Boasting an estimated 175,000 members, drug cartels are the fifth largest employer in Mexico, according to a new study by research center Complexity Science Hub, ZME Science reported.
The 150 different cartels are able to maintain their numbers by recruiting more than 350 people per week, according to Rafael Prieto-Curiel, who led the research. Prieto-Curiel also presented his findings last month at the Falling Walls Science Summit 2024 in Berlin.
New recruits offset the nearly 60,000 cartel members who died from 2012-22 and another 60,000 who were "incapacitated" via arrests during that same span, according to the study. Prieto-Curiel called recruiting the "secret of the success of a cartel."
"Cartels, they need to have roughly 175,000 members. They cannot be much smaller because they would have collapsed. They cannot be much bigger because they would have grown so fast," Prieto-Curiel said. "So they have to be roughly 175,000 members, which means roughly, just to put it into context, the fifth-largest employer in the country."
That puts the cartels between grocery chain Oxxo and telecoms company América Móvi, according to ZME Science.
President-elect Donald Trump has vowed tough action against Mexican cartels, mulling listing them as a terrorist organization. Also, it was reported last week that Trump considered using military action against the cartels during his first administration but was talked out of it.
Trump's pick to be the ambassador to Mexico, former Green Beret Ronald D. Johnson, has supported the president-elect's policies in the past. Trump's pick for national security adviser, Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., has suggested military action to tackle the cartels. In 2023, Waltz introduced legislation for an Authorization for Use of Military Force against Mexican cartels for trafficking lethal fentanyl.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.