Operation Michoacán is a joint operation by Federal Police and the Mexican military to eliminate drug plantations and to combat drug trafficking. Initiated on December 11, 2006, the operation was supervised by The Secretary of Public Safety, Attorney General of Mexico, Secretary of the Interior, Mexican Navy and Mexican Army.
On some occasions, state and municipal police have participated despite not being part of it. The joint operation has distinguished itself as one of the operations against organized crime, drug trafficking in this case, which has employed the largest number of military and police elements, as well as most state forces.
Background
The drug war in Michoacán started during the 1990s as the Milenio Cartel and the Amezcua Cartel would sell crystal methamphetamine imported from Colombia due to alliances with the Medellín Cartel and the Cali Cartel. Shortly after, lieutenants in the Milenio Cartel betrayed them and went to work for the Gulf Cartel which was another key distributor of Colombian drugs in Mexico. In 2003, as the drug trade grew big in Michoacán, the gulf cartel gave authority to a newly formed enforcer group called Los Zetas. The Zetas and Gulf cartels had allies with a newly formed vigilante group called La Familia Michoacana. They planned various acts of drug related crime across Michoacán including a 2004 prison break in Apatzingán to breakout members of the gulf and zetas cartels. Following Carlos Rosales Mendoza being detained for his part in the prison raid, Nazario Moreno took control of La familia declaring a turf war on rival cartels in the state of Michoacán resulting in the start of the drug war. Following up on an operation planned by predecessor, Vicente Fox, on December 12, President Felipe Calderón ordered the military to send 4,000 troops to his home state of Michoacán, where drug-related crime had left over 500 dead. Troops were assigned to areas under the control of organized criminals, conducting raids, making arrests and establishing control points on highways and secondary roads. In 2007 May 8 in Apatzingan, Michoacán, Soldiers from the 51st Infantry Battalion engaged drug traffickers. Soldiers driving HMMWV armed with Mk 19 grenade launchers killed 4 cartel gunmen, 3 soldiers were reported wounded.
2009
Local government officials arrested
In May 2009, federal officers detained 10 mayors of Michoacán and 20 other local officials suspected of being associated with the cartel
Arrest of Arnoldo Rueda and retribution
On July 11, The Federal Police trapped and arrested one of three of La Familia leaders. Arnoldo Rueda Medina a.k.a. La Minsa is one of three cartel lieutenants was captured in Morelia, Michoacán. On the same day as a response to the capture of Arnoldo Rueda, La Familia launched the biggest attacks in the history of organized crime against Federal Police and Military installations in 8 cities in the western part of Mexico. Even attacking the Federal Police building where Arnoldo was held in. Cartel hitmen were reported using fragmentation grenades, AK-47's and AR-15's in. Three Federal Police officers, two soldiers were reported killed and 18 wounded. On July 14, the bodies of 12 Federal Police officers that were investigating criminal activity in the area were found murdered and abandoned along a highway between Lázaro Cárdenas and Morelia
Government response
On July 17, as a response to the violence, the federal government stepped up a plan to "surround" Michoacán by sea, air and land. The government sent 5,500 soldiers and federal police officers, also arriving were fully armed helicopters and vehicles to reinforce the 7,000 government forces already deployed in the state. Furthermore, 25 bases will be deployed for mobile operations on freeways and highways of the first order, which brings to Michoacán in adjacent areas of the states of Guanajuato, Guerrero, Colima, and Jalisco, where troops are participating in the various areas adjacent to the 12th Military Region. The government is considering building 67 mobile bases of operation, nine of joint operations by personnel of the Army and Federal Police, strengthening air support aircraft both fixed wing and rotary wing.