SUMMARY
The outbreak of fighting between different drug-trafficking gangs in Mexico can be understood against the background of changes in the Mexican political landscape during the last decades. During the 1980s, there was a loose network of drug smugglers controlling their own "plaza" for drug trafficking. Governmental authority was highly centralized under PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional, Institutional Revolutionary Party) rule and by bribing high officials, the drug smugglers could control their businesses without getting interrupted by the authorities. When single-party rule started to give way to local opposition these networks and relationships were transformed, to the advantage of some actors but to the disadvantage of others. The drug cartels started to fight each other for control over territory and previous alliances fell apart.
Since the former President Felipe Calderon launched his offensive against the drug cartels in 2006, many important leaders have been arrested or killed. However, the elimination of top leaders has not always resulted in less violence and weaker cartels. The previously well-organized, centralized organizations have often experienced in-fighting between groups trying to fill the power vacuum when a prominent leader has been removed. A constant shift of alliances has made the situation in Mexico extremely lethal and hard to handle.
The Gulf Cartel in-fighting between the Gulf Cartel – Dragones de Sheyla faction and the Gulf Cartel – Los Fresitas faction started after the arrest of Javier Garza Medrano. Garza worked for the Gulf Cartel and was responsible for the cartel's activities, such as kidnappings, extortions and drug trade, in Tampico, Matamoros state. Garza ordered the killing of the man that he believed were responsible for giving the information that lead to his arrest. This set of a series of clashes between the Dragones de Sheyla faction and the Los Fresitas faction of the Gulf Cartel for the control over the town of Tampico and the neighboring Ciudad Madero in the south of Tamaulipas state.
The non-state conflict between the Gulf Cartel – Dragones de Sheyla faction and the Gulf Cartel – Los Fresitas faction was first included in UCDP data in 2014. In mid-May of that year, fighting between the two groups had resulted in more than 25 deaths when seven bodies were found inside a car in Tampico town.
