Línea is one of the main criminal forces of the Mexican state of Chihuahua, engaging in everything, from the smuggling of migrants to drug trafficking. His attachment base is Ciudad Juárez, from which he projects his power along a significant stretch of the American-Mexican border.
History
The Línea was trained in Ciudad Juárez in the early 2000s by active and old and local police with the intention of providing protection services to drug trafficking groups. At that time, the most dominant transnational criminal group in the region was the Juárez cartel, which began in the 1970s and grew up to dominate cocaine traffic through this border section.
However, in 2008, the Sinaloa cartel had tried to settle in Ciudad Juárez and dislodge the cartel of Juárez. For a while, the Línea imposed the two groups to move their drug shipments in the Juárez valley. While some members finally aligned with the Sinaloa cartel, the Línea has become known as the official application of the Juárez cartel.
Línea has acquired a reputation for macabre demonstrations of violence. At the beginning of 2010, armed men were reportedly affiliated with Línea and the Juárez cartel storm a party and massacred 16 adolescents. Later that same year, armed men attacked a rehabilitation center in the city, dragged its occupants outside and executed 19 people. The victims were suspected of having worked with a local rival gang linked to the Sinaloa cartel. The following month, alleged members of the Línea were suspected of having orchestrated the first attack on the successful automotive bomb of the so-called “war against drugs” of Mexico, which targeted the federal police of Mexico.
The period between 2008 and 2011 became one of the most violent in the history of Ciudad Juárez, and it is not difficult to know if the cartel of Juárez or Sinaloa emerged above. In the following years, Ciudad Juárez saw a drop in murders with dozens of high level arrests of the main leaders of the Línea.
Despite the blows to its leadership, the Línea maintained a significant presence in Ciudad Juárez. He controlled the traffic routes to the American-Mexican border and continued to expand his horizons, would have extended to drug sales at the street level, synthetic drug trafficking, illegal forest exploitation and car theft in the city and through Chihuahua.
In November 2019, Línea was linked to brutal massacre Nine double American citizens of a cross-border Mormon community, who were perhaps mistakenly targeted during an attempted attack on the rivals. The killings highlighted the critical role of so-called “small armies– Groups like the Línea which emerged as the most dominant crime groups in Mexico have outsourced security and territorial control from more localized networks.
In 2024, the Línea seemed to face internal divisions. Some security officials have told Insight Crime that a criminal group ascending to Ciudad Juárez known as the Empresa, or the company, is a faction of escaping from the Línea. In addition, some members of the Línea have announced themselves as the new cartel of Juárez (Nuevo Cartel de Juárez), although it is not clear if it is in fact a splinter faction of Línea or simply a change of name.
US authorities have also increased pressure on the group, sanction Four best Línea leaders towards the end of 2024. US officials allegedly alleged that the group was not only the trafficking of fentanyl in the United States, but that they had also trained an alliance with Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación – CJNG), which had become the main supplier of Fentanyle, Cocaine, Cocaine, Cocaine, cocaine.
Direction
At the height of the war of the cartel of Juárez-Sinaloa, the Línea would have been led by Luis Carlos Vázquez Barragán, alias “El 20”, who would have taken direct orders from the former chief of the cartel of Juárez, Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, alias “El Vicroy”. He would have helped the Juárez cartel to move large drug expeditions through the American-Mexican border, as well as plan and perform targeted assassinations. However, the Mexican authorities arrested him in Chihuahua in 2010.
Since then, a number of others have entered and out of the higher position in the ranks of the Línea. This includes Jesús Salas Aguayo, that we, American prosecutors, accused On drug trafficking in 2015. sanction it And several other high-ranking Línea partners towards the end of 2024 for fentanyl traffic and other drugs in the United States. The authorities also identified Adrián Aguayo; Jorge Adrián Ortega Gallegos, alias “El Naranjas”; Heber Nieto Fierro, alias “Ever Nieto”; And Josefa Yadira Carrasco Leyva, alias “La Wera”, as key leaders in the ranks of Línea.
Geography
The main basis of operations of the Línea is Ciudad Juárez. However, the group was linked to armed confrontations with factions of the Sinaloa cartel in the four corners of the state of Chihuahua, including in municipalities like Ojinaga, Moris and Guadalupe y Calvo.
The scope of the group does not extend beyond this strategic part of the border. The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), for example, did not even mention the group in its national evaluation of drug threats in 2025.
Allies and enemies
For many years, Línea has been characterized by its changing alliances with groups such as Juárez and Sinaloa cartels. Although the group now works more as an independent criminal network, it continues to rely on alliances to take advantage of its strategic position at the American-Mexican border.
In recent years, a bloody battle has resurfaced in the border state of Chihuahua between Línea and the factions of the Sinaloa cartel, mainly on the control of the main migrant and drug trafficking in the United States. More specifically, a group linked to the Sinaloa cartel known as Salazar operating in the neighboring state of Sonora Stay Línea in order to take control of Chihuahua and the Juárez valley.
However, the Línea would have been allied with the CJNG to facilitate drug trafficking in the United States. That said, the Línea faces the continuous pressure of an increasing number of criminal networks affiliated with the Sinaloa cartel, as well as local street gangs such as the assassins of the artists (Asesinos artists), Barrio Azteca and the Mexicoles.
Prospects
The Línea continues to be one of the most dominant criminal groups in the state of Chihuahua, and Ciudad Juárez in particular, although it was locked in a dispute of several years with factions and gangs associated with the Sinaloa cartel. While the criminal landscape of this region is more fragmented, the group is faced with the incursions of various criminal rivals. However, the strategic use of alliances by Línea over the years has enabled the group to maintain significant control over Ciudad Juárez for more than a decade.
