Since 2018, cartel violence has resulted in an average of 30,000 deaths per year in Mexico. The situation is so out of control that Mexico is now considered one of the most dangerous places in the Americas. In Global Guardian’s recently published Global Risk Assessment, Mexico was classified as a high-risk country on par with Haiti, which is essentially a failed state as gangs are currently in control of most of the country.

The US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) annual report for 2024 identified Mexico’s two largest and most powerful cartels, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), as the most dangerous at present. The DEA considers them transnational criminal organizations because, beyond the drug trade, they run massive organized crime operations involved in arms trafficking, money laundering, human trafficking, sex trafficking, bribery and intimidation of public officials, extortion, and an array of other illicit activities across North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania.