You do not have to kill a Cartel member before they seek out “payback”.
In Brooks County, they put a hit on the County Sheriff and County Investigator just for getting in their way. Yep, just slowing down the flow.
But what do you want to do Lil Ray, lay down, bend over or ignore it and hope it goes away. Sometimes, you just gotta take the good with the bad.
Failing that, I am of the opinion that it is waste of time time to kill, capture or arrest, the soldiers, smugglers or dealers, seize the product, etc. These things are far to easy to replace. You have to go up the chain after their logistics and command structure to be effective.
I'd discard the usual rules, and start killing (not arresting) upper level cartel members and their entire families. No arrests, no mercy, no publicity. Just lots and lots of dead bodies. I'd kill them from the air, from the ground, from the sea. And I wouldn't give a darn about “collateral damage.” Get between “us” and “them” and you die, too. But if they surrender, and hand over the keys to the shop, well, I can see giving them amnesty and big chunk of the money to go somewhere else and not be a nuisance.
“Money” is the highest level of logistics. If they can't pay for stuff, their operations will eventually choke. I'd go after their money, and any organizations that dared to handle it for them, in the same way. Steal the money, destroy the bank or whatever organization is handling the money, and kill anyone connected to handling the it. The money is fed back into covert war, with minimal accounting, and definitely no crooked (Congressional) oversight. Again, no legal process. Just theft, destruction, and death.
I'd also go after their lawyers...