The second leader, Nazario Moreno González, known as El Más Loco (English: The Craziest One),[9] preached his organization's divine right to eliminate enemies.

[10][11] Nazario Moreno's partners were José de Jesús Méndez Vargas, Servando Gómez Martínez and Enrique Plancarte Solís, each of whom has a bounty of $2 million for his capture,[12] and were contesting the control of the organization.

According to federal and state sources, La Familia Michoacana has been increasingly involved in Michoacán's politics, impelling their favorite candidates, financing their campaigns, and forcing other parties to renounce their candidacies.

[15][16] As of 2011, La Familia Michoacana still exists, mostly active in Estado de Mexico,[17][18] despite the killing of its founder and leader Nazario Moreno González.

[21] Mexican analysts believe that La Familia formed in the 1980s with the stated purpose of bringing order to Michoacán, emphasizing help and protection for the poor.

[22] In its initial incarnation, La Familia formed as a group of vigilantes, spurred to power to counter interloping kidnappers and drug dealers, who were their stated enemies.

In 2017, former La Familia leader Arnoldo Rueda-Medina, who was arrested in Mexico in 2009, was extradited to the United States and sentenced to 45 years in prison in 2018 after being convicted on drug trafficking charges.

[26] La Familia cartel is sometimes described as quasi-religious since its leaders, Moreno González and Méndez Vargas, refer to their assassinations and beheadings as "divine justice.

: El Más Loco or The Craziest One) published his own 'bible,'[27][34] and a copy seized by Mexican federal agents reveals an ideology that mixes evangelical-style self-help with insurgent peasant slogans.

[37][38] La Familia cartel emphasizes religion and family values during recruitment and has placed banners in areas of operations claiming that it does not tolerate substance abuse or exploitation of women and children.

[10] The cartel gives loans to farmers, businesses, schools and churches,[40] and it advertises its benevolence in local newspapers in order to gain social support.

[43][44] Among the 44 detained was Rafael Cedeño Hernández (El Cede), the gang's second in command and in charge of indoctrinating the new recruits in the cartel's religious values, morals and ethics.

[10][47] In one incident in Uruapan in 2006, the cartel members tossed five severed heads onto the dance floor of the Sol y Sombra night club along with a message that read: "The Family doesn't kill for money.

Because oftentimes they use fake and sometimes original uniforms of several police agencies, most of their kidnap victims are stopped under false pretenses of routine inspections or report of stolen vehicles, and then taken hostage.

[54] Three days later, on July 14, 2009, the cartel tortured and murdered twelve Mexican Federal Police agents and dumped their bodies along the side of a mountain highway along with a written message: "So that you come for another.

[54][56] Based on these charges, on December 14, 2010, Godoy Toscano was impeached from the lower house of Congress and therefore lost his parliamentary immunity; he fled and remains a fugitive.

[57] On October 22, 2009, U.S. federal authorities announced the results of a four-year investigation into the operations of La Familia Michoacana in the United States dubbed Project Coronado.

Flores Camargo moves large quantities of high grade marijuana and cocaine through the I-75 corridor for distribution in Detroit, supplying the city and its outskirts and suburbs.

The federal authorities have known that the group smuggles high grade marijuana and cocaine from Guanajuato, traveling up to the border and passing under secret tunnels.

DEA agents have received tips saying the groups move up to 2 tons of high grade marijuana to a central hub in Atlanta, then up through I75 to Detroit where it is repackaged into small quantities and spread throughout the city.

The alleged death of Nazario Moreno González on December 9, 2010, led to a split among cartel leaders José de Jesús Méndez Vargas, Enrique Plancarte Solís, and Servando Gómez Martínez.