Security & Strategic Review -May 2007

Mexican government agencies do not agree on the precise nature of the realignments that have been taking place within 'el narco' - as the country's drug underworld is now routinely called. However, they and their US counterparts broadly concur on one thing: that a coalition of sorts led by the Sinaloa cartel bosses has been gaining ground in its countrywide turf war with the Gulf cartel. The Gulf leaders claim that the coalition and the government are actually working hand in hand against them. Intentionality aside, a clear defeat of the Gulf cartel could spell the end of the current bloody turf wars.