SUMMARY

The Tijuana Cartel is one of the major drug trafficking cartels in Mexico battling each other for control over territory and smuggling routes. The cartel is also called Arellano Felix Cartel or CAF (the acronym of Cártel Arellano Félix) after the family controlling the group.

The Tijuana Cartel first emerged in the 1980’s when the Arellano Felix brothers moved their business from Sinaloa to Tijuana. Tijuana provided a perfect location to control the drug trafficking routes into California, and by the 1990’s the Tijuana Cartel smuggled tons of cocaine into the U.S. In 2002 one of the brothers were killed by police and another arrested, leaving the Tijuana Cartel in the hands of the third brother, Javier Arellano Felix. He managed to keep control of the organisation, but was eventually arrested in 2006. The leadership was passed on to Fernando Sanchez Arellano, also known as “the engineer” or “El Ingeniero”.

The Tijuana Cartel has previously been allied with the Gulf cartel, after an agreement was made in prison between the leaders of the two cartels. However, the alliance only lasted between 2004 and 2005. In 2010 the six major cartels reportedly assembled in two loose alliances; the Gulf Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel on the one side, and the Juarez Cartel, the Tijuana Cartel, Los Zetas and the Beltran Leyva Cartel on the other.

In 2008 a former cartel lieutenant broke off and unleashed a wave of violence in Tijuana. The lieutenant, Teodoro Garcia Simental, also called “El Teo”, or “El tres letras” was the leader of a kidnapping cell within the Tijuana organisation.

The Tijuana Cartel has been involved in the non-state category of UCDP organised violence.