The office's purpose was to collect debts from Escobar's extensive trafficking network. The import of this for the American people is that no matter what measures the US government takes to destroy the vast network of drug smuggling within the country, the effort may be fruitless, as it is no longer a case of fighting a foreign entity. Like Los Zetas, their bitter rivals, CJNG is known for terrible violence. A depressing fact about Los Zetas is that they are sometimes aided by Mexican police in the commission of unspeakable crimes. The rescue was made possible by an anonymous tip about gunmen bringing victims into a house in the Villas de la Fe neighborhood. CIUDAD VICTORIA, Tamaulipas Gunmen with the Los Zetas cartel butchered close to 20 victims over the weekend, three of those victims were Texas residents who had been visiting relatives. His evil career was so incredibly successful that he made Forbes' billionaire list from 1987 to 1993. Officials are still counting the dead, but, as of this writing, the bodies numbered nearly 200. Victims were piled on top of one another haphazardly before the cartel used a backhoe to cover up their resting place. Los Zetas is a Mexican drug cartel known for its sophisticated crime machine and brutality. Countries militaries are dedicated to defense from external aggression and the protection of peoples lives and properties. Abstract. They were the victims of a brutal new evolution in Mexican cartel violence. In this ghastly murder, the CDN faction appears to have struck first murdering the relatives of a state police officer and a farmers union leader. Cartel: Los Zetas Exposed by a Zetas member under a pseudonym, the details of the bus vanishings remain disputed. The LA Times found that from January 1988 to November 1991, drug traffickers killed up to 219 people in this area, disposing of their bodies in rivers. Violence committed by the Juarez cartel is rife, especially from its La Linea faction, which has fighting the Sinaloa in Chihuahua City, contributing many deaths to the city's high 2020 murder rate (via FOX59). Then come the Zetas, with no background in narcotics, and they start chopping peoples heads off, Grayson said. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st, The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. However, in the late 1990s/early 2000s, a set of El Milenio lieutenants rebelled and created their own cartel. Drug cartels influencing politics paints a picture of total disaster. SAN ANTONIO -- A father whose son went missing in 2011 took the stand Wednesday in the federal trial of an alleged war commander for Los Zetas drug cartel. One former member of the cartel told the court Millan-Vasquez had taken part in a 2011 massacre in which up to 300 people were allegedly kidnapped, with many never seen again. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. The U.S. State Department issued warnings not to travel to or within Tamaulipas, as a result. The Los Zetas cartel gunmen even executed the family dog. They were forcibly recruited and haven't been paid or fed by their bosses. "[The government] told me not to go asking questions about my son. The women have been identified as Lourdes Gregorio Garcia Amaya from Texas, Raymunda Amaya Contreras, Maria Del Rosario Carrizales Amaya, Griselda Carrizales Amaya and Maria Cirila Contreras Garcia. Violent drug gangs are waging a bloody war in the tourist haven of Quintana Roo - visited by millions of British and American holidaymakers each year. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/sadist-los-zetas-cartel-set-brutal-standard-in-drug-war, according to this graphic by the National Post, Mexican Marines Kill Drug Lord Known as The Executioner. He created a company, Tremor Enterprises, to purchase racehorses for American contests, winning millions in prize money through fixing races and doping horses. They robbed stores, they broke into an auto repair shop and stole cell phones and several vehicles, all with the goal of spreading terror.". Thank you. This wasnt the first time such a tragedy had visited San Fernando. He also won territory from the Tijuana and Juarez cartels during the Mexican government's war on drugs, which brought new levels of violence to the region (via Britannica). Similarly, the U.S. Department of Justicedefines cartels as, "large, highly sophisticated organizations composed of multiple drug trafficking organizations (DTOs)and cells with specific assignments such as drug transportation, security/enforcement, or money laundering.". In August 2017, the cartel kidnapped 17 people and kept them in a stash house in Nuevo Laredo. The gunmen used a large hammer to break down the door before storming the house shooting indiscriminately at the women and children inside. A red Blackberry phone belonging to De Leon was examined by computer forensics experts with Homeland Security Investigations. WebCartel Del Golfo interrogation 4 Zetas these bastards have admitted to raping women,killing women, killing kids. After learning about the 2011 San Fernando Massacre, take a look at 33 photos of the Mexican drug war. [6] Mexican drug cartels are currently operating in 47 countries around the world, including Colombia, Guatemala, and others. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. Authorities investigating the massacre reported numerous hijackings of passenger buses on Mexican Federal Start your Independent Premium subscription today. It was a solid lead, as cartels were known to take over ranches and convert them into makeshift jails or execution chambers. The rest of the video is a gruesome 40 seconds of cold-blooded murder, which caused international controversy recently when it was posted on Facebook. With the suspects revealing what they had done, excavations began. It is disheartening to hear that the founding fathers of a criminal organization like Los Zetas received training from US military officers. They also acted as lookouts for the cartel and turned a blind eye to their illegal activities. However, Insight Crime suggests that the large traditional cartels may be over as Mexico's criminal underworld becomes increasingly fragmented and scattershot. At this juncture, it is safe and reasonable to conclude that Los Zetas is one of the biggest headaches of the American people. In1997, PBS described the Tijuana drug cartel as "one of the most powerful and aggressive drug trafficking organizations operating from Mexico," adding that it is "undeniably the most violent." This was back when Lazcano and Z-40 were still running the Los Zetas cartel. During a particularly emotional testimony on Wednesday, a former worker for Los Zetas said that he was kidnapped twice by the cartel and was forced to witness several violent acts. The cartel can trace its roots to the 1960s and '70s, when farming families entered the marijuana business. Jair Cabrera/NurPhoto/Getty ImagesTributes to the 2011 San Fernando Massacre. Their vicious feud affects ordinary people, too, such as Juan Manuel Delgado Crdenas, a 23-year-old student who was murdered for refusing to cook synthetic drugs (via Mexico News Daily). Some believe the victims were simply killed for refusing to join the cartel but, ultimately, San Fernando had become so violent that few journalists ever entered to investigate. With countless reports emerging of mayors and cops across Mexico collaborating with the cartels, it appears tragically unsurprising that many who knew the truth were either put into hiding or killed to keep them quiet. He made a mistake in his greedbelieving he was invincible and untouchable. In the end, the legacy of the 2011 San Fernando Massacre is one of blood money, corruption, and wanton murder. The cartel leaders that subsequently took over after Moraless arrest were unable to stay in power for long, either being arrested or gunned down by a rival gang. On Aug. 24, 2010, however, Mexican Armed Forces unearthed the bodies of 72 undocumented immigrants who were simply executed. The killings could be a warning and a way of depriving the smugglers of their livelihoods. Writing for the Los Angeles Times, William R. Long dubbed the Cali cartel as "Colombia's Gentlemen Cocaine Traffickers." This time around, the horrific body count eclipsed all expectations with 193 people rotting in 47 mass graves. Prosecutors will not seek the death penalty. In the same month, heavily armed gunmen fired upon Omar Garcia Harfuch, Mexico City's public security secretary, injuring him and killing two bodyguards and a passerby (via Insight Crime). WebIn 2010, the Zetas killed 72 undocumented immigrant workers in the San Fernando massacre. Since then, BLO members have either been killed, jailed or defected to new splinter groups, such as the Guerreros Unidos and Los Rojos, which dabble in extortion, kidnapping and lethal violence. According to World Atlas, Tijuana had the highest homicide rate in the world in 2020, with 138 murder per 100,000 residents. Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. The rest of us agreed.". As part of the threats, the Vieja Escuela faction has ordered that the relatives of the CDN leadership leave Ciudad Victoria or face a sure death. Then, in December 2009, Arturo Beltrn Leyva was killed by Mexican marines. Then, learn about the Mexican boys forced to eat human flesh as a cartel initiation. Los Zetas was formed in 1997 to serve as enforcers for the Gulf Cartel. He has been in detention since his arrest in Texas in 2015. The winners got to become Zetas recruits, while the losers got death. Get our latest in-depth reporting straight to your inbox. Graphic from a 2011 NDIC national drug threat assessment. The military gunned four Zetas members down, before capturing nine others and finding five abducted passengers inside the ranch. This essay provides an overview of those incidents of torture and beheadings linked to the Mexican cartels and their mercenary and gang affiliates taking place both within Mexico and the United States. They recovered deleted material, which included death threats from the defendant and information regarding Zetas operations. In the past year, gunmen from Los Zetas Cartel performed unique retaliatory killings in response to their allys videotaped sexual assault behind bars. Miguel Angel Trevino Morales (aka Comandante 40) When prosecutors asked if De Leon feared police while en route to deliver firearms to "Chano," he said that he wasn't worried because the majority of police were bought out. He was arrested by the Mexican Navy in 2012. [10] The authorities havent succeeded in shutting down the cartels sophisticated radio communication due to two reasons: The first is that the radio equipment is easy to replace; the second is that the gang relies on free forced labor to build and maintain its radio equipment. The memo indicated that local police acted as lookouts and helped in the interceptions of persons across all cases. It was around this time that the group established the aforementioned Los Zetas, a paramilitary force that brought a new organized violence to the international drug trade. The cartel member he spoke with was Jose Luis Rodriguez. Velazquez started out stealing cars in his hometown of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, and was jailed there. He claimed that the drugs came from the Zetas "comandantes" or commanders, which included Millan-Vasquez. Today, the cartel retains a small presence in southern Mexico. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia, The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Among these provincial traders and smugglers wasJoaqun Guzmn Loera, better known as "El Chapo.". WebSoon after the murder, Guzman became known as Z-1, and would become the founder of Los Zetas, literally The Zs: an organization that began as an elite security detail and would evolve across 12 years to become one of Mexicos most powerful criminal organizations. In the 1990s, the aforementioned Cali cartel took the mantle from their Medellin rivals, becoming the most powerful cartel in the world. Besides carrying $2 million in cash and eight guns, Trevino Morales, the alleged kingpin of the feared cartel Los Zetas, was wanted for a spate of crimes in the U.S. and Mexico, ranging from the mundane to the horrific. Please check your inbox to confirm. Cartels have dominated the international drugs trade since the 1980s, earning many billions of dollars and killing tens of thousands of people in Mexico and Colombia alone (via Al Jazeera and Britannica). Then, on April 21, 2011, police arrested San Fernandos police chief and got a little closer to the truth. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. The cartels have now moved beyond drug violence to murdering busloads of civilians, and the government seems incapable of stopping it. They picked us up and told us we had to work for someone, for Los Zetas, De Leon said in court. Following the murder of 72 kidnapped migrants in August 2010, a subsequent investigation revealed that some Mexican policemen assisted the Zetas in committing the slaughter. Captured: July 15, 2013 No one charges under $2,000 these days to get into the United States and [the Zetas] get $400 to $500 for each migrant smuggled through their territory, he says. From the mid-1980s to his death in 1993, Pablo Escobar was the "King of Cocaine," earning an estimated $420 million a week, according to Insider. Promotional materials distributed by your outlet, including all social media work, must include cites for the Observer and our reporter. Photo by Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images. Her work has been featured in various national and international media outlets, including the Guardian, PBS, NPR and Marie Claire. Reyna never heard back from the cartel, so he said that he contacted the Mexican government. By that point, however, more bodies had surfaced. At times [he inflicted] the cruellest of pain, forcing relatives to watch their loved ones murdered before he turned his blades on them, said Mr Durbin. You cannot underestimate the capabilities of a cartel whose founding fathers were trained by the U.S. military. The witness said that the commanders kidnapped him and his two superiors until they paid what they owed for the seized load of marijuana. Jurors broke down in tears when De Leon described a mother and father being pulled by their hair and forced to watch their 6-year-old daughter dismembered alive before they faced the same, brutal death. It was the first time the Attorney Generals Office declassified documents relating to the incidents, and proved authorities not only tolerated cartel activity but assisted it. Consequently, several Mexican cities such as Los Cabos, Tijuana, and Acapulco have recorded some of the highest murder rates in the world, according toStatista. As Breitbart Texas has been reporting for more than eight months, the Cartel Del Noreste has been at war with the rival faction known as Vieja Escuela Z or Grupo Bravo. Tomas Yarrington, former governor of Tamaulipas, is currently facing multiple drug trafficking and money laundering charges in the United States. This is a unique and distressing fact about the deadly gang. They ordered the informant be killed along with anyone and everyone associated with him. On March 13, 2013, De Leon and his father were apprehended by Border Patrol agents about three miles from the border near Comstock, TX. De Leon said that his two superiors were let go after they paid, but that he didn't have the $100,000 the cartel needed. Led by the Beltran Leyva brothers Marcos Arturo, Carlos, Alfredo, and Hctor, the Beltran Leyva Organization (BLO)was a vicious drug cartel in the Mexican state of Sinaloa (via Insight Crime/Wilson Center). To set the records straight, Los Zetas was formed by Mexican ex-military men. In 2015, U.S. law enforcement discovered a marijuana field in Texas with a market value of $2 million. Do you think free access to journalism like this is important? Alliances were formed on both sides, with the BLO allying with Los Zetas and the Sinaloa cartel working with the Gulf and Familia Michoacana cartels (via Insight Crime). When it was Los Zetas is a powerful Mexican drug cartel that has made special use of fear to achieve its business goals. With nearly all of the bodies lacking identification, authorities transported them to the Matamoros morgue for family members to hopefully identify. Subscribe to Here's the Deal, our politics newsletter. Insight Crime and the BBC reported that these splinter groups are suspected to have abducted 43 Ayotzinapa students, which hit international headlines in 2014. He holds dual bachelor's degrees from Pace University and a master's degree from New York University. It was the second time in eight months that the town of 57,000 in the border state of Tamaulipas had been the site of mass graves. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin, Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. The find is indicative of cartel operations in Texas and the United States as a whole. The Shrinking actor talks mental health, being queer, and why the Lone Star State is the perfect home for his new play Silver Foxes. While the Gulf cartel remains a danger to society, their influence has been diminished by Los Zetas, their wayward spawn. De Leon said that his mother sold her house for $20,000 to help him, and that the Zetas let him loose with the stipulation that he must pay $100,000 more in one week. Trevino Morales became head of the Los Zetas cartel after the death of long-time leader Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano in October 2012. 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WebLos Zetas have also carried out multiple massacres and attacks on civilians and rival cartels, such as: the 2010 San Fernando massacre (24 August), where 72 migrants were found Media speculation on the motives for the kidnappings range from the cartels need for new recruits to fight its turf battles to the notion that passengers are being extorted for money. WebLos Zetas, originally founded by Mexican special forces deserters, some with US training, started as the enforcement arm of the Gulf Cartel, a crime group from northeastern Instead, they were raped and beaten to death or vanished into a new life as cartel soldiers. Los Zetas is a criminal gang that manufactures and smuggles illegal drugs like cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, ecstasy, and marijuana, among others. In April 2019, CJNG killed 14 people in Minatitlan, a Zetas territory. It had only been a year since officials in the Mexican city found 72 victims of the Los Zetas drug cartel buried in the dirt. [7] As usual, theyve also brought an unprecedented level of violence to the trade. The last time Reyna saw his son was Sept. 11, 2011. SAN ANTONIO, Texas - In San Antonio today, a federal judge sentenced 34-year-old Marciano Millan Vasquez, a high ranking member and a former sicario for the Los Zetas drug cartel, to seven consecutive life imprisonment sentences for committing and aiding and abetting the commission of numerous murders and other acts of violence, Inside The Brutal 1955 Murder Of 14-Year-Old Emmett Till That Galvanized The Civil Rights Movement, 101-Year-Old Woman Who Began Trapping Lobster Before The Great Depression Has No Plans To Retire, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch, Following the 2011 San Fernando Massacre, Federal Highway 101 was colloquially dubbed the highway of death or the devils road.. If their relatives do not pay for their release, they may be killed and dumped into mass graves. Gradually, the BLO began to weaken in this battle of attrition, losing many members to jail or death. The 2011 San Fernando Massacre was both disturbing and, tragically, far from a one-off occurrence. Los Zetas control a wide swathe of territory ranging from the Texas border to Guatemala. Moreover, the extremely violent gang has made connections and collaborated with U.S. gangs all over the country since 2010. A staff writer for All Thats Interesting, Marco Margaritoff has also published work at outlets including People, VICE, and Complex, covering everything from film to finance to technology.