Besides drug smuggling, the cartel is involved in every facet of trade in its territory including human trafficking. Drug lord Miguel Angel Z-40 Trevino Morales was arrested early in the morning Monday on a country dirt road after a Mexican Marine helicopter intercepted the pickup truck he was riding in. 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. WebFrom March 24 to March 29, 2011, the Los Zetas drug cartel viciously slaughtered nearly 200 Central American migrants in Tamaulipas, Mexico. 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 All Rights Reserved. Her work has been featured in various national and international media outlets, including the Guardian, PBS, NPR and Marie Claire. The Shrinking actor talks mental health, being queer, and why the Lone Star State is the perfect home for his new play Silver Foxes. The fact that Los Zetas was able to grow and nurture $2 million worth of marijuana in Texas is quite distressing. 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). 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. 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). The last time Reyna saw his son was Sept. 11, 2011. Prosecutors will not seek the death penalty. He said that officers escorted him to remote locations to deliver guns to Millan-Vasquez on more than one occasion. They ordered the informant be killed along with anyone and everyone associated with him. When Osiel Cardenas Guillen took over as the leader of the Gulf Cartel, it was in the midst of a violent turf war. Melissa del Bosque joined the Texas Observer staff in 2008. The Most Brutal Execution Methods Used by Mexican Cartels 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. 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. Much of the cartel's drugs trade depended on theLazaro Cardenas port, an asset that La Familia killed some 1,500 people to protect. At one of the gory murders the horrific slaughter of a young girl he reportedly told her father the crime was "so you can remember me", before ordering the murder of both parents. Some had been killed by sledgehammer. Drug cartels influencing politics paints a picture of total disaster. This gang violence occurs in their stronghold of Ciudad Jurez, where 1,200 people were murdered in 2018. Velazquez started out stealing cars in his hometown of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, and was jailed there. US attorney Richard L Durbin Jr told the court in San Antonio, Texas, the killer had acted "without mercy or compunction". According to court testimony, from 2007 through 2011, Chavarria oversaw the shipment of enormous quantities of cocaine between Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, and Eagle Pass, Texas on behalf of the Los Zetas Cartel, in which he was a high-ranking member. While older cartels were more interested in smuggling drugs than anything else, Los Zetas apparently has its sights set on any type of crime that translates into quick and steady cash. Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano (aka The Executioner) Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. He made a mistake in his greedbelieving he was invincible and untouchable. Jalisco New Generation, often referred to as CJNG, is another Mexican cartel that emerged in 2010. Breitbart Texas has consulted with relatives and friends of the Garcia family who said the Texas family had traveled to Ciudad Victoria with the children for the summer vacation. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. WebCartel Del Golfo interrogation 4 Zetas these bastards have admitted to raping women,killing women, killing kids. Facebook beheading video: Who was Mexico's Jane Doe? - BBC He sent soldiers into San Fernando after the massacre to protect migrants and Mexican families, but they soon withdrew unlike the cartels. Thats bad for the bottom line., Drug cartels have famously eluded capture by the Mexican government as the problem has crossed the border and headed north: 1,000 U.S cities reported the presence of a Mexican cartel in 2010, according to this graphic by the National Post. 330 76 comments Best Add a Comment ComfortableSoup5 2 yr. ago Exposed by a Zetas member under a pseudonym, the details of the bus vanishings remain disputed. Learn more about Friends of the NewsHour. 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. Mexico's CJNG Following Reyna discovered that his son's co-worker and girlfriend were also missing. In and around Cali if the mafia doesn't like you, you just disappear.". Then, on April 21, 2011, police arrested San Fernandos police chief and got a little closer to the truth. 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. They robbed stores, they broke into an auto repair shop and stole cell phones and several vehicles, all with the goal of spreading terror.". Partners must notify. WebThe 2011 San Fernando massacre, also known as the second massacre of San Fernando, was the mass murder of 193 people by Los Zetas drug cartel at La Joya ranch in the municipality of San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico in March 2011. The Sun Tomas Yarrington, former governor of Tamaulipas, is currently facing multiple drug trafficking and money laundering charges in the United States. A significant part of this bloodshed is caused by the Tijuana cartel, which is in constant conflict with the Sinaloa cartel. The CJNG split from the Sinaloa Cartel after the killing of Ignacio Coronel, a capo whose death caused a power vacuum(via Insight Crime). Former governor Humberto Moreira was also singled out by former Mexican President Felipe Calderon has having protected Los Zetas in his state. 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). There are a handful of drug cartels in Mexico, most of which run almost like corporations. With the suspects revealing what they had done, excavations began. Locals also reported of the many corpses found in the Cauca River, which runs through Cali. The memo indicated that local police acted as lookouts and helped in the interceptions of persons across all cases. 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. Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty ImagesAn armored police vehicle carrying Los Zetas member dgar Huerta Montiel in June 2011. Rival gang MS-13 may have the most terrifying tattoos (see featured image), but Los Zetas wins the prize for violence. Then come the Zetas, with no background in narcotics, and they start chopping peoples heads off, Grayson said. If their relatives do not pay for their release, they may be killed and dumped into mass graves. Busloads of people were declared missing in 2011 when their luggage went unclaimed in Reynosa and Matamoros. Based in the western state ofMichoacn, La Familia Michoacana is known for its history of violence as well as its quasi-religious trappings (via Insight Crime). // BBC News Los Zetas is a powerful Mexican drug cartel that has made special use of fear to achieve its business goals. With Americans running the organization, winning the war against Los Zetas would be much more difficult. Groups like Los Zetas have also been known to operate abroad, buying raw materials from Argentina and operating in Asian countries like Malaysia. !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); It was found in Webb County, near the border city of Laredo. Los Zetas is a Mexican drug cartel known for its sophisticated crime machine and brutality. While police arrested 76 suspects, including senior Los Zeta member Martin El Kilo Estrada, there was no victory there. As the cartel made connections across Mexico and the world, their death toll increased exponentially. In fact, CNNreported that Cali mobsters even invested in four 500-pound bombs, which they intended to somehow drop on Pablo Escobar. However, despite these smaller groups' threat to the Guerrero and Morelosstates, the Beltrn-Leyva Organization is merely a trace of its former self. 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.. Mainly, Grayson notes a Zetalisation starting to occur among the other cartels. Abstract. In 2018, analystParker Asmann dubbed the Sinaloa Cartel "Mexico's top crime group," despite El Chapo's arrest, trial and eventual detention in the United States. The Most Dangerous Cartels To Ever Exist - Grunge.com Millan-Vasquez was found guilty last July of murder, violence, drug and weapons trafficking, and employing minors in a drug crime a total of 10 counts. 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. Get our latest in-depth reporting straight to your inbox. ", The Gulf cartel's control in the northeast state of Tamaulipas has seen many violent incidents, both against rivals and each other. Most harrowing of all was the forensic evidence. In the early 1990s, El Chapo steered the Sinaloa Cartel to dominance through his use of tunnel smuggling and widespread bribes. The defendant in this case is Mariano Millan-Vasquez, known to everyone as "Chano." In 2015, U.S. law enforcement discovered a marijuana field in Texas with a market value of $2 million. Among these provincial traders and smugglers wasJoaqun Guzmn Loera, better known as "El Chapo.". 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. In the end, the legacy of the 2011 San Fernando Massacre is one of blood money, corruption, and wanton murder. Los Zetas is indeed the worst Mexican drug cartel in history. There is a popular consensus that Los Zetas is the most brutal and inhuman drug cartel in history. The cartel member he spoke with was Jose Luis Rodriguez. Today, the cartel retains a small presence in southern Mexico. Los Zetas is a criminal gang that manufactures and smuggles illegal drugs like cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, ecstasy, and marijuana, among others. The FBI and the IRS eventually built a case against Morales and others, leading to his arrest. Authorities expect more violence to ensue in the coming days. The cartel's influence has declined like many of its fragmenting peers, but their power remains strong inCiudad Jurez and the Valle de Jurez, which are key trafficking locations. 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. newsletter for analysis you wont find anywhereelse. CJNG have also committed several assassinations, including the June 2020 murder of Jalisco judge Uriel Villegas Ortiz and his wifeVernica, who were shot some 20 times, according to a El Pais report. A former Mexican drug cartel kingpin who dismembered a six-year-old girl with an axe in front of her parents has been sentenced to seven consecutive life terms in a US prison. Navarro from Ciudad Victoria. Inside Mexicos brutal drug cartels - The Sun Reyna never heard back from the cartel, so he said that he contacted the Mexican government. Writing for the Los Angeles Times, William R. Long dubbed the Cali cartel as "Colombia's Gentlemen Cocaine Traffickers." The field was linked to the Los Zetas cartel. To protect himself from harm, Guillen hired a retired Mexican soldier as his bodyguard, who in turn solicited 30 Mexican Army deserters to form the cartels well-paid mercenary wing. The fact that Los Zetas and other Mexican gangs sponsor politicians in Mexico is a huge problem. Mexico's largest and most powerful drug gangs are the Zetas and the Sinaloa cartel. 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. Elizabeth Shell Outlets must also tag the Observer in all social media posts. Based in northwest Mexico's Sinaloa state, the Sinaloa Cartel is widely considered to be the most powerful drug trafficking organization in the Western Hemisphere, according to Insight Crime. You can contact her at [emailprotected]. She was known for being the crazy white one. Not only does Los Zetas control key drug smuggling routes into the United States, but it now controls much of the illicit trade of sneaking migrant workers to the US. The Zetas were notorious for their brutality, even by cartel standards. 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. Moreover, the extremely violent gang has made connections and collaborated with U.S. gangs all over the country since 2010. 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 Mexican military has been trying unsuccessfully for years to dismantle an extensive network of radio antennas built and operated by the Los Zetas drug cartel. WebCartel: Los Zetas Killed: Oct. 7, 2012 Lazcano was the leader of the Los Zetas cartel. An armored police vehicle carrying Los Zetas member dgar Huerta Montiel in June 2011. In early April, Mexican military officials made another grisly discovery in the once sleepy farming community of San Fernando: a series of mass graves among the mesquite brush. The winners got to become Zetas recruits, while the losers got death. He said that they spoke over the phone every day. 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. There were only a few bullet casings at the scene, but one sledgehammer and bodies showing blunt trauma to the head. Captured: July 15, 2013 He claimed that the drugs came from the Zetas "comandantes" or commanders, which included Millan-Vasquez. Mostly Central American immigrants, they were traversing the state of Tamaulipas to cross into Texas. WebZetas behead and dismember four women from the Gulf Cartel. The load belonged to De Leon. Unlike some of its fragmenting rivals, CJNG's power is forecast to grow despite government pressure on their front companies and bank accounts. Colombian National Police/Wikimedia Commons, ShareAlike 4.0 International/BaptisteGrandGrand. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia, The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. You name it, the Zetas did it.. This savagery is nothing new. Imagine how tragic it would be for such a respected and honored organization to become an evil one like Los Zetas. Melissa is a 2016-17 Lannan Fellow at The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute. Trevino Morales became head of the Los Zetas cartel after the death of long-time leader Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano in October 2012. In 2006, severalLa Familia hit men, who said they had a "divine right" to kill, dumped five severed heads on a dance floor, yet this didn't alienate them in the public eye (via Insider/Insight Crime). Then, in May, SinEmbargo reported that the cartel had destroyed a military helicopter with an RPG, killing 5 soldiers. We rely on the generosity of our readers who believe that this work is important. Consequently, several Mexican cities such as Los Cabos, Tijuana, and Acapulco have recorded some of the highest murder rates in the world, according toStatista. They kidnapped a local farmers son and demanded $10,000, and when he gave them $5,000 everything he had they sent him half of his son.. 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. During his peak in the mid-1980s, Escobar established a debt collection service called "Oficina de Envigado," which was based in the town hall of Envigado. 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. The Los Zetas cartel gunmen even executed the family dog. Known for his brutality, one technique he allegedly favored was the guiso, or stew, in which enemies would be placed in 55-gallon drums and burned alive. Instead, they became the drug cartel they were supposed to fight. Curiously, no bus line reported their buses or passengers missing. 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With nearly all of the bodies lacking identification, authorities transported them to the Matamoros morgue for family members to hopefully identify. Who knows what is going on in American Samoa. A red Blackberry phone belonging to De Leon was examined by computer forensics experts with Homeland Security Investigations. 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. 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. The Juarez cartel's expansionist ambitions have been quelled in recent years, but they retain a strong grasp on their part of the US-Mexico border, which should maintain their threat to the region for some time. WebIn August 2011, armed men affiliated with the Zetas cartel set fire to a casino in the Mexican city of Monterrey, killing 52 people. This radio communication technology has given them a edge over Mexican law enforcement agencies for years. Zetas In August 2010, the Mexican military stumbled upon the bodies of 72 people bound and executed. Los Zetas called Mexico's most dangerous drug cartel Los Zetass status as the largest drug cartel in Mexico carries additional implications. 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. Initially, the group was led by Osiel Crdenas Guilln, who recruited around 30 alumni from Mexico's special forces. Originally a security detail for the Sinaloa cartel, BLO seceded in 2008 and a fierce conflict ensued. 10 Atrocities Committed By Mexican Drug Cartels - Listverse [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. It was one of the deadliest attacks ever on Mexican It would occur to many as an unacceptable surprise that Los Zetas recruits members in the United States. 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. However, recently, theyve taken their drug manufacturing activities to highly advanced countries like the United States. Aside from manufacturing illegal drugs and trafficking them, the gang is also into kidnapping and extortion. Not only are groups like Los Zetas interested in influencing politics, but Mexican politicians are equally interested in the dividends of the drug trade. Even the Sinaloas are now decapitating people, he said. Los Zetas is the largest drug cartel in Mexico in terms of scale of operations. The gang often kidnaps and holds poor migrants who try to operate outside the system for ransom. When Reyna didn't hear from his son for several days, he started making calls. 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). Relatives of the victims have begun a Go Fund Me campaign in order to take the bodies of Garcia and her two daughters Galilea and Mariana to South Texas for burial. In this pivotal year, Zetas occupied territory in 405 Mexican municipalities, which Insight Crime found was more than double that of their biggest rivals. Mexicos National Human Rights Commission estimated that 20,000 migrants were abducted in 2010, alone. These are the top ten distressing facts about Los Zetas you dont want to know. Gradually, the BLO began to weaken in this battle of attrition, losing many members to jail or death. Los Zetas This is because La Familia styled itself as the people's cartel by performing social work and employing civilians, which won both popularity and new recruits. Countries militaries are dedicated to defense from external aggression and the protection of peoples lives and properties. Former Los Zetas worker: I was forced to witness brutal killings The 2011 San Fernando Massacre was both disturbing and, tragically, far from a one-off occurrence. [3] By the end of 2011, Los Zetas had eclipsed the Sinaloa Cartel as the largest operating in Mexico by virtue of their geographic presence. He frequently supervised killing experiments wherein new recruits were ordered to kill people with a machete or sledgehammer.