Foreign Policy Blogs

Dead: The Craziest One

A top leader of La Familia drug syndicate, Nazario Moreno González, better known by the media and public as “the craziest one,” was shot dead in a gunfight with Mexican officials on Thursday. The death is being hailed as a sign of progress in the Calderón administration’s war against Mexico’s drug traffickers. But the day-to-day operations of La Familia are unlikely to be hindered, because José de Jesús Méndez Vargas, the co-leader of La Familia, remains at large.

The more important implication may be a loss of morale among the family members. La Familia is unique among Mexico’s drug gangs for a degree of cohesion that owes, in large part, to the religious overtones the gang uses. Since last year the government has eliminated several high-ranking members of La Familia, leading to a loss of effective operators at the lieutenant level. Now La Familia is down a general.

 

Author

Sean Goforth

Sean H. Goforth is a graduate of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. His research focuses on Latin American political economy and international trade. Sean is the author of Axis of Unity: Venezuela, Iran & the Threat to America.