The Knights Templar cartel (Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

: Caballeros Templarios) is a Mexican

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 criminal organization and an offshoot of the La Familia Michoacana drug cartel

Drug cartel

Drug cartels are criminal organizations developed with the primary purpose of promoting and controlling drug trafficking operations. They range from loosely managed agreements among various drug traffickers to formalized commercial enterprises. The term was applied when the largest trafficking...

 based in the Mexican state of Michoacán

Michoacán

Michoacán officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Michoacán de Ocampo is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 113 municipalities and its capital city is Morelia...

.

After the death of Nazario Moreno González

Nazario Moreno González

Nazario Moreno González was a Mexican drug lord of the La Familia drug cartel, headquartered in the state of Michoacán.-Biography:...

, leader of the La Familia Michoacana cartel, the other cartel co-founders, Enrique Plancarte Solís

Enrique Plancarte Solís

Enrique Plancarte Solís is the second-in-command or lieutenant at the service of the La Familia Michoacana drug cartel, an organized crime gang based in the Mexican state of Michoacán....

 and Servando Gómez Martínez

Servando Gómez Martínez

Servando Gómez Martínez, a.k.a. La Tuta and El Profe is a Mexican drug trafficker who worked for La Familia Michoacana drug cartel, headquartered in the Mexican state of Michoacán. However, Martinez and Dionicio Loya Plancarte later broke with La Familia and formed the Knights Templar Cartel...

, formed an offshoot of La Familia calling itself Caballeros Templarios (or Knights Templar). Dionicio Loya Plancarte

Dionicio Loya Plancarte

Dionicio Loya Plancarte is one of the former leaders of the Mexican drug cartel known as La Familia Michoacana, headquartered in the Mexican state of Michoacán. Loya was arrested by the Mexican Army in Morelia, Michoacán along with other 60 cartel members on April 18, 2009 during a religious...

 would also join.

The cartel's armed wing is called La Resistencia

La Resistencia (gang)

La Resistencia is a Mexican criminal gang composed by well trained gunmen from the Sinaloa Cartel, Gulf Cartel and Knights Templar Cartel dedicated to kill or expel Los Zetas Cartel operatives from the Mexican states of Michoacán and Jalisco.-History:La Resistencia gang was created by the Sinaloa...

. The Knights Templar cartel indoctrinate its operatives to "fight and die" for what they call "social justice".