The group was originally made up of 34 Mexican Special Forces soldiers. "They did this so I would tell my family if they didn't obtain the money, this would happen to them," he said in court. The April 6, 2011, effort would eventually yield the largest mass grave ever found in Mexico. Border / Cartel ChroniclesBreitbart TexasCartel ChroniclesCartel ViolenceCDNCiudad VictoriaGrupo BravoLos ZetasVieja Escuela. In 2009, the Mexican government identified the countrys 37 most wanted criminals. They robbed stores, they broke into an auto repair shop and stole cell phones and several vehicles, all with the goal of spreading terror.". Prosecutors asked De Leon why it took him so long to point out the defendant. 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. Jalisco New Generation, often referred to as CJNG, is another Mexican cartel that emerged in 2010. Los Zetas is a criminal gang that manufactures and smuggles illegal drugs like cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, ecstasy, and marijuana, among others. 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. 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. 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. At least two jurors broke down in tears as they listened to Jorge De Leon Navarro describe how Los Zetas killed their prisoners. They recovered deleted material, which included death threats from the defendant and information regarding Zetas operations. Melissa is a 2016-17 Lannan Fellow at The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute. According to information provided to Breitbart Texas by the Tamaulipas government, the children have been identified as Galilea Garcia Amaya, Mariana Garcia Amaya (both from Texas), Maria Pizana Carrizales and Estephania Guadalupe Pizana Carrizales. Not only are groups like Los Zetas interested in influencing politics, but Mexican politicians are equally interested in the dividends of the drug trade. [6] Mexican drug cartels are currently operating in 47 countries around the world, including Colombia, Guatemala, and others. In August 2010, the Mexican military stumbled upon the bodies of 72 people bound and executed. 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 said that he didn't voluntarily start working with the cartel; he was kidnapped and forced to participate. Follow @NewsHourWorld There are a handful of drug cartels in Mexico, most of which run almost like corporations. 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. Mainly, Grayson notes a Zetalisation starting to occur among the other cartels. [7] As usual, theyve also brought an unprecedented level of violence to the trade. 2021 The Texas Observer. The cartel can trace its roots to the 1960s and '70s, when farming families entered the marijuana business. President Felipe Caldern deployed the military against Mexicos cartels in 2007, and despite $1.6 billion in U.S. support, 35,000 civilians were now dead by 2011, with thousands missing. To make matters worse, the gang is also into migrant smuggling. When Reyna didn't hear from his son for several days, he started making calls. Instead, they were raped and beaten to death or vanished into a new life as cartel soldiers. The field was linked to the Los Zetas cartel. It was found in Webb County, near the border city of Laredo. Jesus Gonzalez/AFP/Getty ImagesFollowing the 2011 San Fernando Massacre, Federal Highway 101 was colloquially dubbed the highway of death or the devils road.. 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. Alberto Islas, a Mexico City security analyst whos advised corporations in Tamaulipas, offers a more plausible and chilling motive for the massacres: Its just business. [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. There is a popular consensus that Los Zetas is the most brutal and inhuman drug cartel in history. 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. Cartel: Los Zetas The Horrific True Story Of The 2011 San Fernando Massacre. By that point, however, more bodies had surfaced. Miguel Angel Trevino Morales (aka Comandante 40) 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. Then come the Zetas, with no background in narcotics, and they start chopping peoples heads off, Grayson said. Their operations in Colombia and Guatemala can be taken for granted because these countries have homegrown drug cartel problems of their own. The gunmen injured 4 others in the attack. Photo by Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images. With population of 60,000, San Fernando is near the Texas border and epitomizes cartel carnage. A depressing fact about Los Zetas is that they are sometimes aided by Mexican police in the commission of unspeakable crimes. They were the victims of a brutal new evolution in Mexican cartel violence. Among these provincial traders and smugglers wasJoaqun Guzmn Loera, better known as "El Chapo.". Who knows what is going on in American Samoa. There is a huge consensus that Mexican drug cartels are responsible for the drug epidemic in the United States. Then, in May, SinEmbargo reported that the cartel had destroyed a military helicopter with an RPG, killing 5 soldiers. The handful of passengers lucky enough to be rescued confirmed their captors intended to recruit them. Initially formed by about 30 former members of an elite Mexican army unit, the gang used fear and intimidation to conduct business in defiance of government operations. 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. Instead, they became the drug cartel they were supposed to fight. In August 2010, the gang massacred 72 kidnapped migrants at a remote ranch in Northeastern Mexico after they refused to pay a ransom for their release or take jobs as hit men. More terrifying is their ease of operations in countries like the US. The gunmen used a large hammer to break down the door before storming the house shooting indiscriminately at the women and children inside. This savagery is nothing new. According to reports in the BBC and Insight Crime, the latest cartel trend is the fragmentation of the drug trafficking landscape, especially in Mexico. Moreover, the extremely violent gang has made connections and collaborated with U.S. gangs all over the country since 2010. She specializes in reporting on immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border. 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. Get our latest in-depth reporting straight to your inbox. Mostly Central American immigrants, they were traversing the state of Tamaulipas to cross into Texas. He claimed that he was blindfolded, handcuffed, driven to random locations around Piedras Negras, stripped of the blindfold, and forced to kneel and watch these brutal murders. All of the Texas Observers articles are available for free syndication for news sources under the following conditions: You can chip in for as little as 99 cents a month. 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. 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. While the Gulf cartel remains a danger to society, their influence has been diminished by Los Zetas, their wayward spawn. Cartel: Los Zetas Los Zetas is indeed the worst Mexican drug cartel in history. Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty ImagesSan Fernando woman Alma Miriam Ruiz holding a photo of her daughter Dalia missing since 2010. With the suspects revealing what they had done, excavations began. WebMultiple witnesses have testified that Millan-Vasquez controlled the region of Piedras Negras for Los Zetas and is responsible for hundreds of killings and disappearances. Articles must link back to the original article and contain the following attribution at the top of the story: This article was originally published by the, Articles cannot be rewritten, edited or changed beyond alignments with house style books. Los Zetas is a powerful Mexican drug cartel that has made special use of fear to achieve its business goals. 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. The rest of us agreed.". 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. We rely on the generosity of our readers who believe that this work is important. Terrazas said the most corrupt was an elderly police officer and another named scar Jaramillo, who receive money from the organization to collaborate. Most troubling, however, is that The National Security Archive examining this memo stated that all 17 detained police officers had vanished from the public eye. To set the records straight, Los Zetas was formed by Mexican ex-military men. The Shrinking actor talks mental health, being queer, and why the Lone Star State is the perfect home for his new play Silver Foxes. 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. Reporter-producer Larisa Epatko contributed to this report. 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. 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. 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. 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. They were forcibly recruited and haven't been paid or fed by their bosses. Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting. With their archenemy established, La Familia Michoacana set out to publicize themselves. 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).
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