Narco-Mex: The History of the
Drug Trade in Mexico
Archivo General de la Nación
• Presidentes (Obregon-Calles, Cardenas, MAC,
MAV, ARC) GDO and LEA have no catalogues.
JLP and Miguel de La Madrid do have
catalogues but are radically reduced.
– Citizens’ complaints about trafficking
– Some legislation
– Basic reports on some anti-drugs campaigns
Investigaciones Politicas y Sociales
• Newspaper clippings about busts, campaigns
etc
• Some investigations into drug production,
political corruption, and local effects.
• Handful of biographies of 1940s foreign
traffickers
• Information on military campaigns against
drug production in trafficking (particularly in
the 1970s)
Ciudad Juarez, 1926
SEDENA
• Reports on military anti-drugs campaigns
• Complaints of civilians against military
aggression, especially during Operation
Condor
Dirección Federal de Seguridad
• Relatively banal collections of newspaper
clippings on traffickers linked to the DFS (Felix
Gallardo etc)
• More interesting documents on pre-1978
leaders e.g. Pedro Aviles (BUT these are now
redacted)
Other potential AGN collections
• SEP? a) Allegedly a mess b) Which regions do we
choose
• Secretaría de Salubridad y Asistencia - no
catalogue.
• Tribunal Superior de Justicia del Distrito Federal/
Siglo XX/ Archivo Histórico/
– This contains drug cases from both DF and for some
reason Tijuana from 1920 to 1930
– This is catalogued
Archivo del Estado de Baja California
• Small scale drug rings
• Increasingly alarmist official reports over drug
use.
Archivo Histórico de la Secretaria de la
Salubridad
• Can’t photograph, prohibitively expensive to take
photocopies.
• We have noted all entries in written but not online post
1940 catalogue
• Health police in charge of drug busts up to 1940s.
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Drug busts
Drug policy
Legalization
Treatment of addicts
• Casas Juridicas
• Drug cases from 1920-1950
– SLP (done)
– Tijuana (partly done)
• Mostly small scale drug arrests, offer insight into a) judicial
system b) to some extent profile of Mexican drug user.
• In Tijuana, some more high profile arrests, larger drug rings.
DEA Library
• Figures on drug busts, drug addicts,
• Explanations of policies and international
cooperation
Digital National Security Archives
• Online, purchased by Universities of Sheffield
and Warwick
• Policies, international cooperation,
presidential discussions.
• I have gone through 1969-1980 stuff and pdf
it.
Ford Archives
• Lots of information about anti-drugs
campaigns 1974-6
• Complaints of congressmen, other US citizens.
• Policies, international relations
Interviews
• DEA Agents – Mike Vigil (twice), Tony Ricevueto
• How far do we want to go down this path? Does
this depend on what date we finish the book?
• I have contact details for another 8-10 agents.
• Tony Ricevueto has offered his personal archive
for our use.
Kenneth Johnson Archive
• US political scientist
• Was working with Sonoran intellectual and
politician, Oscar Monroy.
• Has interesting documents on police
corruption and the drug trade
NARA RG 21 RIverside
• Criminal cases of minor drug traffickers
coming over border in San Diego
• Gives an idea of small-scale US traffickers
• Large-scale traffickers (e.g. Robert and Helen
Hernandez) have had files removed.
NARA RG 36 Riverside
• Customs offices in California
• Annual reports 1940-1955
– Can really get a sense of decline of Mexican drug
trade in 1950s
• Individual drug busts 1914-1920
NARA RG 59 Washington
• State Department Archives
• All major busts, policies, instances of international
cooperation between 1930 and 1973.
• We do not have 1910-1929 which does contains drug
files but is also on microfilm at LSE and Oxford (?)
• Peter has asked for certain files 1970-3 to be FOIAed
NARA RG 84 Washington
• Consular records
– Mostly from 1920-1945/50
– We have Chihuahua, Mexicali, Ciudad Juarez,
Durango, Guadalajara, Matamoros, Nogales,
Mazatlan, and Veracruz.
– We are missing Tijuana
– What about post 1945/50. Do these reports exist?
RG 170 Riverside
• DEA Records for California 1972-4
• Some files relating to Mexico
• I have currently asked them to be FOIAed
RG 170 Washington
• Federal Bureau of Narcotics archives, 19201962
• Huge collection of data on drugs busts,
international cooperation, policy.
Newspapers
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El Sonorense – media link between drugs and left wing student group
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El Informador – online Guadalajara newspaper, useful for tracing major drug
busts/policy shifts. Also has 1935 poem in praise of Marijuana
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Rolling Stone Mexico, interest articles on drug culture in Mexico late 1960s
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San Diego Union – on Robert and Helen Hernandez
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Hemeroteca Nacional
– Has newspapers pre-1910 online
– Has some national newspapers and magazines post 1910 online ONLY in Hemeroteca building.
Can we word search busts/policies?
– What local newspaper/crime newspapers should we look at? – Baja
California/Tamaulipas/Ciudad Juarez/Alarma/Alerta? These are not online and are
tough/expensive to photograph.
Nixon Library
• Surprisingly poor collection of documents on
policy and international relations.
• Interesting anonymous hippy article on
marijuana smuggling.
NSA, Washington
• This contains more documents than the NSA
online archive.
• Extras include
– Edward Heath’s Masters Thesis on Operation Trizo
(Carlos Perez Ricart has FOIAed the documents
from this)
– Nazar Haro and Zuno’s court cases in the US.
PGR
• This has been given to me by Carlos Perez
Ricart
• Contains acts of official PGR-US cooperation
between 1930 and 1980.
• Contains a lot more but I have not had time to
look at it.
Secondary Literature
• Like local newspapers, small-print-run books
also could reveal regional drugs business
Secretary of State Cables 1973-1978
• After 1973, State Department in US moved to
cable system.
• They are much less detailed, it seems to me, than
the previous system.
• But they do have ample figures about drug busts,
drug campaigns and some interesting stuff on
some drug traffickers (E.g. Aviles and Herrera)
Tribunal Superior de la Justicia
• There is one computer in the Tribunal Superior, DF which
allows one to search and access files of drug offenders that
have asked for an amparo from 1920-2012
• Results are mixed
– Some of the case files are huge e.g. Jaime Buelna Aviles (1980)
traces out the arrival of cocaine in Culiacan in the early 1970s.
– Some of pitiful and simply ask for an amparo.
– If you ask for copies all names are redacted. But if you work in
the Tribunal, you can get all names.
– How much do we use this?
US Congress Investigations
• US Congress and US state congresses often did
lengthy investigations into the drug industry,
using court documents we do not have access
to.
• I have collected a lot that are online in pdf
form but not all. Mostly from late 1960s and
1970s.
US newspapers on the drug war
• Collected some US newspapers on Mexican drug
war, particularly 1970s.
• Playboy, Oui and other semi-pornographic
magazines have serious investigations.
• Border newspapers have good news stories on
drug trade.
• Again, how far do we go down this road?
UT El Paso Oral History Archive
• Contains interview with US Customs agents
working in the 1940s-1960s
• Some mentions of drugs from braceros and
other workers.
Questions
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How centralised was the drug trade?
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How involved were federal organizations, local government?
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How did this change over time?
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Effects on local communities?
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To what extent was US pressure key to anti-drugs legislation?
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How to get at the post-1980s drug trade?
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Proceso and other newspapers
Interviews
Toluca Casa Juridica
Tribunal Superior
Local/Nota Roja papers
How to read judicial files?
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As evidence of social cleansing campaigns
As evidence of patterns within the drug trade/drug trafficking?
Archives: The main questions
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Nat goes to Salubridad (notes) and AGN (photos). But where else?
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UNAM/Biblioteca Medica theses
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Casas Juridicas
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Where? Tijuana (finish?), DF, Guadalajara, Mazatlan, Ciudad Juárez?
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Casa Juridica Nacional, Toluca has post 1950s cases. We have catalogue for SLP, Sonora and Michoacan. No photographs. Do we go here or use
Tribunal Superior?
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Newspapers. Wordsearchable access to Excelsior, Universal etc in Hemeroteca Nacional. We can get pdfs of stories. Do we search specific dates for
Prensa, BC, and CJ newspapers.
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Magazines. Key magazines: Detective Internacional, Alarma, Alerta, some issues of Por Que?
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US newspapers – how local?
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DEA agents?
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Charles Bowden Archives
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Local studies using triangulations of NARA/AGN sources plus RAN, SEP, Newspapers, court cases
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Looking at weight of evidence/strategic importance, I would suggest
Sonora/Sinaloa 1920s-1940s
Tijuana/CJ 1940s/1950s
Sinaloa/Michiacan 1960s/1970s
Guerrero 1970s
Strategy
• Plan of book
– 400 pages OUP/University of California series
– Series of standalone regional/chronological/thematic case
studies ad infinitum
– 800 page two volume text, 1910-1960, 1960-?
– One or two volume popular Verso text?
– Middle road – Harvard?
• Division of Labour (Are we doing individual archives or
individual tasks?)
• Nat’s involvement.
What type of book: Pros and Cons
• Academic Text
– Pros – easy contract, relatively easy to write, academically
important, included within proposal, can include technically
difficult studies of legal changes etc, can if necessary get two
volumes.
– Cons – will have to cut radically, will probably leave out much of
the “flavour” found within the documents, will hit a small
audience.
– Middle road:
• Harvard popular press
• 2 books, one academic, one popular
• 1 popular book and then host of academic articles?