SUMMARY

The El Teo faction is a splinter group from one of the largest drug trafficking cartels in Mexico, the Tijuana Cartel. The group is named after the three first letters in the name of the leader Teodoro Garcia Simental. The groups leader is also referred to as "the three letters", or in spanish "El tres letras".

Teodoro Garcia Simental is a former cartel lieutenant who in 2008 challenged the leadership of the Tijuana Cartel and unleashed a wave of violence in Tijuana. The lieutenant, also called “El Teo”, or “El tres letras” was the leader of a kidnapping cell within the Tijuana organisation. In the beginning of 2008 the leader of the cartel wanted him to cut back on the number of kidnappings, and in April a big shootout between them took place. El Teo fled to Sinaloa but returned in September and launched a war against the leadership of the Tijuana Cartel. Allied to the Sinaloa Cartel, El Teo fought the Tijuana Cartel intensively between September 2008 and January 2010, when he was arrested by the Federal Police. His brother Jose Manuel Garcia Simental took control of the group, but was arrested a month later after which violence subsided in Tijuana.

The Tijuana cartel – El Teo has been involved in the non-state category of UCDP organized violence.