Radiografía del narco en México: así están distribuidos los 148 grupos criminales que operan en el país
Infobae México
Radiografía del narco en México: así están distribuidos los 148 grupos criminales que operan en el país
Infobae — México edition (International Press) April 17, 2021 · Argentina / Mexico Photo: AFP / Getty Images
148 Grupos, 32 Estados
Infobae opens with the structural finding that anchors the entire CIDE map: in 2019, the most violent year in recent Mexican history, criminal organizations became smaller — not larger. At least 148 criminal groups, some affiliated with bigger cartels and many entirely regional, entered disputes for territorial control across localities throughout the country. Far from a handful of large cartels, the data reveals a fragmented landscape of dozens of regional and local cells operating in fluid alliances — a finding the federal government had not previously aggregated.
The territorial geography is detailed: CJNG appears in 28 of Mexico’s 32 states, the most spatially dispersed criminal actor in the country. The Sinaloa Cartel is present in 15 states with 11 distinct armed wings — fewer territories but deeper local infrastructure. Concentration peaks in Michoacán and the Valley of Mexico, each hosting 20 to 24 distinct criminal cells, the densest clusters in the dataset.
La Radiografía
What sets the Infobae piece apart is its visual register — state-by-state breakdowns and concentration charts reframed the 148-group count for a pan-Latin American audience. The article also walked through the open-source intelligence triangulation — public communiqués, banners, three-source press confirmation — that converted scattered field signals into a structured count. That kind of methodological transparency is rare in crime-beat coverage. The DEA’s own framing appears in the piece: CJNG’s expansion driven by “willingness to participate in violent acts,” Sinaloa recognized as the most powerful single organization. Two different organizational strategies, both mapped by the same CIDE dataset.
Citation
Infobae. (2021, April 17). Radiografía del narco en México: así están distribuidos los 148 grupos criminales que operan en el país. Infobae — Edición México.