On Border, Mexican Cartels Run Like Corporate Businesses
On Border, Mexican Cartels Run Like Corporate Businesses
When a regional manager for the Mexican Gulf cartel moved his operation to a more lucrative territory on the border, he took along not only his armored trucks and personal army, but also his department heads and a team of accountants.
In the grotesque violence that has enveloped Mexico it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that, ultimately, these criminal organizations are complex businesses that rely on careful accounting as much as assault rifles. The structures underlying the most successful criminal organizations are stable in a way that means capturing or killing the man at the top may only be a temporary setback and pinching one revenue stream will only drive a search for others.
Rafael Cardenas Vela, a Gulf cartel member who ran three important “plazas,” or territories, testified this week about the organization’s structure and operations in such detail that it could compose a short course — Narco 101, perhaps.