Mexico: Barrio Azteca's Fraying Ties with the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Organization

Barrio Azteca, an El Paso-based gang originally formed in a Texas prison in the mid-1980s, has long been involved with Mexican drug cartels. Around 2008, the group appeared to enter an exclusive partnership with the Vincente Carrillo Fuentes organization, aka the Juarez cartel, via an alliance with that group's enforcement arm, La Linea. However, the dismantling of La Linea by law enforcement and the Sinaloa Federation since 2011 and the overall weakening of the Juarez cartel likely mean Barrio Azteca will begin partnering with other criminal groups in Mexico, if it has not already done so.