La Línea (gang)
La Línea ("The Line") is currently the leading faction of the Juárez Cartel originally designed to be one of the cartel's enforcer units set up by a number of former and active-duty policemen, heavily armed and extensively trained in urban warfare. Their corrupt "line" of policemen were set up to protect drug traffickers, but after forming an alliance with Barrio Azteca to fight off the forces of the Sinaloa Cartel in 2008, they established a foothold in Ciudad Juárez as the enforcement wing of the Juárez cartel. La Línea has also been involved in extortions and kidnappings. As of 2021, La Línea has formed an alliance with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel in Ciudad Juárez to fight off influence and incursions from the Sinaloa Cartel.
| Founding location | Ciudad Juárez, Mexico |
|---|---|
| Years active | 2008–present |
| Territory | Mexico: Chihuahua and Sonora United States: New Mexico and Texas |
| Activities | Drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, murder |
| Allies | Juárez Cartel Jalisco New Generation Cartel Beltrán-Leyva Cartel Los Zetas Barrio Azteca |
| Rivals | Sinaloa Cartel Los Ántrax Gente Nueva Los Mexicles Artistas Asesinos |
At the service of the Juárez cartel, La Línea has been instrumental in helping Vicente Carrillo Fuentes' organization hold influence in Ciudad Juárez, one of the most important crossings and drug corridors in the U.S-Mexico border and home to a growing retail drug market. In the early 2010s the DEA estimated that about 70% of the cocaine that enters the United States flows through the El Paso–Juárez border.
La Línea is linked to some of Ciudad Juárez's and the region's most notorious massacres, including the massacre of 16 teenagers at a high school party (Villas de Salvárcar massacre), the shooting that killed 19 patients at a rehab center, and of the cell phone-detonated car bomb attack – all of them perpetrated in 2010. The gang has also been connected to the infamous Mormon family massacre in Sonora in 2019. Their former gang leader, nicknamed El Diego, was guilty of carrying out more than 1,500 killings from 2008 to 2011 alone.