Cartels
In the Man in the High Brick there's numerous cartels. These are criminal organizations, primarily involved with drug trafficking, though also racketeering and committing various other crimes.
Brief History
The main and primary cartel was the Maldeira Cartel. It controlled territory in most of Middle America and most of South America. It is ruled by it's founder, Giovanni Maldeira.
Middle America
Specific to Mexico, a plaza system existed. These were loosely controlled by Giovanni Maldeira. The main plazas were Tijuana, Sinaloa, Potosino, Juarez and Gulf. The Tijuana Plaza was controlled by Alberto Falcon and the Arellano Family. The Sinaloa Plaza is controlled by several drug traffickers, the most well known being Joaquin Guzman. The Potosino Plaza is owned by Bonifacio Almagro. The Juarez Plaza is led by Pablo Acosta and Amado Carillo, though there are various other members as well. The Gulf Plaza, better known as the Gulf Cartel, kept independence from Maldeira, though collaborating with him to a certain extent, preventing any violent rivalry to erupt. It's founded by Juan Guerra.
Maldeira also controlled the rest of Middle America, though his influence in the Caribbean was minimal, having only few people representing him
South America
In South America, primarily the regions around Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela experienced severe criminality and corruption.
In Ecuador, the most dominant criminal organization is a criminal syndicate known as the Choneros Cartel. It was formed in the city Chone. It's founders are Josue Veliz, Luis Zambrano and Macias Villamar. The Choneros Cartel, similarly to the Gulf Cartel in Mexico, worked alongside the Maldeira Cartel. Once it collapsed, it grew swiftly.
In Colombia at the time of the Maldeira Cartel, only separate drug lords existed. The Maldeira Cartel loosely controlled these drug lords.
In Venezuela a secretive drug trafficking organization named Cartel de los Soles was formed. It utilizes the extremely corrupted government to operate. Some sources indicate the highest ranking figures such as presidents, vice presidents and various other titles have also been influenced by Cartel de los Soles. The rampant corruption allowed Cartel de los Soles to seize full control of Venezuela, making it difficult for the Maldeira Cartel to have influence in the region.
Growth & Collapse
The Maldeira Cartel grew swiftly due to it collaborating with local drug lords, allowing the large cartel to grow large and the local drug lords to remain small. It allowed Giovanni Maldeira to amass a large fortune, whilst leaving the drug lords working for him with a much smaller fortune. This prevented potential growth of separate drug lords. This system was designed to ensure no revolutions could appear.
Initially, Maldeira kept the cartel small and secretive on purpose to prevent it to be targeted by governments, justice systems and the DEA. However, reports indicate Maldeira started growing more greedy. The cartel started swiftly growing, which caused the cartel to be often targeted by governments.
A few years after it's establishment, the Maldeira Cartel started slowly collapsing. Maldeira aligned with the Black Hand, a mafia group. Following his alignment to the Black Hand, various drug trafficking groups and individual drug traffickers grew discontent.
Several drug traffickers such as Jose Gacha attempted to assassinate high ranking mafia members. This caused more unrest. Eventually, Pablo Escobar formed the Medellin Cartel. The Cali Cartel was also formed around the same time. In Mexico, Felix Gallardo aligned himself with various Mexican plazas, forming the Guadalajara Cartel. The large plazas included included the Juarez, Sinaloa, Potosino and Tijuana. Also smaller ones aligned themselves with Felix.
The formation of the Medellin, Cali and Guadalajara cartels caused the Maldeira Cartel to lose influence in Mexico and Colombia, the two largest drug producing countries. Furthermore, the Maldeira Cartel was embroiled in a civil war between the Changretta & Sabini Families against Giovanni Maldeira and Augusto Romano.
Augusto Romano aligned himself with the Salamanca Family. The Salamanca Family murdered the head of the Sabini Family, Claudio Sabini. Following his death, the Salamancas went after Luca, Frederico, Matteo, Valentino and Rafael Changretta.
Emmanuel Salamanca and Santiago Salamanca killed Luca and Frederico Changretta in a gun battle. Valentino and Matteo were killed as well, though it is unknown who killed them. The remaining Changrettas fled or were killed. It led to the dissolution of the Changretta influence.
The Sabini influence drastically decreased after the death of Claudio Sabini. A rumour spread that the rest of the Sabini family was killed by Marco and Leonel Salamanca.
This ended the civil war in the Maldeira Cartel. It was now led by Giovanni Maldeira and Augusto Romano, though by now the Maldeira Cartel was attacked by several large criminal organizations. The Maldeira Cartel completely collapsed and the remaining leaders fled the Americas.
The dissolution of the Maldeira Cartel allowed for the creation of the following groups: Guadalajara Cartel, Los Mexicles, Medellin Cartel, Cali Cartel, Milenio Cartel.
Gulf Cartel
General Information
The Gulf Cartel was the first drug cartel to be formed, being formed even before the much larger Maldeira Cartel was founded. It was located Tamaulipas, Mexico. The cartel was formed by Juan Guerra.
Military Wing
The Gulf Cartel had ex-military soldiers employed as sicarios. This group of soldiers became a military wing of the Gulf Cartel, named Los Zetas.
Diplomacy
Los Zetas eventually split up from the Gulf Cartel as it's leaders thought they didn't need the Gulf Cartel. This inevitably caused Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel to go to war, causing high amounts of atrocities between members of both cartels. Eventually, some sicarios belonging to the Sinaloa Cartel betrayed their cartel and instead joined Los Zetas, causing the Sinaloa and Gulf Cartels to temporarily work together to fight Los Zetas. However, not long into their alliance against Los Zetas, the Gulf Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel broke off ties, occasionally attacking each other.
Maldeira Cartel
General Information
The Maldeira Cartel is the largest cartel to have ever existed. It is ruled by Giovanni Maldeira, an Italian Mafia boss. Therefore, the Maldeira Cartel is also sometimes called a criminal syndicate. The territory belonging to the Maldeira Cartel is most of Middle and South America. According to Giovanni Maldeira, "My cartel owns every strip of land from the northern Mexico border all the way to the bottom of Argentina." It is the second oldest drug cartel in Mexico, after the Gulf Cartel, which it rivalled with abundantly.
Military Wing
The Maldeira Cartel started aligning with the Black Hand, a large Mafia group, consisting out of mafia families such as the Sabini Family and Changretta Family. He used this as his main army.
Diplomacy
The alignment with mafia groups upset various high ranking members of the Maldeira Cartel. This is ultimately widely seen as the downfall of the Maldeira Cartel. First the Sinaloa Cartel was formed. Following that, the Potosino Cartel was formed. The Eladio Cartel also declared independence. Maldeira decided to flee together with the Black Hand after Eladio's betrayal to him. This caused the entire Maldeira Cartel to collapse and various other cartels to be formed, the Tijuana Cartel, Jalisco Cartel, Guerrero Cartel, Medellin Cartel, Cali Cartel, Cartel de la Sierra and Cartel de los Soles. Other smaller criminal organizations were also formed.
The Sinaloa Cartel
General Information
The Sinaloa Cartel is the largest cartel after the Maldeira Cartel. It was the first cartel to revolt against the Maldeira Cartel, causing a domino-effect which quickly saw the establishment of various other cartels and the collapse of the Maldeira Cartel. The 4 founding members of the Sinaloa Cartel were Joaquin Guzman (also known as El Chapo), Ismael Zambada (also known as El Mayo), Ernesto Fonseca (also known as Don Neto) and Melchor Barrios (Don Melchor). The Sinaloa Cartel is allied to the Cartel de los Soles, a cartel based in Venezuela.
Military Wing
The Sinaloa Cartel utilises a military group, Los Mexicles. It is led by Melchor Barrios, who is also one of the co-founders of the Sinaloa Cartel.
The Sinaloa Cartel also utilised another military group, Los Salazares. It was most active in the northern Mexican States. However, eventually Los Salazares cut off from the Sinaloa Cartel, seizing most resources, weapons and territory in the north. Though this was a blow to the Sinaloa Cartel, they didn't retaliate heavily. Regardless of the small amount of retaliation, the two groups remain on bad terms.
Diplomacy
At some point, a group of Sinaloa Cartel sicarios betrayed the Cartel and joined Los Zetas, a former military wing of the Gulf Cartel. Due to this, the Sinaloa Cartel sided with the Gulf Cartel to combat Los Zetas. However, soon after the Sinaloa Cartel and Gulf Cartel broke off ties still occasionally fighting each other. The Sinaloa Cartel also had bad ties with the Potosino Cartel, led by Bonifacio Almagro. This was due to a rivalry dating back to the time where both leaders of the Sinaloa and Potosino cartels were members of the Maldeira Cartel. This caused the Sinaloa Cartel and the Potosino Cartel to become arch enemies and attack each other often. Eventually, the Sinaloa Cartel appeared to start having internal struggles. It's greatest leader, Joaquin Guzman, who is the most well known leader of the cartel, was found to be collaborating with his other family members, few of which were members in their great rival cartel, the Potosino Cartel. This caused a coup where Ernesto Fonseca and Melchor Barrios seized control of the cartel. Ismael Zambada was unharmed. Joaquin Guzman was deposed as leader of the cartel. Following the demise of Joaquin Guzman's leadership, Melchor Barrios decided to take the coup a step further. Melchor Barrios ensured Ernesto Fonseca was no longer in control. Melchor Barrios forced Ernesto Fonseca to become the face of the cartel, which is a dangerous position. Melchor Barrios would be the actual leader of the cartel, with Ismael Zambada being second in command.
The Sinaloa Cartel also created good ties with the Medellin Cartel in Colombia. This was due to the Potosino Cartel aligning itself with the triple alliance in Colombia. The triple alliance in Colombia consisted of the Cali Cartel, Cartel de la Sierra and Autodefensas. All three groups combat the Medellin Cartel and have good ties with the Potosino Cartel. This promptly caused the Medellin Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel to improve ties with each other.
The Potosino Cartel
General Information
The Potosino Cartel was one of the major cartels which broke off from the Maldeira Cartel during it's collapse. It was formed by one of the highest ranking members of the defunct Maldeira Cartel, Bonifacio Almagro.
Military Wing
The Potosino Cartel was militarily active to combat the Sinaloa Cartel. It uses it's own forces. The Potosino Cartel also uses it's forces to fight for Los Javelinas and occasssionally sends sicarios to Cartel de la Sierra.
Diplomacy
The Potosino Cartel grew to power swiftly. However, due to former disputes between Bonifacio Almagro and the Sinaloa Cartel leader, Melchor Barrios, the cartels commenced combat. Severe fighting broke out between the two groups which caused a large amount of casualties. The Potosino Cartel is also allied to some local gangs such as Los Javelinas.
The Potosino Cartel's ties aren't limited to Mexico as they are also allied to Cartel de la Sierra, which is a cartel formed by Jose Gacha. Gacha was formerly a member of the Medellin Cartel, but left it and formed his own cartel, seeking ties with the local Cali Cartel and Potosino Cartel. Cartel de la Sierra also allied itself with Autodefensas. Autodefensas is a right wing group which fights primarily communist guerillas. Due to the Medellin Cartel having aligned itself with Communist Guerillas in the past, Autodefensas started fighting the Medellin Cartel. This caused Cartel de la Sierra and the Cali Cartel to ally with Autodefensas. The Potosino Cartel's alignment with the triple alliance caused their ties to improve with the Cali Cartel and Autodefensas as well. Los Pepes was formed because of the triple alliance, mostly headed by Autodefensas. It was an extremely violent organization with the goal of killing Pablo Escobar and the people around him.
However, the formation of Los Pepes and the triple alliance caused a negative impact on the ties between the Colombian Medellin Cartel and the Potosino Cartel. Following this, the Medellin Cartel and Sinaloa Cartel to improve relations, causing two large alliances to be formed which fight each other.
The Eladio Cartel
General Information
The Eladio Cartel is a cartel formed during the collapse of the Maldeira Cartel. Similarly to the Maldeira Cartel, the Eladio Cartel is renamed after it's leader, Eladio Vuente. Alongside Eladio Vuente, Juan Bolsa and Hector Salamanca are also leaders. The Cartel swiftly grows to numerous other members also joining.
Military Wing
The Eladio Cartel utilises the Hermandad del Desierto group for military purposes. Due to the cartel's diversity, a large amount of separate military groups are also used. The Salamanca Family utilises it's own recourses. Octavio Guzman utilises the forces belonging to the Cuban Gold Cigars. Enrique Alvarez uses forces belonging to Casa Rugs. However, most members of the cartel still rely on the Hermadad del Desierto group.
Diplomacy
The Eladio Cartel is not very diplomatically active. Only for a brief period of time did the Eladio Cartel actively fight, against the remaining forces belonging of the Maldeira Cartel. The Eladio Cartel does eventually collapse. The Salamanca family seizes control of the cartel and kills most of it's members. The Cartel is renamed to either the Juarez Cartel or Salamanca Cartel.
The Tijuana Cartel
General Information
The Tijuana Cartel is a cartel that broke off from the Maldeira Cartel. They were formed in Tijuana, Mexico. It is ruled by the Arellano Félix Family.
Military Wing
The Tijuana Cartel has it's own soldiers, unlike certain cartels, which use other groups for military purposes. The Tijuana uniform is dark blue.
Diplomacy
The Tijuana Cartel isn't very diplomatically active, though occasionally combatting other cartels.
The Milenio Cartel
General Information
The Milenio Cartel is a short-lived cartel founded in Michoacán, Mexico, after the fall of the Maldeira Cartel. It eventually expanded into Jalisco as well. It is headed by Valencia Family. This family consists out of the leader, Armando Valencia and it's two co-leaders, Oscar Valencia and Luis Valencia. Eventually, their leader, Armando, was arrested by the Schutzstaffel, the main Germanic paramilitary force. He was later extradited back to Mexico, where he faces life imprisonment without parole. Oscar Valencia as well as Luis Valencia took control of the cartel after, immediately wanting to collaborate with the Sinaloa Cartel.
Military Wing
The Milenio Cartel was not very active militarily speaking. They primarily bribed police units and government officials to stay out of trouble. However, they did have a small group of mercenaries to fight for them if necessary. Especially after their collaboration with the Sinaloa Cartel they did not need much of an army, as Sinaloa provided sicarios for them.
Diplomacy
After Armando Valencia's arrest, his family members, Oscar Valencia and Luis Valencia, commenced friendly relations with the Sinaloa Cartel. Due to this improvement in relations, they started collaborating with the Sinaloa Cartel Drug Lord, Ignacio Coronel. Due to the relations with the Sinaloa Cartel, the cartel was able to expand into the Mexican state Colima as well. Eventually, Oscar Valencia was brutally killed in a gun battle. It is unknown which group is responsible for the death of him, but it caused a power vacuum within the Milenio Cartel. This caused 2 major groups to form. These groups being La Resistencia and the Jalisco Cartel.
The Jalisco Cartel
General Information
The Jalisco Cartel is a large cartel founded in Jalisco, Mexico, led by Nemesio Oseguera. It was founded after the fall of the Milenio Cartel. Various groups splintered off from the Milenio Cartel after it fell. La Resistencia and the Jalisco Cartel are 2 major groups. They directly opposed each other. However, due to the Jalisco Cartel's efforts to inherit and seize most of the former Milenio Cartel smuggling networks, they rapidly diminished La Resistencia, becoming the largest cartel in the region formerly belonging to the Milenio Cartel.
Military Wing
The Jalisco Cartel does not employ any other organization for it's military purposes. Instead, the Jalisco Cartel utilises it's own soldiers, often dressed in black uniforms and taught to be extremely violent. Often, these soldiers wear skull masks to appear extra frightening. They are also heavily armed with AK-47s or similar weaponry. Only the officers, who are well equipped, wield smaller automatic weapons for ease.
Diplomacy
The Jalisco Cartel uses extreme violence, notably against opposing cartels or organizations, such as Los Zetas, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Potosino Cartel. The Jalisco Cartel has bad ties with a large amount of criminal organizations, notably Los Zetas, which it is warring against. La Resistencia is also a notable criminal organization, which formed from the fall of the Milenio Cartel, similarly to the Jalisco Cartel itself. However, La Resistencia is quickly diminished to a small gang by the Jalisco Cartel due to it making rapid advances to become stronger. Due to this they remain as one of the largest active drug cartels.
Los Salazares
General Information
Los Salazares is a cartel which formerly served as a military wing for the Sinaloa Cartel in northern Mexico, primarily Sonora, Chihuahua and Coahuila. The cartel is most active in the Juarez region. Los Salazares was formed by the dons of the Sinaloa Cartel to combat the Eladio Cartel.
Military Wing
Los Salazares itself is a former military wing of a cartel and therefore does not employ any other groups for it's military purposes. It's uniforms are white.
Diplomacy
Due to Los Salazares breaking off from the Sinaloa Cartel, the relations between the two groups are bad. However, because Los Salazares was the military wing for the Sinaloa Cartel in the northern Mexican states, the Sinaloa Cartel has relatively little presence in those states. Due to this, fighting between the two groups rarely occurs.
It's relations with other cartels are also bad. Primarily the Eladio Cartel, which it often engages in turf wars with due to both groups being most active in Juarez.
The Medellin Cartel
General Information
The Medellin Cartel is a cartel formed in Medellin, Colombia. It was formed by Pablo Escobar, Gustavo Gaviria, Jose Gacha, Carlos Lehder, Jorge Ochoa and Juan Ochoa. Fabio Ochoa later on also became a prominent member of the cartel. The Cartel was formed after the Maldeira Cartel collapsed. The Cartel de la Sierra was formed after Jose Gacha left the Medellin Cartel because he lost trust in Pablo Escobar, who was deemed the leader of the Cartel.
Military Wing
Initially, the Medellin Cartel did not need to use military force to enforce their influence. However, with the growth of Germanic presence in Colombia, Colombia's military growing, the Cali Cartel becoming more influential and the founding of the Cartel de la Sierra caused the Medellin Cartel to commence extreme guerilla warfare.
Diplomacy
The Medellin Cartel started off relatively peaceful, bribing police officers and politicians. However, eventually politicians started fighting against the Medellin Cartel.
The Cali Cartel also grew in influence, becoming a rival of the Medellin Cartel. After Jose Gacha left the Medellin Cartel and formed his own cartel, the Cartel de la Sierra, it formed a threat to the Medellin Cartel as well. A large amount of labs and other infrastructure belonging to the Medellin Cartel were attacked by Cartel de la Sierra. Cartel de la Sierra formed alliances with the Cali Cartel and the Autodefensas group to fight the Medellin Cartel. This caused a triple alliance to be formed between the three groups. The Potosino Cartel also improved ties with the triple alliance. Los Pepes was formed after the formation of this triple alliance influenced by the Potosino Cartel. Los Pepes focused on killing Pablo Escobar. This promptly caused ties between the Potosino Cartel and the Medellin Cartel to worsen. The arch nemesis of the Potosino Cartel, the Sinaloa Cartel, saw an opportunity to improve ties with the Medellin Cartel. This caused the ties between the two cartels to severely improve, which in turn caused two large alliances that were fighting each other to form, being the Sinaloa-Medellin alliance and the alliance between the Cali Cartel, Cartel de la Sierra, Autodefensas, Los Pepes and the Potosino Cartel.
Cali Cartel
General Information
The Cali Cartel was a large Colombian cartel formed by Gilberto Orejuela, Miguel Orejuela, Chepe Santacruz and Pacho Herrera. It was a cartel formed from the collapse of the Maldeira Cartel. It was a secretive cartel which tended to stay under the radar unlike various cartels. It also severely rivalled the Medellin Cartel.
Military Wing
The Cali Cartel was a relatively peaceful cartel compared to most cartels. The Cali Cartel had few sicarios. However, once it's rivalry commenced with the Medellin Cartel.
Diplomacy
The Cali Cartel after it's formation immediately started targetting the Mafia and remaining forces belonging to the Maldeira Cartel. After the Mafia and Maldeira forces left Colombia, the Cali Cartel stopped all diplomatic actions. Eventually Pacho Herrera started negotiations with Amado Carrillo and various members of the Eladio Cartel to transport drugs to the Germanic Zone of America and the Neutral Zone. Eventually, a violent rivalry between the Medellin Cartel and Cali Cartel erupted. The Cali Cartel sided alongside Cartel de la Sierra and Autodefensas. Together they formed the organization Los Pepes. It was solely formed to take down the Medellin Cartel's leader, Pablo Escobar. It eventually took down Pablo Escobar's cartel and later Pablo Escobar was killed. These two events caused the disassembly of Los Pepes. The Cali Cartel continued peacefully and secretly after it's disassembly.
North Valley Cartel
General Information
The North Valley Cartel was a large Colombian cartel formed by Orlando Henao, Ivan Urdinola, Henry Loaiza and Wilber Varela. It was a cartel formed from the collapse of the Maldeira Cartel. It remained calm and non-violent for the first while of it's existence, though eventually it started a violent rivalry with the Cali Cartel. They controlled the Colombian rural North Valley and the port of Buenaventura, from which most of the world's cocaine was shipped. Unlike the Cali Cartel, they didn't care much for public relations.
Military Wing
The North Valley Cartel supplied it's own sicarios which were extremely violent.
Diplomacy
The North valley Cartel were peaceful shortly after it's formation. It worked alongside the more powerful Cali Cartel in it's first years of existence. However, after the fall of the Medellin Cartel, the Cali Cartel became the largest Colombian Cartel and eventually spoke of a potential surrender with mild sentences. The leaders of the Cali Cartel would be allowed to keep most of their assets, practically allowing the Cali Cartel members to retire from the illegal business with millions to billions of dollars. The leaders of the North Valley Cartel disliked the idea and started a rivalry against the Cali Cartel. The Cali Cartel retaliated against the aggression of the North Valley Cartel by killing numerous members of the North Valley Cartel. This started a large scale violent war between the two cartels.