Reuters
The new organizations are smaller, less entrenched, and are less powerful than the older generation of Mexican cartels which were massive sprawling criminal enterprises.
Instead the new cartels, Insight Crime notes, have largely spawned from mid-ranking members of former Mexican cartels, such as the Zetas.
Mexico is currently carrying out a "kingpin strategy" against criminal organizations in the country.
The strategy has largely been successful in apprehending the country's top cartel members. However, it has done little to alleviate the underlying conditions which spawned the cartels. As such, the kingpin strategy has done little other than cause the previous Mexican cartels to implode leading to the creation of multiple new criminal organizations.
We have profiled the seven latest cartels to enter the Mexican criminal scene below.