The first action in the Mexican drug war began as President Felipe Calderón ordered Mexican soldiers and Federal Police units into the state of Michoacán.

The Mexican drug war is an ongoing asymmetric armed conflict between the Mexican government and various drug trafficking syndicates. When the Mexican military intervened in 2006, the government's main objective was to reduce drug-related violence. The Mexican government has asserted that its primary focus is dismantling the cartels and preventing drug trafficking. The conflict has been described as the Mexican theater of the global war on drugs, as led by the United States federal government.

Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa is a Mexican politician and lawyer who served as the 63rd president of Mexico from 2006 to 2012 and Secretary of Energy during the presidency of Vicente Fox between 2003 and 2004. He was a member of the National Action Party for 30 years before quitting the party in November 2018.

Operation Michoacán was a joint operation by Federal Police and the Mexican military to eliminate drug plantations and to combat drug trafficking. Initiated on December 11, 2006, the operation was supervised by The Secretary of Public Safety, Attorney General of Mexico, Secretary of the Interior, Mexican Navy and Mexican Army.

The Federal Police, formerly known as the Federal Preventive Police and sometimes referred to in the U.S. as "Federales", was a Mexican national police force formed in 1999. In 2019, it was incorporated into the National Guard and operated under the authority of the Department of Security and Civil Protection.

Michoacán, formally Michoacán de Ocampo, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo, is one of the 31 states which, together with Mexico City, compose the Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into 113 municipalities and its capital city is Morelia. The city was named after José María Morelos, a native of the city and one of the main heroes of the Mexican War of Independence.