La Linea: The Mexican Cartel Controlling the El Paso-Juarez Metropolitan Area

A recent cartel operation sent drones from Mexico into the United States, triggering a national security alert that temporarily shut down the airspace around El Paso, Texas, and Santa Teresa, New Mexico.

While the Department of War disabled the drones, Breitbart Texas reported, it remains unclear how large the drones were or if the cartel aircraft were moving drugs, being used for surveillance, or carrying improvised explosive devices, a tactic that has become prevalent in Mexico.

El Paso is directly north of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, a city with various criminal organizations present, which remains largely under the control of La Línea, a former faction of the Juárez Cartel that has since become the dominant criminal organization on the Mexican side of the border.

In its origin, La Linea was a gang of sorts that operated as the enforcement wing of the Juarez Cartel since 2008. La Linea relied on a large number of former and active police officers as its main force in order to target rivals. La Linea was the main group that fought against the Sinaloa Cartel during a time when Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman sought to take control of the busy drug trafficking corridor.

For four years, the Juarez Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel fought for control, earning Ciudad Juarez the title of “Murder Capital of the World.” It wasn’t until the Sinaloa Cartel gained control of the city that the violence began to decrease. While the Juarez Cartel declined, La Linea continued operating as a network of cells rather than a strict hierarchy and, over time, regained control of the city. In El Paso, both La Linea and the Sinaloa Cartel continue to operate healthy trafficking routes into Texas and New Mexico. Cartel Jalisco New Generation also has a presence in Ciudad Juárez, established through an alliance of convenience with La Línea, and has become one of its main suppliers.

While multiple leaders and key figures of La Linea have been arrested or killed over time, the main cells currently in play are run by: Jesus “El Chuyin” Salas Aguayo (believed to have been killed, however his death has not ben confirmed by Mexico’s government), Juan Pablo “ JL” Ledezma, Josefa Yadira “La Wera” Carrasco, Jorge Adrian “Naranjas” Ortega Gallegos, and Gilberto “El Limones” Gallegos.

The various cells of La Linea, including La Empresa, Los Limones, and Nuevo Cartel Juarez, have a history of conflict with one another, leading to ongoing violence in the region.

At the start of the Trump administration, the U.S. Department of State named six Mexican cartels as Foreign Terrorist groups. La Linea was not one of those organizations. As Breitbart Texas reported, there have been calls to add La Linea and the various cells that operate in the region to that list. La Linea has been linked to the 2019 mass killing of nine American women and children who were traveling from Chihuahua to the U.S. border. The victims were members of the Lebaron family whose vehicles were fired upon and then set on fire by cartel gunmen. In 2025, the Lebaron family and other victims of cartel violence sent a letter to the Trump administration asking them to label La Linea as a terror group.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart News Foundation. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com. 

Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.