The Beltrán Leyva cartel was one of Mexico’s most powerful and violent criminal organizations, exerting significant influence during the 1990s and 2000s. Founded by the Beltrán Leyva brothers—Arturo, Alfredo, Carlos, and Héctor—the group initially operated within the Sinaloa Cartel, closely collaborating with Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. However, after Alfredo’s arrest in 2008, the cartel split from Sinaloa and established itself as an independent entity, notorious for its extreme violence and corruption.
Arturo Beltrán Leyva, known as “El Jefe de Jefes,” led the organization until his death in 2009 during a confrontation with the Mexican Navy. His leadership was marked by the cartel’s expansion and involvement in numerous violent acts. After his death, Héctor Beltrán Leyva took over until his capture in 2014. Under his command, the organization continued its criminal activities, although weakened by governmental actions.
The Beltrán Leyva cartel was known for its strategic alliances and conflicts with other criminal groups, such as the Zetas and the Juárez Cartel. Moreover, its ability to corrupt high-level officials in Mexico allowed it to operate with relative impunity for years. This corruption included members of the security forces and the government, facilitating the cartel’s expansion and operations.
However, efforts by the Mexican government, along with international cooperation, especially from the United States, were crucial in weakening the cartel’s structure. These actions resulted in the capture and death of several key leaders, dismantling much of its criminal network and marking the decline of its power.
In 2010, the DEA investigated a possible connection between the cartel and Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s (AMLO) 2006 presidential campaign. According to U.S. authorities, representatives of the cartel met with AMLO’s campaign collaborators to discuss an agreement: the cartel would finance the campaign in exchange for influence over the selection of the attorney general, allowing them greater operational freedom.
In her book “La historia secreta”, jornalist and authorr Anabel Hernández narrates that in 2010, Sergio Villarreal Barragán, alias “El Grande,” a member of the Sinaloa Cartel, confessed to PGR and DEA, between 2005 and 2006 he delivered five hundred thousand dollars to AMLO’s staff members in a hotel in Gómez Palacio, Durango, on orders from Arturo Beltrán Leyva, when López Obrador was the presidential candidate for the opposition alliance Por el Bien de Todos.
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In summary, the Beltrán Leyva cartel represents a dark chapter in the history of drug trafficking in Mexico, serving as an example of how violence and corruption can undermine a nation’s stability and security, and how their influence can reach the highest levels of political power.
In 2006, during the sit-in that was installed from downtown Mexico City to Reforma, among the men present, there were those who were limping, missing limbs, with visible war wounds. These wounds traversed their chests, faces, or backs. There was no possibility that these were surgery scars. After the drug war, it became known that many of those present were hitmen from the northern part of the country. Specifically, they were Zetas, then the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel.How could the hitmen not be there if it was La Barbie who donated resources to finance the sit-in, according to the testimony of the former lawyer of the capo, who later became a protected witness for the DEA.