I can only speak from experience, it's not as easy to find these people and take them out as you seem to think it is.
Cartel (and Bin Laden in his day) have several safe houses and are constantly on the move..not to mention they can blend into the populace...if you were to use conventional (or smart bomb tech) bomb systems, you might have to take out an entire block only to find you did get them at all....this happened quite a few times when hunting Bin Laden...Their on ground intel is pretty good, and it's a real challenge to "sneak" up on them.....don't bother to ask me how I know this. They have eyes and ears everywhere and as soon as there is something amiss, they disappear. I'm not saying they can't be caught, but it's a real chore to do so.
Like I mentioned, many of these cartels are using military grade communications which scramble their signals...triangulation worked in the past, not anymore. They have been at this a long time and have learned quite a few tricks over the years....
If we are to speak of "jungle bunnies" over-estimating your military capability has been the down fall of many countries including the US....in recent conflicts (Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, etc) There were extensive capabilities in country from drones to spec op teams to many regular forces combing the countryside yet enemy insurgent leaders (and insurgents) escaped all the time....and in many of these areas it was seemingly open terrain, yet it wasn't.
These cartel operate in a country where they blend in, speak the language and have paid off everyone they need to in order to solidify their position-pretty hard to beat them.