Mexican Drug War became the starting point of the war between the government and the drug cartels. Calderón escalated his anti-drug campaign, in which there are now about 45,000 troops involved in addition to state and federal police forces. In 2010 Calderón said that the cartels seek "to replace the government" and "are trying to impose a monopoly by force of arms, and are even trying to impose their own laws." As of 2011, Mexico's military captured 11,544 people who were believed to have been involved with the cartels and organized crime. In the year prior, 28,000 individuals were arrested on drug-related charges.
Paolo Guerrero announced that Guerrero had failed the doping control test after the match against Argentina in the previous month for what was initially reported as a "social drug". He received a preemptive 30-day suspension from FIFA, making him miss the World Cup play-off tie against New Zealand, eventually won by Peru. On 8 December 2017, it was revealed that Guerrero had tested positive for benzoylecgonine, the primary metabolite of cocaine. As a result, he was banned by FIFA from all competitions for one year, meaning that he would not have been able to participate in the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The