How a wartime opium program helped seed Mexico's modern drug trafficking cartels
During World War II, the United States faced a critical shortage of medical morphine. Mexico stepped in to cultivate opium poppies, inadvertently establishing the smuggling routes and local networks that would later evolve into the powerful cartels that dominate the country's ongoing, decades-long asymmetric conflict with the government.
The roots of Mexico's current security crisis trace back to the early 20th century. Following the end of U.S. Prohibition in 1933, illegal drug trade began to take hold. During the Second World War, the Pacific conflict disrupted Asian opium supplies, prompting Mexican authorities to collaborate with the U.S. to expand poppy cultivation in the Sierra Madre Occidental. While this program concluded after 1945, the infrastructure and logistics it created provided a foundation for future illicit organizations.
The modern cartel landscape emerged from the 1980s fragmentation of the Guadalajara Cartel, founded by Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo. As a former police agent, he initially consolidated the trade by smuggling marijuana and opium, later becoming a key intermediary for Colombian cocaine traffickers. Following his 1989 arrest, he divided his territories among various factions to prevent a single law enforcement operation from dismantling the entire network. This decision, intended to ensure efficiency, instead sparked intense competition as these groups splintered and fought for control over lucrative smuggling corridors.
In 2006, President Felipe Calderón launched a militarized campaign, Operation Michoacán, to dismantle these syndicates. However, the strategy of targeting high-profile leaders often backfired, creating power vacuums that fueled internal struggles and increased nationwide homicide rates. Subsequent administrations have attempted different approaches, from Peña Nieto’s focus on de-escalation to López Obrador’s social-welfare-oriented 'hugs, not bullets' policy. Despite these shifts, the conflict persists, with the National Guard now playing a central role in security, and violence continuing to fluctuate as cartels adapt to changing political and military pressures.
Source: Mexican drug war
