Timeline of The Mexican Drug War - 2008

2008

• January 1 – The Federal government, along with SEDENA, launches the Joint Operation Nuevo León-Tamaulipas in order to eliminate the operation areas of both the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas.
• January 21 – Mexican security forces capture drug lord Alfredo Beltrán Leyva.
• March 27 – The Federal government launches the Operation Chihuahua to confront the three drug cartels operating in the state. Moreover, Ciudad Juarez's violence is among the major concerns in this operation.
• April 26–15 people are killed in a gun battle between the Tijuana Cartel and a rival drug cartel.
• May 8 – Acting commissioner of the Federal Police Édgar Eusebio Millán Gómez was gunned down in Mexico City. He was the highest-ranking Mexican official killed.
• May 9 – Esteban Robles Espinosa, the commander of Mexico's investigative police force, was murdered in Mexico City.
• May 13 – The Federal government launches the Operation Sinaloa to crack down on the Sinaloa Cartel, the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, and Los Zetas in the state.
• May 28 – Seven Federal Police agents die in a shootout in Culiacán, Sinaloa.
• May 31 – The United States announces it is implementing a drug trafficking law to impose financial sanctions on Mexican drug cartels.
• June 26 – Police commander Igor Labastida is shot dead in a restaurant in Mexico City.
• June 30 – The Mérida Initiative, a $1.6 USD billion security cooperation agreement between the USA and Mexico, announced on October 22, 2007, was signed into law.
• September 13 – In Ocoyoacac, 24 bodies were found at a national park called La Marquesa; all bodies were shot and showed signs of torture.
• September 15 – 2008 Morelia grenade attacks: eight civilians were killed and more than 100 were injured in Morelia, Michoacán when hand grenades were thrown into a crowd.
• September 17 – Over 200 people across Mexico, Guatemala, Italy and the United States, including members of the Gulf cartel and the 'Ndrangheta are arrested in a major anti-drug trafficking operation called Operation Solare.
• October 22 – Police capture boss Jesús Zambada García of the Sinaloa cartel after a shootout in Mexico City.
• October 24 – Mexican criminal investigator Andrés Dimitriadis is shot dead by cartel gunmen (sicarios) in his car on his way home.
• October 26 – The Mexican army captured drug lord Eduardo Arellano Félix after a shootout in Tijuana.
• November 2 – The Federal Police chief Víctor Gerardo Garay resigns amidst claims of corruption. He was arrested and charged on December 10 for protecting the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel.
• November 6 – In Reynosa, Tamaulipas, the Mexican army made the largest weapon seizure in the history of Mexico. The seizure included 288 assault rifles, 126 handguns, 166 grenades, 14 TNT explosives, 500,000 cartridges, over 1,000 ammunition magazines, and a rocket launcher.
• November 7 – The Federal Police arrest Jaime González Durán in Tamaulipas; he was a founding member of Los Zetas.
• November 17 – Rodolfo de la Guardia García, ex-director of Mexico's Interpol office, is arrested and charged of protecting the Beltran-Leyva Cartel.
• November 19 – Mexican Interpol chief Ricardo Gutiérrez Vargas is arrested on suspicion of links with drug cartels.
• November 21 – Noé Ramírez Mandujano, ex-head of Mexico's anti-organized crime agency, is arrested on suspicion of links with drug cartels.
• November 30 – Guatemalan and Mexican drug cartels clash on the two countries' border, leaving 18 dead.
• December 10 – Felix Batista, an American anti-kidnapping expert is kidnapped in Saltillo, Coahuila.
• December 21 – Seven off-duty soldiers and one police commander are kidnapped, tortured and decapitated. Their heads were left at a shopping center located in Chilpancingo, Guerrero with a threat note to the military.

For 2008, the drug-related death toll reached 6,290.