Have you never heard of Pablo Escobar?
+1.
The Mexican cartels may be the "hardest" right now, but Escobar and the Medellín Cartel killed high ranking Colombian government officials (Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, Minister of Justice; Carlos Mauro Hoyos, Attorney General; and Hernando Baquero Borda, Supreme Court Justice are 3 examples), stormed and bombed the Colombian Supreme Court, bombed a commercial airline (Avianca) and publicly assassinated a top presidential candidate (Luis Carlos Galán, who likely would have won).
The Mexicans do not come close to the chaos that Pablo and the Medellín Cartel created in Colombia.