Carlos Rosales Mendoza
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Carlos Alberto Rosales Mendoza (12 February 1963 – 27 December 2015) was a former Mexican drug lord who founded and led an organized crime syndicate called
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 ...
. He was a close friend and associate of
Osiel Cárdenas Guillén Osiel Cárdenas Guillén (born 18 May 1967) is a Mexican drug lord and the former leader of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas. Originally a mechanic in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, he entered the cartel by killing Juan García Abrego's friend and comp ...
, the former leader of the Gulf Cartel. He was born in the municipality of La Unión, Guerrero in southern Mexico. When Rosales Mendoza founded the first cells of La Familia Michoacana in the 1980s, the Milenio Cartel was competing with the organization for the control of the production and distribution of narcotics in the state of Michoacán. In 2000, Rosales Mendoza united with the Gulf Cartel and
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 indiscr ...
to thwart the Milenio Cartel, causing a wave of violence in western Mexico that lasted until the year 2003. He was arrested twice, on 24 October 2004, and on 5 August 2014, and set free in late 2014. He was found dead in a parking lot on 28 December 2015.


Criminal career

Reports suggest that Rosales Mendoza's organization can be traced back to the 1980s and that was possibly a
vigilante Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority. A vigilante (from Spanish, Italian and Portuguese “vigilante”, which means "sentinel" or "watcher") is a person who ...
group to counter corruption and local crime, but the organization eventually became involved in the production and distribution of narcotics throughout the Mexican state of Michoacán. In the year 2000, Rosales Mendoza broke relations with Armando Valencia Cornelio of the Milenio Cartel and founded his own organization in Michoacan called ''La Empresa'' ('The Business'), a criminal organization that was the direct predecessor of La Familia Michoacana, some sources state that ''La Empresa'' and ''La Familia Michoacana'' are essentially the same thing, mainly because they share the same members but not the same allies. He also formed an alliance with
Osiel Cárdenas Guillén Osiel Cárdenas Guillén (born 18 May 1967) is a Mexican drug lord and the former leader of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas. Originally a mechanic in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, he entered the cartel by killing Juan García Abrego's friend and comp ...
, then leader of the Gulf Cartel and
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 indiscr ...
, and merged with his organization. This alliance was intended to displace the Milenio Cartel from Michoacán state, and provoked a series of assassinations in the area until 2003. With the alliance, Rosales Mendoza became a Gulf Cartel operator and Cárdenas Guillén dispatched two lieutenants of Los Zetas,
Efraín Teodoro Torres Efraín Teodoro Torres (died 3 March 2007) was a Mexican suspected drug lord and one of the founders of Los Zetas, a criminal organization formed by former soldiers of the Mexican Armed Forces. He joined the Mexican Army in mid-1991 but deserted a ...
(''Z-14'') and Gustavo González Castro (''The Erotic One''), to help him to train his men and protect the drug trafficking corridors in Guerrero and in the port city of Lázaro Cárdenas. He soon gained the trust of Cárdenas Guillén and became one of the leading lieutenants for the Gulf Cartel in western Mexico, where he commanded a training camp and taught over 50 gunmen military tactics in order to carry out a prisons break to free Cárdenas Guillén, who had been captured and imprisoned in 2003. In 2004, he organised the armed assault on a maximum security prison. His men managed to free 25 inmates, but Rosales Mendoza was arrested on suspicion of masterminding the jailbreak and spent the next decade in prison. After Rosales' arrest in 2004, Nazario Moreno González seized control of the gang and in 2006 severed ties with the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas in an effort to take control of Michoacán from any external influences, marking the birth of an independent La Familia Cartel and starting a turf war against their former allies.


Arrests

While preparing to liberate
Osiel Cárdenas Guillén Osiel Cárdenas Guillén (born 18 May 1967) is a Mexican drug lord and the former leader of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas. Originally a mechanic in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, he entered the cartel by killing Juan García Abrego's friend and comp ...
from prison, a squadron of about 150 soldiers in the
Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales The Mexican Special Forces Corps ( es, Cuerpo de Fuerzas Especiales) are the special forces battalions of the Mexican Army. Formerly the Special Forces Airmobile Group ( es, Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales) or GAFE, the SF corps has six ...
(GAFE), the special forces unit 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 ...
, arrested Rosales Mendoza in the capital city of
Morelia, Michoacán Morelia (; from 1545 to 1828 known as Valladolid) is a city and municipal seat of the municipality of Morelia in the north-central part of the state of Michoacán in central Mexico. The city is in the Guayangareo Valley and is the capital and larg ...
on 24 October 2004. Upon his arrest, Rosales Mendoza was taken into custody to Mexico City and kept in La Palma prison until he was taken to Puente Grande, a maximum security prison in the western state of Jalisco, on 28 October 2004 for 10 years. His capture resulted in new organizational leaders:
José de Jesús Méndez Vargas José de Jesús Méndez Vargas (born 28 February 1974), commonly referred to by his alias El Chango ("The Ape"), is a Mexican drug lord and former leader of the now disbanded La Familia drug cartel, headquartered in the state of Michoacán. M ...
and Nazario Moreno González. On 22 May 2014, Rosales Mendoza was released from prison in Jalisco after fulfilling his ten-year sentence for illegal possession of firearms, organized crime, and drug trafficking. On 5 August 2014, he was arrested again by state authorities at a restaurant in Morelia, Michoacán, but was released shortly after without charges.


Kingpin Act sanction

On 24 March 2010, the
United States Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and ...
sanctioned Rosales Mendoza under the
Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act The Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, better known as the Kingpin Act, is landmark federal legislation in the United States intended to address international narcotics trafficking by imposing United States sanctions on foreign persons ...
(sometimes referred to simply as the "Kingpin Act"), for his involvement in drug trafficking along with fifty-three other international criminals and ten foreign entities. The act prohibited U.S. citizens and companies from doing any kind of business activity with him, and virtually froze all his assets in the U.S. Carlos Rosales Mendoza was listed in the DEA's "most wanted" list.


Death

Rosales Mendoza was found dead on December 28, 2015 in a car park in Gabriel Zamora, Michoacán along with three other bodies. All four bodies showed signs of having been tortured. Authorities suspect Ignacio Andrade Rentería (''El Cenizo''), a former mob lieutenant who now runs 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 Ca ...
.


See also

*
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 ...
* Mexican Drug War *
War on Drugs The war on drugs is a global campaign, led by the United States federal government, of drug prohibition, military aid, and military intervention, with the aim of reducing the illegal drug trade in the United States.Cockburn and St. Clair, 1 ...


References


Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rosales Mendoza, Carlos 2015 deaths La Familia Michoacana traffickers Mexican crime bosses 1963 births People from Guerrero People sanctioned under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act