BACKGROUND: La Familia - a young but powerful drug cartel

By Andrea Sosa Cabrios Oct 22, 2009, 17:32 GMT

   Mexico City - La Familia, the Mexican drug cartel in the crosshairs of the US criminal justice system on Thursday, emerged relatively recently but has already made its violent presence amply felt.

The gang - its full name is La Familia Michoacana - has its stronghold in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, the native state of Mexican President Felipe Calderon. 

In the past two days, 303 people allgedly connected to La Familia were arrested in the US, showing that the gang's influence goes far beyond Mexico's borders.

The cartel's extortion-based fundraising system in Michoacan uses informers inside public institutions, expropriates land for drug cultivation and commandeers vehicles from the police pound to carry out crimes.

   La Familia was hardly on anyone's radar three years ago. But since they made their horrific debut in late 2006, they have steadily forged a tyrannical image in Mexico's drug wars which claimed 6,290 lives in 2008 and over 5,500 so far this year.

   Until 2006, the monopoly on drug terror belonged to the traditionally infamous cartels of Sinaloa, the Gulf (with its armed wing Los Zetas), Juarez and Tijuana.

   But in the early hours of September 6, 2006, La Familia burst onto the scene when armed masked attackers stampeded into the Sol y Sombra bar in Uruapan, Michoacan and bowled five bloody human heads onto the dance floor with a message.

   'La Familia will not kill for money, it will not kill women, it will not kill innocent people, it will only kill those who must die. Let all people know that this is divine justice,' the text said.

   After conquering the Michoacan scene, La Familia has expanded its fight to other states in western, southern and central Mexico, taking on its old allies Los Zetas for control of the drug trade and other businesses like extortion and kidnappings.

   Although the history is murky, La Familia was apparently formed with the backing of Los Zetas which hoped to use the new arrivals to block the Sinaloa drug cartel from expanding. The liaison disintegrated in 2008 into a bitter rivalry.

Since then, La Familia sought other allies and to send its marijuana, heroin and meth to the United States. The Sinaloa Cartel has reportedly assisted them in the effort.

La Familia's operative boss Servando Gomez Martinez is currently one of the most wanted drug lords in Mexico, and the Justice Ministry is offering a reward of 2.2 million dollars for him.

He is being blamed, among others, for a series of attacks that claimed the lives of 17 police officers and two military officers in July in retaliation for the arrest of one of his aides.

   In a 15-minute TV interview in July, a man who identified himself as Gomez Martinez offered to talk to President Calderon: 'What we want is peace and quiet ...'

   '... Please understand this: You will never be able to end this, and the day I die they will put someone else in my place, and that is how it will go on. This is never going to end, we want to reach a consensus, we want to reach a national deal.'

The Mexican government, however, refused to negotiate with a drug gang.

Gomez Martinez made it clear that he will not back down.

'I want God to be the only one to judge me. I am never going to let anyone catch me on Earth, and I hope God gives me that chance,' he said in the phone-in.

   Police and military have been deployed across Mexico to combat the drug gangs.

However, La Familia - like other cartels - often trumps them with its bribes. Before taking office in 2007, Michoacan Governor Leonel Godoy told the newspaper he was warned by the Army that La Familia had summoned 89 mayors-elect to a meeting. A total of 28 mayors actually showed up at the gathering.

   Several Michoacan mayors and state officials - including the state attorney general - have been arrested for allegedly providing La Familia with protection.