Cecilia Farfán-Méndez, Ph.D.

cfarfanmendez@ucsd.edu


Head of Security Research Programs

Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego

Year of PhD: 2016

Country: United States (California)

About Me:

Cecilia Farfán-Méndez is Head of Security Research Programs at the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies (USMEX) at the University of California San Diego. She also is an affiliated researcher with the Center for Studies on Security, Intelligence, and Governance (CESIG) at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de Mexico (ITAM) based in Mexico City. Dr. Farfán is an expert on organized crime and U.S.-Mexico security cooperation, and co-founded the Mexico Violence Resource Project, an online platform providing analysis and resources for journalists and policymakers on violence and organized crime in Mexico. Since 2020 she co-chairs the Public Security and Public Health working group of the of the U.S.-Mexico Forum 2025 led by USMEX. In addition to her formal academic initiatives, Dr. Farfán has consulted for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the United States Institute of Peace, is a columnist for Mexico Today, member of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, the Urban Violence Research Network, and the strategy committee for the Journal of Illicit Economies and Development.Farfán received her doctorate in political science from UC Santa Barbara, her master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and her bachelor’s in international relations from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM). She has been a recipient of several research fellowships including the Fulbright Program, the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation and Mexico’s National Council on Science and Technology.

Research Interests

Transnational Organized Crime

Money Laundering

Violence And Gender

Illicit Economies

Countries of Interest

Mexico

United States

Publications:

Journal Articles:

(2019) The Structure of Drug Trafficking Organizations and Money Laundering Practices: A Risk Appetite Hypothesis, Journal of Illicit Economies and Development

Scholarly and policy literature has yet to provide a systematic analysis on how criminal organizations launder money beyond descriptions of who conducts this illegal activity and the existing types and practices for laundering the proceeds of crime. This article seeks to bridge the divide of two scant perspectives within illicit economies literature: one related to the structure of drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) and the other related to theoretical conceptualizations of money laundering. It provides a working hypothesis on how DTOs choose to launder money contingent on the risk appetite each structure has as a result of the investment in human capital they conduct at the managerial levels. Using Mexican DTOs as case studies (Arellano Félix, Sinaloa, La Familia Michoacana, and Zetas) and data collected during fieldwork with US and Mexican officials involved with anti-money laundering measures, I show hierarchical structures—understood as structures that process information and acquire knowledge—prefer risk-averse methods, whereas wheel networks tend to use risk-tolerant procedures for laundering money. These findings have important implications for theory development and policy design.

Book Chapters:

(2021) La seguridad: el renglón más opaco en las relaciones México-Estados Unidos, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México

El año 2021 se perfila como un momento en el que las relaciones entre Estados Unidos y México pueden evolucionar hacia una situación de mayor estabilidad o, por el contrario, encaminarse hacia un periodo de crisis recurrentes de dimensiones inciertas. Relaciones México-Estados Unidos en 2021: ¿un punto de transición? compila trece estudios y análisis de académicos de diversas generaciones, formadores de opinión y funcionarios públicos expertos y conocedores de Estados Unidos y su interrelación con México. Permitirá a los interesados en la relación bilateral familiarizarse, por un parte, con las situaciones que se encuentran al centro del debate sobre el futuro del sistema político estadounidense y, por la otra, con las diferencias que, en mayor medida, afectan la relación entre el gobierno de Andrés Manuel López Obrador y el de Joseph R. Biden al inicio de esta tercera década del siglo XXI. Este libro no ofrece predicciones certeras sobre hacia dónde se moverá la vida política, económica y social de ambos países, pero proporciona elementos para reflexionar y entender los motivos por los que 2021, en particular, pasará a la historia como un momento de incertidumbres.

(2020) Women’s Involvement in Organised Crime and Drug Trafficking: A Comparative Analysis of the Sinaloa and Yamaguchi-gumi Organisations, Emerald

Organised crime, including drug trafficking groups, are often thought of as male-dominated industries. However, even when leveraging romantic or kinship ties, women can be active participants and exert influence in the business operations of these groups. Based on interviews with Mexican and Japanese government officials, indictments, and investigative journalism, this chapter compares the notorious and long-lived Mexico-based Sinaloa drug trafficking group and the Japanese Yakuza Yamaguchi-gumi organisations. It shows that despite substantial differences in their criminal activities as well as the illicit markets in which they operate, women perform active roles along the supply chains. Furthermore, it shows that despite constructions of gender roles that see women as intruders in organised crime, women attain positions of authority even when their membership is not always formally recognised.

(2019) Beyond the war on drugs: Violence and security in Mexico, Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico and Miguel Angel Porrua

The ‘Co-constructing Security Provision in Mexico: A Methodology and Action Plan from Communities to the State’ project involved the collaboration of LACC, the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), and Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE). The research and action project developed and tested methodologies for co-constructing security provision with actors in four case study locations: Tijuana, Apatzingan, Acapulco and Guadalupe. It worked with community, civil society, and state actors to both better diagnose the security threats they face, but most importantly, to build shared understandings of security as an effective and equitable public good in their localities. It encouraged understanding of the differential impacts of violence, insecurity and security provision according to income, gender, and ethnicity. It used 'local security agendas', constructed from the ground up, to influence the national security approaches in Mexico and inform debate in the Global South. The project saw the publication of ‘Human Security and Chronic Violence in Mexico: New Perspectives and Proposals from Below’ (Abello Colak and Kloppe-Santamaria (Eds), 2019, also accessible in Spanish).

Book Reviews:

Other:

(2021) "Sinaloa is not Guerrero”: Illicit Production, Licit Agribusiness, Noria Research

Although Mexico is considered to be the world’s third producer of opium and heroin, and poppy economy is crucial to some of the country’s most marginalized rural regions, there is no initiative dedicated to produce empirical knowledge on the issue. With the Mexico Opium Project, Noria Research sheds light on territories that evolve in a paradoxical situation: simultaneous isolation and integration. In fact, regions of opium poppy production are badly connected to the rest of the country, mainly because of the terrible condition of the roads and transportation infrastructures in general. Yet, this isolation does not prevent these rural areas from being some of the most important regions of both drug trafficking, and the War on Drugs, at the national and international level. In "Sinaloa is Not Guerrero" I analyze how the owners of the inputs required to produce illicit drugs in Sinaloa have developed mechanisms to soften or buffer the impact of falling heroin prices. To document this, I focus on the value-adding role of Culiacán in processing opium gum into heroin and the profitability achieved through the activities of storing and transporting drugs. I further explore certain advantages that Sinaloa’s economy presents, in contrast to what occurs in Guerrero and Nayarit, and how these are linked to illicit markets.

(2021) Untangling Opium Poppy from Violence with Paul Frissard and Romain Le Cour Grandmaison, Noria Research

Although Mexico is considered to be the world’s third producer of opium and heroin, and poppy economy is crucial to some of the country’s most marginalized rural regions, there is no initiative dedicated to produce empirical knowledge on the issue. With the Mexico Opium Project, Noria Research sheds light on territories that evolve in a paradoxical situation: simultaneous isolation and integration. In fact, regions of opium poppy production are badly connected to the rest of the country, mainly because of the terrible condition of the roads and transportation infrastructures in general. Yet, this isolation does not prevent these rural areas from being some of the most important regions of both drug trafficking, and the War on Drugs, at the national and international level. In this article we contend there is no systematic relation between homicidal violence and the presence of poppies in territories in Mexico. Analyzing whether the poppy is violent requires verifying: (i) if cultivating the plant is, per se, a violent activity; (ii) if the trafficking organizations that use coercion are violent; and (iii) if public policies based on militarization and eradication, designed to “win” the war on drugs, contribute to generating violence in the populations dedicated to this economic activity. The present text focuses on the third issue; that is, the impact of public security forces in poppy-growing territories. We will demonstrate how distinct forms of violence are exercised while questioning the implementation and legitimacy of campaigns organized to eradicate crops that have been declared “illicit”.

(2020) The Battles After the Battle Interpreting Violence and Memory in Culiacán (ed. with Mike Lettieri and Philip Johnson), Mexico Violence Resource Project

On October 17, a confrontation between heavily armed criminals and Mexican security forces led to terror, chaos, and death in the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa. Even before the smoke had cleared, observers rushed to pronounce the significance of the events. It marked, many proclaimed, a catastrophic defeat for the government and a momentous change in the country’s security dynamics. This project began with the desire to reexamine those analyses, even as the day began to fade from memory. A year after the events, the editors hoped to reconsider their significance, not only for Sinaloa but national narratives of violence. To do so, we invited collaborations from a range of perspectives, and deliberately chose to emphasize local voices over outside analysts. We sought to question the initial claims that the confrontation, and the government’s resulting decision to release Ovidio Guzmán, represented “precedent-setting” events. Perhaps more importantly, we also hoped to emphasize perspectives that explored how residents of Culiacán experienced and interpreted the violence.

(2020) Forgetting El Chapo: Why Mexico’s Violence Will Remain Unabated, Mexico Violence Resource Project

In this essay, I discuss three topics that are indispensable for informing further research and conversations about violence and insecurity in Mexico: the importance of distinguishing between organized crime and drug trafficking groups; the diversification of illicit activities by certain criminal groups; and the need to examine the role of women in violence and drug trafficking. This is not intended to be an exhaustive account of organized crime and drug trafficking in Mexico, but rather is meant to call attention to elements that are central for making an informed analysis of the current context of chronic violence in the country.