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La Línea ("The Line") is currently the leading faction of the
Juárez Cartel The Juárez Cartel (Spanish: ''Cártel de Juárez''), also known as the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Organization, is a Mexican drug cartel based in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, across the Mexico—U.S. border from El Paso, Texas. The cartel is one ...
originally designed to be one of the cartel's enforcer units set up by a number of former and active-duty policemen, heavily armed and extensively trained in
urban warfare Urban warfare is combat conducted in urban areas such as towns and cities. Urban combat differs from combat in the open at both the operational and the tactical levels. Complicating factors in urban warfare include the presence of civilians and t ...
. Their corrupt "line" of policemen were set up to protect drug traffickers, but after forming an alliance with
Barrio Azteca The Barrio Azteca (), or Los Aztecas (), is a Mexican-American street, and prison gang originally based in El Paso, Texas. The gang was formed in the jails of El Paso in 1986 and expanded into a transnational criminal organization. Currently one ...
to fight off the forces of the
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 ...
in 2008, they established a foothold in
Ciudad Juárez Ciudad Juárez ( ; ''Juarez City''. ) is the most populous city in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. It is commonly referred to as Juárez and was known as El Paso del Norte (''The Pass of the North'') until 1888. Juárez is the seat of the Ju ...
as the enforcement wing of the Juárez cartel. La Línea has also been involved in extortions and kidnappings. As of 2021, La Línea has formed an alliance with the
Jalisco New Generation Cartel The Jalisco New Generation Cartel ( es, Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación) or CJNG, formerly known as ''Los Mata Zetas'', is a semi-militarized Mexican criminal group based in Jalisco which is headed by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes ("El Me ...
in Ciudad Juárez to fight off influence and incursions from the Sinaloa Cartel. At the service of the Juárez cartel, La Línea has been instrumental in helping
Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Vicente Carrillo Fuentes (born 16 October 1962), commonly referred to by his alias El Viceroy, is a Mexican convicted drug lord and former leader of the Juárez Cartel, a drug trafficking organization. The cartel is based in Chihuahua, one of ...
' organization hold influence in Ciudad Juárez, one of the most important crossings and drug corridors in the U.S-Mexico border and home to a growing retail drug market. In the early
2010s File:2010s collage v21.png, From top left, clockwise: Anti-government protests called the Arab Spring arose in 2010–2011, and as a result, many governments were overthrown, including when Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was Death of Muammar Gadd ...
the
DEA The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA; ) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating drug trafficking and distribution within the U.S. It is the lead agency for domestic enf ...
estimated that about 70% of the
cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...
that enters the United States flows through the
El Paso–Juárez El Paso–Juárez, also known as Juárez–El Paso, the Borderplex or Paso del Norte, is a transborder agglomeration, on the border between Mexico and the United States. The region is centered on two large cities: Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexi ...
border. La Línea is linked to some of Ciudad Juárez's and the region's most notorious massacres, including the massacre of 16 teenagers at a high school party ( Villas de Salvárcar massacre), the shooting that killed 19 patients at a rehab center, and of the cell phone-detonated car bomb attack – all of them perpetrated in 2010. The gang has also been connected to the infamous Mormon family massacre in
Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is d ...
in 2019. Their former gang leader, nicknamed ''El Diego'', was guilty of carrying out more than 1,500 killings from 2008 to 2011 alone.


History


Villas de Salvárcar massacre

Gunmen burst into a party in a small working-class neighborhood known as Villas de Salvárcar in
Ciudad Juárez Ciudad Juárez ( ; ''Juarez City''. ) is the most populous city in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. It is commonly referred to as Juárez and was known as El Paso del Norte (''The Pass of the North'') until 1888. Juárez is the seat of the Ju ...
, killing 16 teenagers on 31 January 2010. Witnesses said that the cartel members arrived at the crime scene in seven cars with tinted windows, closed down the street and blocked the exits. Then they stormed the party and opened fire at the victims as they were watching a football (soccer) game. Some of the teenagers were shot as they tried to flee and their corpses were found in the neighboring houses. As neighbors hid in their houses, some dialed the emergency services but the
Mexican military The Mexican Armed Forces ( es, Fuerzas Armadas de México) are the military forces of the United Mexican States. The Spanish crown established a standing military in colonial Mexico in the eighteenth century. After Mexican independence in 1821, ...
and the
Federal police A law enforcement agency (LEA) is any government agency responsible for the enforcement of the laws. Jurisdiction LEAs which have their ability to apply their powers restricted in some way are said to operate within a jurisdiction. LEAs ...
did not arrive until after the killers had left. When the Mexican authorities arrived, a large crowd gathered at the crime scene as the neighbors and family members of the victims, whose ages ranged from 15 to 20, cried and set down candles. They pleaded for their names not to be released for the fear of the hit men returning and taking revenge. The relatives and witnesses interviewed after the massacre insisted that the teenagers had nothing to do with the drug trade and were "good kids." What was troubling for the authorities was that the victims were not gathered inside a bar or at a rehab center, but rather at a private home. They gave no official statement for the motives behind the killing, but the massacre bore all the signs of the drug violence that Ciudad Juárez was living for the past three years. Videos from the crime scene depict a sparsely furnished home with large puddles of blood and taints smeared on the walls; in addition, more than 100
AK-47 The AK-47, officially known as the ''Avtomat Kalashnikova'' (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is a gas operated, gas-operated assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian s ...
bullet casings were found at the crime scene. The Mexican authorities issued a reward of $1 million
pesos The peso is the monetary unit of several countries in the Americas, and the Philippines. Originating in the Spanish Empire, the word translates to "weight". In most countries the peso uses the same sign, "$", as many currencies named "dollar" ...
for anyone who could provide information that led to the arrest of the killers. One by one, the coffins of the victims were carried out from their homes on 4 February 2010, as their families demanded for justice. The governor of the state of Chihuahua,
José Reyes Baeza Terrazas José Reyes Baeza Terrazas (born 20 September 1961) is a Mexican politician and lawyer. In 2004, he was elected Governor of Chihuahua as a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party for the term ending in 2010. Prior to that, he was Chair o ...
, showed up at the funeral unexpectedly to pay his respects to the families.
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 a ...
, Mexico's president, also visited the family members and handed a memorial plaque to the parents of the victims. The mayor of Ciudad Juárez said that the massacre was a random act of violence by Mexico's drug gangs because the victims had no apparent ties with organized crime. But Calderón was widely criticized for his initial comments after the massacre, where he claimed that the investigations had showed that those killed were almost certainly targeted for being involved in organized crime. The parents of the victims hung huge placards outside their houses accusing Calderón of failing to solve the massacre and explicitly saying that "until those responsible are found,
e was E, or e, is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''e'' (pronounced ); plu ...
the murderer." The federal government of Mexico responded to the massacre by implementing the
Todos Somos Juárez
program, which aimed to improve education and social development, create jobs, and improve the health benefits in Ciudad Juárez. It has fed up $400 million to repair the city's social fabric. Calderón has met with young people and representatives of the federal program to discuss and analyze the city's achievements. He also unveiled a billboard facing traffic in
El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...
heading into Mexico that reads "No More Weapons," and criticized the United States for not renewing a ban on the sales of assault weapons that expired in 2004. Four days after the massacre, a suspect identified as José Dolores Arroyo Chavarría was arrested by the Mexican military. He confessed to the authorities that the
Juárez Cartel The Juárez Cartel (Spanish: ''Cártel de Juárez''), also known as the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Organization, is a Mexican drug cartel based in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, across the Mexico—U.S. border from El Paso, Texas. The cartel is one ...
had received reports from within the organization that members of a rival drug trafficking organization were at the party the night the teenagers were killed. The suspect said he acted as a lookout for the 24 gunmen that perpetrated the killing and had orders to "kill everyone inside." By mid-2011, four men linked to the massacre were found guilty of the killings and were sentenced to 240 years each by the state of
Chihuahua Chihuahua may refer to: Places *Chihuahua (state), a Mexican state **Chihuahua (dog), a breed of dog named after the state **Chihuahua cheese, a type of cheese originating in the state **Chihuahua City, the capital city of the state **Chihuahua Mun ...
. In 2012 it was later confirmed by the Mexican authorities that the massacre was ordered by José Antonio Acosta Hernández (''El Diego''), a former drug baron of La Línea that is now imprisoned. A gang leader of the
Barrio Azteca The Barrio Azteca (), or Los Aztecas (), is a Mexican-American street, and prison gang originally based in El Paso, Texas. The gang was formed in the jails of El Paso in 1986 and expanded into a transnational criminal organization. Currently one ...
also admitted to having ordered the massacre because he thought rival gang members were there. Despite the arrests, many of the family members were unhappy with the efforts of the Mexican government and said that they were planning to abandon Mexico and seek safe haven in
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
to protect their children. "I never even gave the United States much thought," said one of the family members, "But Mexico has abandoned us, betrayed us."


Chihuahua rehab center shooting

Dozens of armed men with
AR-15 An AR-15-style rifle is any lightweight semi-automatic rifle based on the Colt AR-15 design. The original ArmaLite AR-15 is a scaled-down derivative of Eugene Stoner's ArmaLite AR-10 design. The then Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation d ...
and AK-47 rifles arrived in six vehicles at the Life and Faith facility, a church-run rehabilitation clinic in
Chihuahua city The city of Chihuahua ''(La Ciudad de Chihuahua)'' () is the state capital of the Mexican state of Chihuahua. , the city of Chihuahua had a population of 925,762 inhabitants. while the metropolitan area had a population of 988,065 inhabitants. A ...
at around 11:00 p.m. on 10 June 2010. The gunmen, outfitted with protective gear and ski masks, first claimed to be policemen, and herded the patients outside the clinic. Once they had lined up twenty-three of them outside execution-style, the gunmen opened fire at them, killing 19 and wounding four. The Mexican authorities found more than 200 bullet casings from different kinds of firearms at the scene. According to the pastor, some of the men in the facility were former gang members of
Los Mexicles Los Mexicles is a Mexican street gang based in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. It is allied to the Sinaloa Cartel The Sinaloa Cartel ( es, link=no, Cártel de Sinaloa), also known as the CDS, the Guzmán-Loera Organization, the Pacific Cartel, ...
, who fight along with
Artistas Asesinos Artistas Asesinos (also known as Doble A or AA) is a Mexican street gang that works as an enforcement wing of the Sinaloa Cartel The Sinaloa Cartel ( es, link=no, Cártel de Sinaloa), also known as the CDS, the Guzmán-Loera Organization, th ...
and the
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 ...
for the control of the smuggling routes in the state. Most of the victims' ages ranged from 23 to 65, and included a blind man and a sixteen-year-old. According to the investigations, the perpetrators left behind four written cardboards, but the authorities did not release the content of the messages. The three-story facility housed addicts for 90 days, although some of the victims had more than a year or two in rehabilitation. By June 2011, a leader of La Línea admitted planning and coordinating the attack against the drug facility. The Mexican authorities stated that the drug trafficking organizations use rehabilitation clinics to recruit foot soldiers and smugglers, and often kill those who do not cooperate. Others are killed for failing to pay for their drugs or for ripping off a dealer. In addition, the cartels frequently target unlicensed rehabilitation centers, since they are likely to accept active gang members seeking to free themselves from an addiction. Unlike the government-licensed clinics, the private centers are not associated with the penal system and have limited security measures, leaving the victims vulnerable to attacks by gangs seeking revenge or the elimination of a potential police informant. In Ciudad Juárez alone, there are around 100,000 drug addicts and many of the rehab clinics are unlicensed and ran by former addicts, making them easy points for the cartels to infiltrate. Some cartel members even check themselves in the facility and pose as addicts. Once they gain information of how the facility works, they co-opt the workers or threaten to kill them. Some of the addicts sell candy and gum at the city's stop lights to raise money for those struggling in their rehab center, but the cartels have taken this opportunity to force them to sell drugs too. The drug cartels have also created and managed pseudo-clinics, and once their patients are off drugs, they give them two choices: to work as a drug trafficker or get killed. The cartels usually "dispose" of their young addicts by killing them, since the criminal organizations quickly recruit young men and prefer to minimize their risk by eliminating the others.


Ciudad Juárez car bomb attack

A car bomb attack was registered on 16 June 2010 in the border city of Ciudad Juárez, when members of La Línea triggered 10 kg (22 lb) of C-4 explosives with a cellphone, marking it as the first successful car bomb attack ever registered in the Mexican Drug War. Before the detonation, the cartel members had dumped an injured man dressed in police uniform on the sidewalk to lure the Mexican authorities and paramedics closer to the vehicle. The authorities were notified by an emergency call that a man was allegedly executed, a lure tactic to bring them to where the bomb was planted. As a policeman and a paramedic rushed to the scene, the bomb detonated, killing them instantly. The injured man, who was not a police officer, and an innocent civilian, were also killed. A cameraman who was near the scene was gravely injured bu
manage to film
the explosion aftermath. The attack sent "shock waves" across Mexico and raised concerns in the United States, and represented what the authorities considered a "new dimension of terror" and a clear escalation in the weapons and tactics deployed by Mexico's drug trafficking organizations. TV images aired on national television showed a vehicle with only one intact wheel and two Federal Police on fire in the city's downtown area; U.S. authorities responded to the attacks with worrisome and noted that it was reminiscent to Colombia in the 1990s and to the terrorism and warfare tactics the United States military is "running into in Iraq and Afghanistan." The Mexican peso pared some loses after the attack too, and economists warned that more car bomb attacks could hurt Mexico's financial market and scare off investors. Nonetheless, even with multiple car bombs, the Mexican drug cartels have not shifted their focus to targeting civilians rather than security forces, and thus the "
narcoterrorism Narcoterrorism, in its original context, is understood to refer to the attempts of narcotics traffickers to influence the policies of a government or a society through violence and intimidation, and to hinder the enforcement of anti-drug laws by t ...
" label is unclear. A message left at the scene claimed that La Línea were responsible for the blast, and threatened further attacks:


Horizontes del Sur massacre

During a boy's birthday party at the Horizontes del Sur neighborhood in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, several gunmen broke into a house and killed 14 people and wounded more than twenty on 23 October 2010. After firing more than 70 bullets, the attackers fled the scene in three different cars at around 11:00 p.m. According to the witnesses' descriptions, the attackers were teenagers who had secured the area by blocking traffic. The Mexican police declined to comment if the killing was drug-related, but Felipe Calderón's response was remarkably different than the Villas de Salvárcar massacre, where he claimed that the massacre was most likely due to internal adjustments between the cartels. The killing in Horizontes del Sur bore striking similarities with the massacre in the Villas de Salvárcar neighborhood earlier that same year, which took place just a mile away and where 15 were gunned down at a party too. The Mexican authorities concluded that there were two possible explanations for the massacre: Either La Línea and Los Aztecas were responsible for the killings; or "independent gunmen" paid to kill a person nicknamed ''El Ratón'', an alleged member of Artistas Asesinos.


Rise of the New Juárez cartel

Through 10 "narcomantas" found throughout Ciudad Juárez on 25 January 2011, a criminal group known as the New Juárez Cartel (NJC) herald its existence. In the written banners, the NJC threaten the police chief of the city, Julián Leyzaola, calling him a criminal with a police badge. One of the messages promised that the NJC was planning to "kill a policeman a day" until Leyzaola discontinued his alleged support for the Sinaloa Cartel. Little was known of the NJC besides a video they uploaded online in September 2011, where they interrogated a prison guard they claimed was working for the Sinaloa cartel (his body was later found dead). And in October of that same year, a message by the NJC was left along a dismembered body.
Stratfor Strategic Forecasting Inc., commonly known as Stratfor, is an American geopolitics publisher and consultancy founded in 1996. Stratfor's business model is to provide individual and enterprise subscriptions to Stratfor Worldview, its online public ...
believes that the NJC is a re-branding of the "old" Juárez Cartel, La Línea, and possibly other groups opposing the Sinaloa's encroachment. But it is unclear whether the NJC is composed solely of former members of La Línea and elements of the Juarez cartel or of numerous gangs that have aligned, even temporarily, to expropriate the Sinaloa cartel from Ciudad Juárez. La Línea, however, undertook an offensive against the local police in 2010, citing the same reasons that the NJC claims: it perceived that the police forces were favoring Joaquín Guzmán Loera (a.k.a. ''El Chapo''). In response to the death threats of the NJC, the mayor of Ciudad Juárez allowed off-duty policemen to carry their weapons, given that most of the local policemen killed in the city were targeted at home or on their way to work, and encourage them to live in hotels. Such reorganizations like the NJC are common in Mexico's drug war, but they have often led to the further spread of violence. For instance, after the arrest of many of the leaders of the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, the organization broke apart into smaller factions: the
South Pacific Cartel The South Pacific Cartel (Spanish: ''Cártel del Pacífico Sur''), is a Mexican organized crime group composed of the remnants of the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel. It is based in the Mexican state of Morelos. The gang has been significantly less act ...
, La Mano Con Ojos, and other regional gangs. And while none of these gangs have the near power of its original group, they have triggered fights in several states across Mexico. In other cases, however, reorganizations are not as severe; when
La Familia Michoacana La Familia Michoacana, (English: ''The Michoacán Family'') La Familia (English: ''The Family''), or LFM is a Mexican drug cartel and organized crime syndicate based in the Mexican state of Michoacán. They are known to produce large amounts o ...
splintered into the
Knights Templar Cartel The Knights Templar Cartel (Spanish: ''Los Caballeros Templarios'') was a Mexican criminal organization originally composed of the remnants of La Familia Michoacana drug cartel based in the Mexican State of Michoacán. The Knights Templar Car ...
, the impact was mild. The decline of
Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Vicente Carrillo Fuentes (born 16 October 1962), commonly referred to by his alias El Viceroy, is a Mexican convicted drug lord and former leader of the Juárez Cartel, a drug trafficking organization. The cartel is based in Chihuahua, one of ...
's influence suggests that the failure of the local groups has much to do with a leadership decline. Hence, the impact of the NJC depends on whether they can reconstitute a force capable of fighting the Sinaloa cartel for a lengthy time, but thus far, the NJC does not pose as a direct threat to the Sinaloa establishment and for a reopening of a new fight for Ciudad Juárez.


Alliance with Los Zetas

Through graffiti signs in the state of Chihuahua in June 2011, La Línea announced that it had formed an alliance with
Los Zetas Los Zetas (, Spanish for "The Zs") is a Mexican criminal syndicate, regarded as one of the most dangerous of Mexico's drug cartels. They are known for engaging in brutally violent "shock and awe" tactics such as beheadings, torture, and indiscri ...
, a criminal group originally formed by ex-commandos of the
Mexican Army The Mexican Army ( es, Ejército Mexicano) is the combined land and air branch and is the largest part of the Mexican Armed Forces; it is also known as the National Defense Army. The Army is under the authority of the Secretariat of National De ...
Special Forces Special forces and special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...
, and threaten the Sinaloa cartel operatives. On the other hand, Sinaloa cartel formed an alliance with the Gulf Cartel, the former employers of Los Zetas, and with the now-extinct La Familia Michoacana, forming the so-called "New Federation." During that time, Los Zetas already had an alliance with the Sinaloa's former associates, Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, an extinct organization that had possibly trained the soldiers of La Línea for months or even years, according to Mexican intelligence. With the alliance, Los Zetas may offer soldiers and training to La Línea in return for access to Ciudad Juárez and its smuggling routes.


Decline of the organization

The decline of the Juárez Cartel began in 1997 after the death of
Amado Carrillo Fuentes Amado Carrillo Fuentes (; December 17, 1956 – July 7, 1997) was a Mexican drug lord who seized control of the Juárez Cartel after assassinating his boss Rafael Aguilar Guajardo. Amado Carrillo became known as "''El Señor de Los Cielos''" ( ...
, but accelerated in mid-2000 when the Sinaloa Cartel sought to take over the assets of the criminal organization and move into the city. In 2010, violence in Ciudad Juárez reached its peak, seeing an average of 10 homicides per day, or about 230 murders per 100,000 people annually. That same year, the average in all of Mexico was of 18 murders per every 100,000 inhabitants. La Línea and the Juárez Cartel were damaged by the arrest of José Antonio Acosta Hernández (a.k.a. ''El Diego''), a top drug baron accused by the Mexican authorities of ordering more than 1,500 killings. Joaquín Guzmán Loera's four-year struggle in Ciudad Juárez left more than 10,000 dead since 2008, but evidence shows that the murder rates in Ciudad Juárez decreased by 59.8% in the first half of 2012 when compared to the same period in 2011, and Mexican officials attributed this decline to the success of its law enforcement agencies. Nonetheless, experts told ''
El Paso Times The ''El Paso Times'' is the newspaper for the US city of El Paso, Texas. The newspaper has an approximate daily circulation of 65,000 and 125,000 on Sundays. The paper is the only English-language daily in El Paso (when the '' El Paso Herald-Po ...
'' that part of the reason why the violence in Ciudad Juárez toned down is because the Sinaloa cartel has consolidated its dominance over the now-weakened Juárez cartel. The Juárez cartel continues to operate in the city, but it no longer holds a monopoly and appears to be unable to expand. Other experts echo that the cartel is having difficulties paying its members and that the violence will continue to decline as its hegemony erodes. Their relationship with the Barrio Azteca gang has also been affected by the cartel's decline.
NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
reports indicated that several people in Ciudad Juárez, including but not limited to local journalists and former policemen, perceived that the Mexican government allegedly favored the Sinaloa cartel in their battle against the Juárez cartel. Nonetheless, counterarguments from security experts were also included. The reported victory of the Sinaloa Cartel may possibly not halt the forces of the Juárez cartel; as long as Vicente Carrillo Fuentes is alive and free, the warfare in the area will possibly continue. With limited options, the Juárez cartel has been forced to reorganize its forces and opt for extortions and kidnappings, while
Gente Nueva Gente Nueva (English: ''New People''), also known as Los Chapos, in reference to their drug lord Joaquín Guzmán Loera, is a large group of well-trained and experienced gunmen that function as one of the elite armed wings of the Sinaloa Cartel, ...
– the Sinaloa cartel's armed wing – receives funding from other states. In addition, the drug corridor in Ciudad Juárez remains a crucial territory for the Mexican drug trafficking organizations, so the city could continue to see battles for the control of the lucrative smuggling routes – even at a diminishing scale. And although the rise of the New Juárez Cartel has yet to materialize, the threat still remains. On May 17, 2018, a spokesperson for the Mexican federal police announced that the group's leader Carlos Arturo Quintana, who is known as "El 80," was captured in the town of Namiquipa in western Chihuahua and that no shots were fired when doing so. In January 2020, La Linea leader Luis Antonio N. was arrested for murders of two Mexican National Guardsmen In February 2020, another La Linea member was arrested in the El Paso region. On May 25, 2020, La Linea lieutenant Gibran R.S., also known as “El Mocho, along with his wife Daniela and two alleged henchmen were arrested in Jimenez. Also identified as Luis Alberto M., he was also reported as the "leader" of La Linea and was believed to be responsible for recent incidents which saw 20 police sent to the hospital since May 20, 2020 after being shot at. The next day, however, it reported that local cops were still being targeted by gunfire, and that the arrest sparked an attack on the state police barracks. El Mocho's brother Fernando and two La Linea members identified as “El Canguro” and “El Torres” are believed to have assisted El Mocho in the group's illegal activities. However, the new La Empresa cartel leader, identified as "The Gnome," was later believed to have continued the attacks against local police, which resulted in the deaths of nine attackers and two police policers by May 29, and that there continuation was actually triggered by the recent arrests of previous La Empresa leader Jose Dolores Villegas Soto, a.k.a. “El Iraki,” or “The Iraqi,” and other prominent La Empresa members only identified by the nicknames “Uncle” and “Goofy.”. El Mocho was believed to have become La Linea's actual leader following the arrest and imprisonment of his predecessor Ricardo Arturo “El Piporro” C.


Known leaders of La Línea


See also

* Mexican Drug War *
Mérida Initiative The Mérida Initiative (named after Mérida (Yucatán), the city where it was agreed upon, also called Plan Mexico, in reference to Plan Colombia) is a security cooperation agreement among the United States, the government of Mexico and the countri ...
*
War on Drugs The war on drugs is a Globalization, global campaign, led by the United States federal government, of prohibition of drugs, drug prohibition, military aid, and military intervention, with the aim of reducing the illegal drug trade in the Unite ...
* LeBarón and Langford families massacre


References


Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Linea (gang), La Paramilitary organizations based in Mexico Gangs in Mexico Gangs in Texas Mexican drug war Juárez Cartel Ciudad Juárez