Gardaí believe Irishman Morris O’Shea Salazar (33), wanted for alleged drugs trafficking in Chile, is central to the cartel’s Irish connection after €32.8m drug seizure in Cork
Organized crime groups (OCGs) in Mexico are some of the most violent and sophisticated active criminal cells. The conflict with the Mexican state, commonly understood to have begun in 2006, has resulted in approximately 400,000 casualties. The focus of this research is the discourse produced by Mexico’s OCGs. The tropes within the discourse projected by these groups present an ominous threat to the legitimacy of the Mexican state. OCGs operate, largely, in the rural areas of Mexico, those with populations that have been, in their eyes, long forgotten by the central government. These groups establish a discourse in which the state is weak, corrupt, and a distant outsider in their communities. Further, the populations of these regions should invest their trust and loyalties to the OCG rather than the state. This paper utilizes available theoretical frameworks to trace the parameters of OCG discourse to better understand how it functionally serves these groups and how it serves to under
Dr. Nathan P. Jones is an Associate Professor of Security Studies at Sam Houston State University and a Non-resident Scholar for Rice University’s Baker Institute in Drug Policy and Mexico Studies; he previously was an Alfred C. Glassell III Postdoctoral Fellow in Drug Policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.
Guerreros Unidos, a transnational crime organization (TCO) based in the Mexican state of Guerrero, has been linked to violent crimes, including the disappearance of 43 university students in 2014. The organization’s history of widespread violence, drug trafficking, corruption, and other crimes has made the Guerreros Unidos a notable concern to both the United States and Mexico. Understanding how this illicit network operates can provide valuable information on how to disrupt other transnational crime organizations. Social network analysis was used to map the relationships of members of the organization and measure their centrality within the network. The data for this analysis was collected from the United States v. Cuevas et al. (2014) indictment, which included wiretaps and surveillance conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). This counternarcotics operation included the Illinois subnetwork of the Guerreros Unidos organization. This portion of the Guerreros Unidos ne