The Independent Cartel of Guerrero (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

: Cártel Independiente de Acapulco or CIDA) was a criminal gang based in the Mexican

resort city A resort town, often called a resort city or resort destination, is an urban area where tourism or vacationing is the primary component of the local culture and economy. A typical resort town has one or more actual resorts in the surrounding ...

Acapulco, Guerrero Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , also , nah, Acapolco), is a city and major seaport in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semicircular bay and has bee ...

and its surrounding territories. The criminal group came into existence during the rapid

decentralization Decentralization or decentralisation is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those regarding planning and decision making, are distributed or delegated away from a central, authoritative location or group. Conce ...

of Mexico's drug trafficking organizations as a split-off group of the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel. Originally, the Beltrán Leyva cartel operated in the city, but the group no longer has presence in Acapulco. After the Mexican military gunned down the top boss of the cartel – Arturo Beltrán Leyva – in December 2009, his brother

Héctor Beltrán Leyva Héctor Manuel Beltrán Leyva (15 February 1962 – 18 November 2018) was a Mexican drug lord and leader of the Beltrán Leyva Cartel, a drug-trafficking organization. He was the brother of Arturo Beltrán Leyva (deceased), former leader o ...

took control of one of the factions of the cartel and declared war on

Edgar Valdez Villarreal Edgar Valdez Villarreal (born August 11, 1973), also known as La Barbie ("The Barbie"), is a Mexican-American former drug lord and high-ranking lieutenant of the now-disbanded Beltrán Leyva Cartel. Valdez is serving a 49-year prison sentence ...

, who had long been the right hand of Arturo. Amidst the violence, Valdez Villarreal tried to appoint a successor, but those in Acapulco broke off and formed their own criminal gang: the Independent Cartel of Acapulco. Within weeks, however, the group had splintered also, forming a new and rival group known as La Barredora. Villarreal Valdez was then captured by the Mexican Federal Police in August 2010, but the violence between the groups for the control of Acapulco continued. The hitmen of the Independent Cartel of Acapulco are known for

flaying Flaying, also known colloquially as skinning, is a method of slow and painful execution in which skin is removed from the body. Generally, an attempt is made to keep the removed portion of skin intact. Scope A dead animal may be flayed when pr ...

the faces of their victims and putting them on car seats throughout various points of the city. They are also notorious for

extorting Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, al ...

taxi drivers and threatening them to avoid taking people to territories of their rivals in risks of getting killed. Part of the reason why the area in Acapulco is often entrenched in violence is because the port city is treasured by drug traffickers due to its corruption, its long and jagged coastline, and the high amount of boat traffic. Hence, Acapulco is considered an ideal place to carry out drug trafficking operations, where smugglers use

speedboats A motorboat, speedboat or powerboat is a boat that is exclusively powered by an engine. Some motorboats are fitted with inboard engines, others have an outboard motor installed on the rear, containing the internal combustion engine, the gea ...

to move large sums of

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly used recreationally for its euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from the leaves of two Coca species native to South Ameri ...

from

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

northward. Since the capture of one of their top leaders in December 2011, the Independent Cartel of Acapulco appears to have been damaged severely and has faded from public view. Their weakness, however, appears to have allowed La Barredora, a

Sinaloa Cartel The Sinaloa Cartel ( es, link=no, Cártel de Sinaloa), also known as the CDS, the Guzmán-Loera Organization, the Pacific Cartel, the Federation and the Blood Alliance, is a large, international organized crime syndicate that specializes in il ...

-affiliated gang, to take up the drug operations. After the assassination of the YouTuber Pamika Montenegro Real (known as "''Nana Pelucas''") in February 2018, the Prosecutor Xavier Olea Peláez said during a press conference that the ambush was organized by Javier Daniel Cervantes Magno (aka "''El Barbas''"), member to the cartel of Acapulco led by José Ángel Palacios Galeana (aka "''El Capuchino''").

Emergence and structure

The emergence of the Independent Cartel of Acapulco illustrates how

Felipe Calderón Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa (; born 18 August 1962) is a Mexican politician who served as the 63rd president of Mexico from 1 December 2006 to 30 November 2012 and Secretary of Energy during the presidency of Vicente Fox between 2003 ...

's security policy of going after the top drug lords in the cartels have fragmented them into smaller, localized, and autonomous factions, similar to the criminal groups currently operating in Colombia. The strategy of pursuing the top bosses of the drug trafficking organizations – known as the "Kingpin strategy" – first happened in Colombia in the 1980s. The effectiveness and results of the strategy in Colombia have raised optimism that the same strategy can work in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. Nonetheless, attacking the logistics of the major organized crime groups (that is, arresting their leaders, killing high-ranking lieutenants, and interrupting their drug shipments) has often led to the creation of smaller, more agile gangs like the Independent Cartel of Acapulco. In recent years, the Acapulco area has experienced one of the highest levels of violence in Mexico, as two gangs battle for the control of the lucrative port with the external support of much larger cartels operating at a national level. The cartel is mostly composed of former members loyal to

, who was arrested in September 2010. The group is responsible for several homicides in Acapulco, and is part of the "wave of smaller local gangs" operating in the area.

References

External links

Mexico's war on drugs blights resort of Acapulcoarchive
— ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' {{Mexican Drug War Organizations established in 2010 2010 establishments in Mexico Organizations disestablished in 2014 2014 disestablishments in Mexico Disbanded Mexican drug cartels Mexican drug war Acapulco