Why Disrupting the La Familia Michoacana Cartel Is More Difficult Than Seizing Their Drugs
Group Profile
La Familia Michoacana (LFM) is an umbrella organization composed of multiple criminal cartel factions in Mexico. Among these, La Nueva Familia Michoacana and the United Cartels are the most significant, both of which have been designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) by the US Department of State. This article, part of our series on the financial structures of major criminal groups, provides a profile of LFM and its factions. It examines the origins and operations of the group as well as its financial strategies: how funds are raised, used, stored, moved, managed, and obscured, highlighting the mechanisms that keep LFM one of Mexico’s most profitable criminal networks.
Origins and Operations
LFM started in the Mexican state of Michoacán in 2006. The group originally split from the Gulf Cartel and its armed wing, Los Zetas, and established itself by mixing violence with religious rhetoric. Under its leader Nazario Moreno González, LFM promoted a quasi-religious doctrine of family values, discipline, and moral order, even as it trafficked drugs and killed rivals. It became famous for a 2006 attack in Uruapan, when members threw five severed heads onto a nightclub floor. The group’s activities initially centred on the production and distribution of methamphetamine, marijuana, and other illicit drugs and precursor chemicals, but over time diversified into extortion, racketeering, and kidnapping.
While the original LFM fragmented after Moreno’s reported death in 2010, its successors remain powerful. Today, there are two major factions: La Nueva Familia Michoacana (LNFM) and the United Cartels (Cárteles Unidos, CU). These factions operate under the broader LFM umbrella but retain independent financial and operational structures. LNFM focuses its operations in Guerrero and Michoacán (including the Port of Lázaro Cárdenas, one of Mexico’s largest seaports), whereas CU exerts influence in southern Michoacán and has extended operations into neighbouring states (with territory overlapping that of LNFM). LNFM is the most powerful faction and alone is responsible for the annual transportation, importation, and distribution of approximately 12 tons of methamphetamine, 13 tons of opioids, including heroin and fentanyl, and 18 tons of cocaine in the United States.
