Mexican Drug Cartels Are Recruiting Members Faster Than They Lose Them, Experts Say

Cartel membership in Mexico rose from about 115,000 in 2021 to nearly 175,000 in 2022. In 2021 alone, cartels recruited about 19,300 people while losing around 12,200 to deaths or imprisonment. (Credit: Marco Ugarte/Via Chicago Tribune/AP)

Over the past two decades, drug cartels in Mexico have grown exponentially to the point that in some parts of the country organized crime groups exert more control than the federal government.

To build that power, cartels such as the Sinaloa cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) have recruited thousands of people into their ranks, either voluntarily or through coercion.