FACTBOX: Mexico's top drug trafficking cartels

(Reuters) - Following are some facts on Mexico's top drug traffickers:

* Mexico's drug cartels smuggle Colombian cocaine and locally produced marijuana and methamphetamines north to the lucrative U.S. market by road, sea and air. The organizations rake in billions of dollars each year and are supported by vast networks of money laundering cells, arms suppliers and corrupt police and customs officials

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* The ruthless and sprawling Sinaloa coalition of cartels on the Pacific coast is run by Mexico's most wanted man, Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman, who escaped from jail in 2001 in a laundry van. The alliance has been damaged by internal divisions in the last few months with Guzman's main squad of hitmen reported to have broken away. The Sinaloans are famous for digging elaborate tunnels under the U.S. border. Police say Guzman pays million-dollar bribes to avoid capture, changes cell phones after every conversation and may have had plastic surgery. Another Sinaloa cartel leader, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, has never been captured and the U.S. government has offered a $5 million reward for his capture.

* The east coast Gulf cartel was led by Osiel Cardenas until he was captured in 2003 and later extradited to Texas, where he is in prison. Cardenas, a former mechanic who reportedly rose in the cartel's ranks by killing his superiors, set up its armed wing, the Zetas, with army deserters and used them to fight arch-rival Guzman. His brother Ezequiel Cardenas now runs the Gulf Cartel and Heriberto "El Lazca" Lazcano, a former soldier, runs the Zetas, but the organization has been hurt by busts under Mexico's army-led drug crackdown.

* The Tijuana cartel, run by Eduardo Arellano Felix and his accountant sister Enedina, once moved a third of all cocaine into the United States but has been weakened over the last few years as various brothers who ran it in the past were arrested or killed in police shootouts. The cartel, which is infamous for attacking rivals' children and slitting the throats of enemies, has come under increasing attack by gangs from the Sinaloa coalition who are trying to seize their smuggling routes into California.

* Another top drug baron is Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, boss of the Juarez cartel which is based in the bloody northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, where around 400 people have been killed so far this year in drug violence. Analysts say Guzman wants to get into Juarez turf by force after an alliance with Carrillo Fuentes collapsed.

* With growing demand making methamphetamine the new big thing for Mexican smugglers, Ignacio "Don Nacho" Coronel is accused of running a string of "superlabs" churning out hundreds of pounds of crystal meth in central and northwest Mexico every day. He is known as the "King of Ice" and police say he is linked to the Sinaloa cartel. The U.S. State Department has a $5 million price tag on his head.

(Reporting by Noel Randewich and Catherine Bremer; Editing by Kieran Murray)