La Familia Drug Cartel: Implications for U.S. - Mexican Security

By Dr. George W. Grayson

La Familia Michoacana or as it is also known, La Familia, has emerged as one of Mexico's strangest and most grotesque drug cartels. Its leaders-Nazario "El Chayo" Moreno Gonz?lez and Jos? de Jes?s "El Chango" M?ndez Vargas-insist they are doing the Lord's work when they discipline teenagers for wearing long hair or spraying graffiti on colonial buildings in the Michoac?n state capital of Morelia. However, this syndicate is not content with trying to civilize young people. It captures enemies, who may belong to Los Zetas or another competing cartel, and tortures, dismembers, and decapitates them-often leaving heads in public venues as a warning.Despite their pious opposition to drug consumption by michoacanos, "El Chayo" and "El Chango" have amassed a fortune by importing precursor drugs from Asia and Europe through the Michoac?n Pacific Coast port of L?zaro C?rdenas. They have constructed scores of sophisticated laboratories to convert these chemicals into methamphetamines for sale in an expanding U.S. market. La Familia also acquires resources by selling protection to merchants, street vendors, loggers, hotel owners, local gangs, and small-scale drug sellers. Rather than speak in terms of extortion, the shadowy organization insists that it "protects" its clients.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1461092183
• ISBN13: 9781461092186
• Release Date: December 2010
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 124 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.0" x 0.3" x 8.0"