It is practically impossible to list all the atrocities that this extremely violent group has committed. The gang often kidnaps and holds poor migrants who try to operate outside the system for ransom. 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. WebOn behalf of Los Zetas." 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. He holds dual bachelor's degrees from Pace University and a master's degree from New York University. Most harrowing of all was the forensic evidence. He was told to contact someone in Los Zetas to see if they had information. FROM brutal beheadings to violent kidnappings, the cartel wars of Cancun have unleashed horror on Mexico's Caribbean coast as gangsters wreak havoc yards away from luxury resorts. 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. 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. It operates in more than half of the countrys 32 states. Do you think free access to journalism like this is important? The Los Zetas cartel gunmen even executed the family dog. The 2011 San Fernando Massacre was both disturbing and, tragically, far from a one-off occurrence. Among the first deaths in the conflict was Edgar Guzman, El Chapo's son. Groups like Los Zetas have also been known to operate abroad, buying raw materials from Argentina and operating in Asian countries like Malaysia. Instead, they became the drug cartel they were supposed to fight. Jesus Gonzalez/AFP/Getty ImagesFollowing the 2011 San Fernando Massacre, Federal Highway 101 was colloquially dubbed the highway of death or the devils road.. It is disheartening to hear that the founding fathers of a criminal organization like Los Zetas received training from US military officers. 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. Escobar's luck ran out on December 2, 1993, when he was gunned down as part of a joint U.S.-Colombia effort. // ]]>. WebLos Zetas is a powerful Mexican drug cartel that has made special use of fear to achieve its business goals. When Reyna didn't hear from his son for several days, he started making calls. Officials exhuming the bodies noticed that many bore the marks of blunt trauma. By 2020, the once leading cartel was wounded and facing competition from old rivals and new cartels, such as the Jalisco New General Cartel, often referred to as CJNG. Their operations in Colombia and Guatemala can be taken for granted because these countries have homegrown drug cartel problems of their own. On Tuesday, Rodriguez testified about a bloody massacre involving more than 300 people. The following facts also illustrate the reality that an immediate defeat of the drug cartel may be far from feasible. It was one of the deadliest attacks ever on Mexican 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. He said that officers escorted him to remote locations to deliver guns to Millan-Vasquez on more than one occasion. [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 were only a few bullet casings at the scene, but one sledgehammer and bodies showing blunt trauma to the head. 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. To set the records straight, Los Zetas was formed by Mexican ex-military men. 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. 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. Attorney Jeff Blackburn, a crusader for the innocent, fought injustices across Texas in his improbable, utterly original, and often profane life. The fact that Los Zetas and other Mexican gangs sponsor politicians in Mexico is a huge problem. CJNG's battles with the Los Zetas and CRSL cartels are similarly brutal. [4] The cartel recruits in US prisons and also courts street gang members for its drug trafficking activities in Mexico and the U.S. Lazcano was the leader of the Los Zetas cartel. With that grim context in mind, here are the most dangerous cartels to ever exist. Jair Cabrera/NurPhoto/Getty ImagesTributes to the 2011 San Fernando Massacre. Not only are groups like Los Zetas interested in influencing politics, but Mexican politicians are equally interested in the dividends of the drug trade. If a debtor refused, Escobar deployed his team of lethal "sicarios.". That's right the Wight bitch was the bad one and cut off heads with axes with her own hands. "The first time [I was kidnapped], they took me with a group of about seven people. Who knows what is going on in American Samoa. 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. With nearly all of the bodies lacking identification, authorities transported them to the Matamoros morgue for family members to hopefully identify. They would rape and kill the women and offer men a macabre choice. Then, in December 2015, Insider reported that La Familia founderCarlos Rosales Mendoza was found dead baring torture wounds. 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. Thank you. They were the victims of a brutal new evolution in Mexican cartel violence. Former Zetas members testified Tuesday, claiming the cartel is responsible for a bloody massacre in Piedras Negras in 2011. Earlier in life, he was trained in a Mexican Special Forces unit to fight drug-trafficking organizations. Her work has been featured in various national and international media outlets, including the Guardian, PBS, NPR and Marie Claire. Most are extorted and let go or sold into prostitution. 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. There is a popular consensus that Los Zetas is the most brutal and inhuman drug cartel in history. 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 group was originally made up of 34 Mexican Special Forces soldiers. Shortly after the brutal execution, the CDN faction of the Los Zetas struck once more. The cartel can trace its roots to the 1960s and '70s, when farming families entered the marijuana business. In August 2010, the gang massacred 72 kidnapped migrants at a remote ranch in 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. On July 12, 2012, authorities seized over 50 kilograms of marijuana at the Del Rio port of entry. She released videos of her beheading the caught zeta members herself. While police arrested 76 suspects, including senior Los Zeta member Martin El Kilo Estrada, there was no victory there. Former governor Humberto Moreira was also singled out by former Mexican President Felipe Calderon has having protected Los Zetas in his state. The cartel member he spoke with was Jose Luis Rodriguez. She specializes in reporting on immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border. Victims were piled on top of one another haphazardly before the cartel used a backhoe to cover up their resting place. Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting. 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. A significant part of this bloodshed is caused by the Tijuana cartel, which is in constant conflict with the Sinaloa cartel. 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. The winners got to become Zetas recruits, while the losers got death. The memo indicated that local police acted as lookouts and helped in the interceptions of persons across all cases. Los Zetas control a wide swathe of territory ranging from the Texas border to Guatemala. Los Zetas is the largest drug cartel in Mexico in terms of scale of operations. De Leon said that he didn't voluntarily start working with the cartel; he was kidnapped and forced to participate. The women have been identified as Lourdes Gregorio Garcia Amaya from Texas, Raymunda Amaya Contreras, Maria Del Rosario Carrizales Amaya. 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. 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. He said that they spoke over the phone every day. Tomas Yarrington, former governor of Tamaulipas, is currently facing multiple drug trafficking and money laundering charges in the United States. Rogue policemen are believed to have played a role in the deaths of 193 people, whose bodies were found in hidden graves in San Fernando in 2011, and 49 in Cadereyta in the state of Nuevo Leon in 2012. This wasnt the first time such a tragedy had visited San Fernando. Like Los Zetas, their bitter rivals, CJNG is known for terrible 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. Insight Crime catalogued the numerous violent acts of this period, including the cartel's failed assassination of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman in 1993, which went awry when the gunmen erroneously targeted the car of a Catholic cardinal, shooting him to death. According to reports in the BBC and Insight Crime, the latest cartel trend is the fragmentation of the drug trafficking landscape, especially in Mexico. 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. Subscribe to Heres the Deal, our politics The killings could be a warning and a way of depriving the smugglers of their livelihoods. There are a handful of drug cartels in Mexico, most of which run almost like corporations. 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. Their wanton murders leave most civilians in silence. They robbed stores, they broke into an auto repair shop and stole cell phones and several vehicles, all with the goal of spreading terror.". It would occur to many as an unacceptable surprise that Los Zetas recruits members in the United States. The find is indicative of cartel operations in Texas and the United States as a whole. Much of the cartel's drugs trade depended on theLazaro Cardenas port, an asset that La Familia killed some 1,500 people to protect. On March 13, 2013, De Leon and his father were apprehended by Border Patrol agents about three miles from the border near Comstock, TX. Then, learn about the Mexican boys forced to eat human flesh as a cartel initiation. The Shrinking actor talks mental health, being queer, and why the Lone Star State is the perfect home for his new play Silver Foxes. In 2015, Los Zetas leader Morales was arrested in Mexico City. The cartels have now moved beyond drug violence to murdering busloads of civilians, and the government seems incapable of stopping it. Read more about illegal drugs and those who deal in them on 10 Atrocities Committed By Mexican Drug Cartels and 15 Notable Drug Traffickers. Picture taken from a TV screen showing Miguel Angel Trevino Morales by Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images. 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. In this pivotal year, Zetas occupied territory in 405 Mexican municipalities, which Insight Crime found was more than double that of their biggest rivals. Families across Mexico reported that relatives had disappeared after boarding passenger buses bound for the Texas-Mexico border. Miguel Angel Trevino Morales (aka Comandante 40) WebFrom March 24 to March 29, 2011, the Los Zetas drug cartel viciously slaughtered nearly 200 Central American migrants in Tamaulipas, Mexico. Officials are still counting the dead, but, as of this writing, the bodies numbered nearly 200. With the Medellin leader gone, Insider noted how the rival Cali cartel took the reins of Colombia's booming cocaine industry. These types of brutal dealings by Los Zetas originally a bodyguard group for another cartel upset the status quo. To make matters worse, the gang is also into migrant smuggling. He said that the Zetas commanders ordered the killings because there was a government informant in the group. 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. 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 August 2010, the Mexican military stumbled upon the bodies of 72 people bound and executed. Exposed by a Zetas member under a pseudonym, the details of the bus vanishings remain disputed. Few rivals could hope of matching Escobar as his cartel controlled80% of the cocaine trade, which involved daily 15-ton shipments to the United States, as detailed in Escobar'sInsight Crimebiography. The video shows four women on their knees in a field, their hands tied behind their backs. This gang violence occurs in their stronghold of Ciudad Jurez, where 1,200 people were murdered in 2018. San Fernando woman Alma Miriam Ruiz holding a photo of her daughter Dalia missing since 2010. the Mexican boys forced to eat human flesh as a cartel initiation. Based in the western state of Jalisco, CJNG was founded by Nemesio Oseguera Ramos, whose ongoing leadership has placed him on Mexican and American most wanted lists, both of which offer millions of dollars for information. WebIn August 2011, armed men affiliated with the Zetas cartel set fire to a casino in the Mexican city of Monterrey, killing 52 people. He made a mistake in his greedbelieving he was invincible and untouchable. The chief and 16 of his 25 men were questioned under suspicion of helping the Zetas abduct, kill, and bury the passengers. 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 population of 60,000, San Fernando is near the Texas border and epitomizes cartel carnage. The two claimed credible fear, telling agents that they feared for their lives if they were to stay in Mexico. 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. 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. You have to keep up with the Joneses. In August 2017, the cartel kidnapped 17 people and kept them in a stash house in Nuevo Laredo. The FBI and the IRS eventually built a case against Morales and others, leading to his arrest. Instead, they were raped and beaten to death or vanished into a new life as cartel soldiers. 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. They were believed to have been killed for refusing to pay a ransom or join the The two cartels enjoyed over a decade of business until the late 1990s, when the Gulf cartel had become self-sufficient. 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. 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). 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. She was known for being the crazy white one. On Aug. 24, 2010, however, Mexican Armed Forces unearthed the bodies of 72 undocumented immigrants who were simply executed. [9] Local police rounded up migrants traveling by bus and handed them over to the gang. 1996 - 2023 NewsHour Productions LLC. newsletter for analysis you wont find anywhereelse. Subscribe to Here's the Deal, our politics newsletter. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. However, the Gulf remains entrenched in theirTamaulipas stronghold, which provides steady revenue from narcotics and migrant smuggling (via Insight Crime). 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. He has been in detention since his arrest in Texas in 2015. However, despite the logistical sophistication and the massive financial success, the history of cartels is fraught with betrayal, splinter groups, and brutally shortened lives. But Los Zetas stands out. Follow @NewsHourWorld 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. All Rights Reserved. Led by the infamous Pablo Escobar, the Medellin cartel is said to have killed thousands of people, including three Colombian presidential candidates, many judges and over 1,000 police officers (via Biography).