In short. The dude was upper middle class. American. Well off family. Star athlete etc. He doesn't fit the general idea of who people join "gangs" or organized crime.

Usually it will fall into subculture theory, meaning, in short, that your peers and the authority people around you don't acknowledge or respect you(for example cause they lack skills in school) and you basically don't live up to the standard norm and value systems of society. Instead you form a subculture with like minded people where norm systems and values are of a whole different category(in this case the more violent you are and the better you are at crime, the more your peers value and respect you).

Another idea would be that of anomy and strain theory. Again, in short, everybody has an idea of what "the good life is" or the "American dream" if you will. However, some people are blocked from getting this through legitimate means. Either cause of societal structures or cause they lack the neccesarily skills(often referred to as capital). This causes strain on their lives, so they seek to eliminate that strain and have "what we have" through other means(crime).

The guy lacked neither. He was perfectly tracked towards a normal life with well off parents. You could argue he did it for sneaky thrills(though that's most common when related to petty crime like shoplifting) or that he is simply a complete sociopath.

Think about all the other cartel figures. They usually came from literally nothing(or it becomes a generational thing where the sons carry on the enterprise). But that guy, he simply doesn't fit The bill.

I almost wrote him a letter angling for an interview, to base my masters thesis on him. But my academic advisor thought it to be a bad idea to potentially put myself in danger, however minor the chance would be(my advisors wife is Mexican, so he had some insight)