The Mexican Cartel You’ve Never Heard Of

A case study in market power, regulatory failure, and everyday costs

In Mexico, a small group of powerful organizations controls a substance that reaches nearly every household. They have divided up the country, fixed prices, and defended their territories with remarkable discipline.

The substance is not cocaine or fentanyl. The groups behind it are not criminal syndicates operating in the shadows. They are legal companies, fully licensed, publicly regulated, and deeply embedded in the Mexican economy.

What they control, however, matters far more to ordinary Mexicans than any illegal drug.