Guzmán
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| (Joaquín Guzmán) |
Alias: Chapo (Shorty)
Affiliation: Sinaloa cartel
Born: April 4, 1957, in La Tuna, Sinaloa
Bounty: $5 million (U.S.), 30 million pesos (Mexico)
What We Know: The president’s biggest prize of them all came in February, when Mexican marines nabbed Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, a 5-foot-6-inch 57-year-old who was the most notorious living gangster on the planet. Guzman had been a hunted man since he escaped from a high-security prison in 2001 and was blamed for starting bloody turf wars all over Mexico, which led to a horrific spiral of violence. While on the lam, he married an 18-year-old beauty queen in 2007 and she gave birth to twins in a Los Angeles hospital. In 2008, his son was shot dead and Guzmán reportedly had 50,000 red roses sent to the funeral. Despite being considered the “Public Enemy No. 1” in Chicago as well as Mexico, he was caught in an apartment in the seaside resort of Mazatlan with his wife and a single bodyguard. Guzman is in prison in Mexico, awaiting trial, while the United States has also filed an extradition request for him.