Who is la familia cartel

All 13 defendants are charged in count one of the indictment, which outlines the Mexican Mafia-La Familia alliance and alleges a conspiracy to distribute narcotics. Various defendants are charged in six other counts in the indictment that allege substantive narcotics-distribution offenses, five of which relate to methamphetamine and one of which concerns marijuana.

The conspiracy charge and the counts related to methamphetamine each carry a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison 20 years if the defendant has a prior drug conviction, which may affect about half of the defendants in the indictment and a maximum statutory sentence of life without parole. The marijuana count carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in federal prison 10 years if the defendant has a prior narcotics conviction and a statutory maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.

You are here U. Attorneys » Central District of California » News. Who is behind Mexico's drug-related violence? Inside Mexican cartel's stronghold. Image source, DEA.

Image source, Getty Images. Mexican soldiers have been deployed to Michoacan in an effort to defeat the cartels. It is not clear who may be behind the killing.

Prison break. Knights Templar cartel. Most of its leaders crossed over to the new group, leaving La Familia a shadow of its former self. The original cartel was known for its bizarre brand of cult-like religious ideology. It began as an anti-drug vigilante group before moving into the drug trade itself, famously signalling its entry into the business in by throwing five severed heads onto a nightclub floor.

Its fight with the Zetas over territory is what set off the government crackdown against the cartels in Following his death, the group split into two factions, the Knights Templar and a weaker splinter group that retained the Familia name.

Michoacan has long been home to drug traffickers and drug production, with areas where mostly poorer farmers cultivate marijuana and poppy, the raw material for heroin. A group known as El Milenio, an ally of the Tijuana Cartel , controlled the Michoacan area at the end of the s.

But a small group of lieutenants rebelled. There are two versions of what happened next: in the first, the lieutenants reached out to Gulf Cartel to overthrow their bosses; in the second, the Gulf Cartel sent the Zetas in to take over themselves.

In either case, by , the Zetas were the new power in the region. Membership Believed to be largely defunct. Once reportedly had 4, operatives in Michoacan alone. Leadership Hector Garcia, alias "El Player," is considered to be a top commander. Criminal Activities Drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, assasination, racketeering. Criminal Activities Drug transit, kidnapping, domestic drug sales, drug production, human trafficking, money laundering. The locals saw them as repressive outsiders, and the resentment increased when the Zetas expanded their business into methamphetamine production.

The Familia Michoacana then emerged as a self-styled vigilante group, turning against the Zetas and attacking addicts and dealers of methamphetamine, the drug that is now its biggest moneymaker.

The Familia was proudly regionalist and claimed to have won public support in western Michoacan, where in some ways the group, at its peak, acted as the de facto state. It would resolve local disputes, provide employment, and do social work. At times employing the language of political insurgency or of an evangelical crusade, the group won hundreds of recruits in just a few years.