Captured: July 15, 2013 They were believed to have been killed for refusing to pay a ransom or join the Elizabeth Shell Since 2011, there have been numerous scandals exposing the collusion between politicians and drug cartels. 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. De Leon will serve time in jail after pleading guilty to a marijuana charge. Their operations in Colombia and Guatemala can be taken for granted because these countries have homegrown drug cartel problems of their own. It was found in Webb County, near the border city of Laredo. Reyna discovered that his son's co-worker and girlfriend were also missing. Los Zetas had begun to hijack buses along Federal Highway 101. He holds dual bachelor's degrees from Pace University and a master's degree from New York University. An armored police vehicle carrying Los Zetas member dgar Huerta Montiel in June 2011. 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. However, Insight Crime suggests that the large traditional cartels may be over as Mexico's criminal underworld becomes increasingly fragmented and scattershot. WebLos Zetas is a powerful Mexican drug cartel that has made special use of fear to achieve its business goals. These types of brutal dealings by Los Zetas originally a bodyguard group for another cartel upset the status quo. Outlets must also tag the Observer in all social media posts. WebOn behalf of Los Zetas." Then, in December 2009, Arturo Beltrn Leyva was killed by Mexican marines. With the suspects revealing what they had done, excavations began. 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 With all this being said, the power and brutality of the gang seem to be waning. There is a popular consensus that Los Zetas is the most brutal and inhuman drug cartel in history. Human smugglers often use buses to transport migrants north to the Texas-Mexico border. The cartels brutal murders came to a head under the leadership of Miguel Angel Trevino Morales. Morales liked to betand bet bigon the horses. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month, Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Officials exhuming the bodies noticed that many bore the marks of blunt trauma. The gunmen injured 4 others in the attack. She released videos of her beheading the caught zeta members herself. He alleged that the victims were abducted from buses and killed for refusing to join the cartel or pay their way out. She specializes in reporting on immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border. In the early 1990s, El Chapo steered the Sinaloa Cartel to dominance through his use of tunnel smuggling and widespread bribes. Velazquez started out stealing cars in his hometown of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, and was jailed there. The Gulf cartel is among the oldest cartels in Mexico and has held varying degrees of power since its origins in 1984, according toInsightCrime. With the Medellin leader gone, Insider noted how the rival Cali cartel took the reins of Colombia's booming cocaine industry. Abstract. Facebook beheading video: Who was Mexico's Jane Doe? - BBC The fledgling cartel were trained by members of Los Zetas, yet they would turn on their mentors because of local resentment to Zetas' methamphetamine business. The Zetas were involved in 20 different criminal activities, George Grayson, an expert on the Zetas and professor of government at the College of William & Mary, said. The following facts also illustrate the reality that an immediate defeat of the drug cartel may be far from feasible. Earlier in life, he was trained in a Mexican Special Forces unit to fight drug-trafficking organizations. The largest two graves were 10 feet deep and each held around 45 corpses. He made a mistake in his greedbelieving he was invincible and untouchable. He created a company, Tremor Enterprises, to purchase racehorses for American contests, winning millions in prize money through fixing races and doping horses. He said that the Zetas commanders ordered the killings because there was a government informant in the group. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. 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. Traditionally, Mexican cartels like Los Zetas only grew and manufactured drugs in Mexican territory and other less advanced countries where government officials were collaborators or incapable of disrupting their operations. There are a handful of drug cartels in Mexico, most of which run almost like corporations. Navarro from Ciudad Victoria. 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. Miguel Angel Trevino Morales (aka Comandante 40) The Gulf's cocaine business started when they brokered a deal with the Cali cartel, which was looking for new routes from Colombia to the United States. Tomas Yarrington, former governor of Tamaulipas, is currently facing multiple drug trafficking and money laundering charges in the United States. Officials are still counting the dead, but, as of this writing, the bodies numbered nearly 200. However, despite their swift and brutal success, Insight Crime reports that Los Zetas has experienced fragmentation since 2012, especially when the Trevino brothers fell out and split the group into rival clans,the Northeast Cartel and the Zetas Old School. 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. Zetas The last time Reyna saw his son was Sept. 11, 2011. The Most Brutal Execution Methods Used by Mexican Cartels Los Zetas This has led to savage fighting between some 400 splinter gangs, each killing and maiming for scraps of territory (via Business Insider). Colombian National Police/Wikimedia Commons, ShareAlike 4.0 International/BaptisteGrandGrand. WebTubutama Gun Battle On July 1, 2010, Sinaloa Cartel gunmen clashed with their rivals from the Beltran Leyva and Los Zetas Cartel leaving more than 20 dead near the rural town of Former Los Zetas worker: I was forced to witness brutal killings The memo indicated that local police acted as lookouts and helped in the interceptions of persons across all cases. However, according to Insight Crime's profile, the cartel's influence has been compromised by arrests and infighting, limiting their territory to Tijuana, a vital smuggling city on the US-Mexico border. Please check your inbox to confirm. Los Zetas is the largest drug cartel in Mexico in terms of scale of operations. If you support this mission, we need your help. "The first time [I was kidnapped], they took me with a group of about seven people. Reporter-producer Larisa Epatko contributed to this report. 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." If you dont pay them, they will take your merchandise, he says. BBC News The implication of this is that Los Zetas continues to bolster its criminal operations through nontraditional and unexpected means. When prosecutors asked De Leon if "Chano" was in the courtroom, the witness stood up and scanned the courtroom for close to three minutes, before pointing at Millan-Vasquez. After the group's 1985 murder of DEA agentEnrique Camarena, the US and Mexico closed in on the cartel, causing several leaders to disperse across Mexico, leaving El Chapo and his partnerHctor Luis Palma Salazar as the Sinaloa chiefs. On Tuesday, Rodriguez testified about a bloody massacre involving more than 300 people. You have to have cartel cred being known as the meanest, most savage criminal organization in the Americas.. Rival gang MS-13 may have the most terrifying tattoos (see featured image), but Los Zetas wins the prize for violence. Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting. Brutality and inhumanity are the most noticeable traits of drug cartels all over the world, but Los Zetas has taken them to a new high. If a debtor refused, Escobar deployed his team of lethal "sicarios.". The most dramatic episode of the weekend carnage took place on Saturday morning when gunmen with one faction of the Los Zetas cartel known as the Cartel Del Noreste burst into a home in order to murder four children, five women and two men. Editors Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon and Coahuila to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. They immediately went to war with the Los Zetas and proudly claimed responsibility for a swathe of mass killings, including the massacre of 15 Mexican cops in a single ambush. In August 2017, the cartel kidnapped 17 people and kept them in a stash house in Nuevo Laredo. The cartel member he spoke with was Jose Luis Rodriguez. The killings could be a warning and a way of depriving the smugglers of their livelihoods. The two men who were also gunned down have been identified as Cruz Felipe Pizana Saldivar and Angel Carrizales Amaya. While the Gulf cartel remains a danger to society, their influence has been diminished by Los Zetas, their wayward spawn. In April 2019, CJNG killed 14 people in Minatitlan, a Zetas territory. Mexico's largest and most powerful drug gangs are the Zetas and the Sinaloa cartel. However, PBS wrote that the Cali cartel did not inherit Escobar's public flair for violence, preferring to adopt a business faade in their international operation. [2] It is a fact that some of the cartels initial members were elite Mexican troops who were trained in the early 1990s by Americas 7th Special Forces Group. The two claimed credible fear, telling agents that they feared for their lives if they were to stay in Mexico. According to World Atlas, Tijuana had the highest homicide rate in the world in 2020, with 138 murder per 100,000 residents. They picked us up and told us we had to work for someone, for Los Zetas, De Leon said in court. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes, A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India, The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC, An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution, A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors, State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya, A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic, A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California, Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Locals also reported of the many corpses found in the Cauca River, which runs through Cali. Los Zetas was formed in 1997 to serve as enforcers for the Gulf Cartel. Instead, they became the drug cartel they were supposed to fight. He was recruited to Los Zetas, where he rose to commander. Curiously, no bus line reported their buses or passengers missing. Los Zetas is a criminal gang that manufactures and smuggles illegal drugs like cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, ecstasy, and marijuana, among others. Melissa is a 2016-17 Lannan Fellow at The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute. Moraless most preferred method of killing was to stuff victims in oil barrels and set them ablaze. Sadism was their brand. An 18-year old Ecuadorian migrant who survived the massacre told officials that it was Los Zetas, a brutal drug cartel, that had kidnapped the group of Central and South American migrants. 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.". 4 A rival of the Sinaloa cartel, the Juarez group has been responsible for thousands of murders across its territory, which included 21 states at the height of its power. WebDuring 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. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy, Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq, A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France, A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. Drug cartels influencing politics paints a picture of total disaster. newsletter for analysis you wont find anywhereelse. The traditional cartels buy off politicians, establish traffic routes for smuggling and make money. The Horrific True Story Of The 2011 San Fernando Massacre. Authorities expect more violence to ensue in the coming days. Perhaps the most heinous La Linea crime occurred in Bavispe, where the group attacked a Mormon family inNovember 2019, killing nine people including several children, according to ABC. In the 1990s, the aforementioned Cali cartel took the mantle from their Medellin rivals, becoming the most powerful cartel in the world. Inside bloody world of Cancuns cartel wars as gangsters behead However, in the late 1990s/early 2000s, a set of El Milenio lieutenants rebelled and created their own cartel. Favors were done under threat of death, while higher-ranking officials were paid off. Upon his release, he was put in charge of the cartel in Nuevo Laredo but then relocated to Zacatecas and rose through the ranks of Los Zetas. Who knows what is going on in American Samoa. Much of the cartel's drugs trade depended on theLazaro Cardenas port, an asset that La Familia killed some 1,500 people to protect. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. The military gunned four Zetas members down, before capturing nine others and finding five abducted passengers inside the ranch. They also acted as lookouts for the cartel and turned a blind eye to their illegal activities. All Rights Reserved. Between January 2009 and July 2015, Millan-Vasquez was responsible for the murders of at least 29 people, according to testimony from the trial reported by local broadcaster KSAT. Inside The Brutal 2011 San Fernando Massacre That Left 193 Dead He was told to contact someone in Los Zetas to see if they had information. Rather than prioritizing corruption like its competitors, Los Zetas has There is a huge consensus that Mexican drug cartels are responsible for the drug epidemic in the United States. 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. Initially, the group was led by Osiel Crdenas Guilln, who recruited around 30 alumni from Mexico's special forces. Authorities had been notified of missing passengers from Highway 101 on May 24 and May 29, with soldiers following a tip that led them to the La Joya ranch a few miles off the road. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Killed: Oct. 7, 2012 Originally a security detail for the Sinaloa cartel, BLO seceded in 2008 and a fierce conflict ensued. Los Zetas One official said, "The valley is the most dangerous region in Colombia in terms of drug violence. As La Familia Michoacana expelled Los Zetas, they took territory across Guerrero, Morelos, Guanajuato, Queretaro, Jalisco and Mexico City. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo, A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota, Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. (Watch our piece Mexican Marines Kill Drug Lord Known as The Executioner.). Mexico's CJNG Following As the two factions continue their fierce fighting, gunmen from the two groups have taken to social media and banners to deliver threats to each other. Cartel: Los Zetas Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. By the early 1990s, Medellin was the most violent city not just in Colombia but the entire world, and much of that was because of the Medellin cartel's war with the government (via Rapid Transition). Rather than prioritizing corruption like its competitors, Los Zetas has preferred to use paramilitary violence to seize territory and intimidate rivals, according toInsight Crime. Subscribe to Here's the Deal, our politics newsletter. 2011 San Fernando massacre He was arrested by the Mexican Navy in 2012. During the late '70s and 1980s, the Sinaloa Cartel worked with the Medellin cartel, establishing lucrative cocaine routes to the United States that spanned land, sea and air. Busloads of people were declared missing in 2011 when their luggage went unclaimed in Reynosa and Matamoros. On July 12, 2012, authorities seized over 50 kilograms of marijuana at the Del Rio port of entry. The winners got to become Zetas recruits, while the losers got death. With Americans running the organization, winning the war against Los Zetas would be much more difficult. 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. In 2010, Los Zetas established itself on its own terms, terrorizing the country with torture, beheadings and massacres (via Irish Times/Britannica). He frequently supervised killing experiments wherein new recruits were ordered to kill people with a machete or sledgehammer. [8] Los Zetas has been linked to several other mass murders in Mexico. Millan-Vasquez faces multiple charges, including conspiracy to distribute narcotics, enticing minors to sell drugs, giving a false identification to authorities, and charges for at least nine murders in South Texas and Northern Mexico. In this pivotal year, Zetas occupied territory in 405 Mexican municipalities, which Insight Crime found was more than double that of their biggest rivals. The 34-year-old, known as "Chano", was a regional boss in the Mexican border town of Piedras Negras. Facebook beheading video: Who was Mexico's Jane Doe? You can contact her at [emailprotected]. A significant part of this bloodshed is caused by the Tijuana cartel, which is in constant conflict with the Sinaloa cartel. 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. It had only been a year since the 2010 The way in which the killers carried In April 2015, the group killed 15 police officers just weeks after killing five federal officers, which involved the use ofmachine guns and grenade launchers. Multiple witnesses have testified that Millan-Vasquez controlled the region of Piedras Negras for Los Zetas and is responsible for hundreds of killings and disappearances. Tamaulipas Lieutenant Governor Morelos Jaime Canseco Gmez admitted police were still looking for another bus of passengers. Their wanton murders leave most civilians in silence. I know that police and transit officials in San Fernando help the Zetas organization, because rather than take detainees to the Pentgano, which is to say the municipal jail, they would deliver them to the Zetas, said lvaro Alba Terrazas, one of the 17 detained police officials. WebLos Zetas are blamed for last week's brutal killings of the police chief in the southern Mexican city of Veracruz, his wife and four children. Not only are groups like Los Zetas interested in influencing politics, but Mexican politicians are equally interested in the dividends of the drug trade. Jalisco New Generation, often referred to as CJNG, is another Mexican cartel that emerged in 2010. 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. Consequently, several Mexican cities such as Los Cabos, Tijuana, and Acapulco have recorded some of the highest murder rates in the world, according toStatista. In and around Cali if the mafia doesn't like you, you just disappear.". The Texas Observer is known for its fiercely independent, uncompromising work which we are pleased to provide to the public at no charge in this space. He also forced captured Mexican migrants into gladiatorial fights to the death. The gang often kidnaps and holds poor migrants who try to operate outside the system for ransom. 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). 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. The Juarez cartel is another relatively old organization dating back to the early 1980s (via Insight Crime). 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). If the lawmakers are puppets to drug cartels, then there is very little hope that the war against the cartels will be won. 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