The Golden Triangle is a rural region of northern Mexico in the states of Sinaloa, Chihuahua, and Durango in which - starting in the 1960s - around 20,000 farmers came to produce 74% of illegal drugs in the United States through the cultivation of marijuana and opium. The Golden Triangle region was the birthplace of El Chapo's Sinaloa Cartel, and, during the 2000s and 2010s, El Chapo controlled local politics in the region with the help of the corrupt PRI party. The region was targeted by the Mexican government in Operation Condor from 1975 to 1988 and again during the Mexican Drug War, but it continued to be a Sinaloa stronghold into the 2020s.