You may have read something interesting recently as The Wall Street Journal reported on an event that doesn’t happen very often.
This year, 55 cartel leaders were quietly moved out of Mexican prisons and transferred to the United States. These weren’t low-level thugs. These were the heavy weights, the real jefes at the top of Mexico’s largest criminal organizations.
If caught and held in Mexican prisons, it’s at worst a minor annoyance. They can still come and go as they please. The “prison cell” is more like a condo, outfitted to their liking. They have internet and cell phones, so they can run their business largely unencumbered by anything.
Pablo Escobar, the notorious Colombian narco who experienced the same type of jail time, said life in jail was actually better: The ladies in his life—his wife and multiple girlfriends—had to schedule specific times with the guards.
As you’re aware, life in an American supermax prison is different. And historically, narco kingpins are rarely extradited to the US. (El Chapo transfer to the US in 2017 was an exception.)
So when 55 cartel leaders make the move el norte, this is significant. To understand why it matters, it helps to give it a name.
In Chapter 2 of Good to Excelente, I write about something called the Plaza System. It’s a framework that helps explain how drug trafficking in Mexico has operated for decades—not as chaos, but as a coordinated system with clearly defined roles.
Many Americans first caught a glimpse of this system through the story of Joaquín Guzmán Loera—better known as El Chapo. His repeated escapes, continued influence, and ability to operate even while incarcerated weren’t anomalies. They were symptoms of a system that worked as designed.
A plaza is a geographic corridor. In each plaza, a local leader coordinates traffic through that territory. He can move his own product and charge anyone else who wants to use the same route.
But the role goes beyond logistics.
Part of managing a plaza is managing protection. Payments go to local police, who enforce order. They decide who operates and who doesn’t. Anyone not paying their dues can be shut down, arrested, or “removed.”
When outside attention increases, police can step in to show activity and restore balance.
Those payments don’t stop at the local level.
Money moves up the chain of command—to supervisors, commanders, and regional leadership. By the time it reaches higher political levels, it’s far removed from its original source. That distance is intentional.
Officials don’t need to ask where the money came from.
They don’t want to know.
As long as the money flows and order is maintained, the system works.
That’s why the Plaza System held together for so long. It aligned incentives from local towns all the way to the top. Everyone understood their role. Everyone stayed in their lane.
And the system depends on one critical factor: location.
As long as leaders remain inside Mexico, they remain connected to their plazas—even when they’re in prison. The corridors, relationships, and cash flow are still there.
Extradition changes all that.
When leaders are moved out of Mexico, they are removed from the environment that allows the Plaza System to function. This story is still unfolding, and it’s worth watching to see if this recent level of cooperation continues between Mexico and the United States.
Unfortunately, I anticipate some form of overt response from the cartels toward the US, but maybe not. There may be so much infighting as the extradition allows territorial maps to be redrawn with force.
Either way, it’s a reminder that “systems thinking” is important and a sad reminder that without strong, uncorrupt government, the people at the bottom will remain without power and, all too often, without safety.
I know, hardly the typical holiday message, but a timely one.
Thanks for reading.
We’ll see you back here after the holidays.
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