[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. With population of 60,000, San Fernando is near the Texas border and epitomizes cartel carnage. He was arrested by the Mexican Navy in 2012. The last time Reyna saw his son was Sept. 11, 2011. The two men who were also gunned down have been identified as Cruz Felipe Pizana Saldivar and Angel Carrizales Amaya. Notifications can be turned off anytime in the browser settings. 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. Largely funded by the international drug trade, Mexican cartels wield military-grade weapons in firefights with Mexicos Armed Forces that often leave collateral damage. These are the top ten distressing facts about Los Zetas you dont want to know. !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"); Rival gang MS-13 may have the most terrifying tattoos (see featured image), but Los Zetas wins the prize for violence. The 2010 San Fernando Massacre bore similarities to the June 2011 confession of Zetas member dgar Huerta Montiel. [7] As usual, theyve also brought an unprecedented level of violence to the trade. On Aug. 24, 2010, however, Mexican Armed Forces unearthed the bodies of 72 undocumented immigrants who were simply executed. Among these provincial traders and smugglers wasJoaqun Guzmn Loera, better known as "El Chapo.". Some had been killed by sledgehammer. 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). Britannicawriter Richard J. Samuels defines cartels as, "An illicit consortium of independent organizations formed to limit competition and control the production and distribution of illegal drugs," adding that cartels are, "extremely well-organized, well-financed, efficient, and ruthless." Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy, Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead, People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad, An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel, Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai, People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India, Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California, Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu, A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. If a debtor refused, Escobar deployed his team of lethal "sicarios.". 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. 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. WebOn behalf of Los Zetas." The handful of passengers lucky enough to be rescued confirmed their captors intended to recruit them. 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. Cartel: Los Zetas Consequently, several Mexican cities such as Los Cabos, Tijuana, and Acapulco have recorded some of the highest murder rates in the world, according toStatista. 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. 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. Promotional materials distributed by your outlet, including all social media work, must include cites for the Observer and our reporter. Busloads of people were declared missing in 2011 when their luggage went unclaimed in Reynosa and Matamoros. This time around, the horrific body count eclipsed all expectations with 193 people rotting in 47 mass graves. 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. Mostly Central American immigrants, they were traversing the state of Tamaulipas to cross into Texas. 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. 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. What should we expect from a heartless criminal organization put together by ex-military men? Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia, The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. 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. 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. 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. In August 2010, the gang massacred 72 kidnapped migrants at a remote ranch in Founded by the Orejuela brothers, the Cali cartel earned billions a year, inheriting the Medellin cartel's 80% market share and multi-ton shipments to the United States (via Seattle Times/Insider). Who knows what is going on in American Samoa. Imagine how tragic it would be for such a respected and honored organization to become an evil one like Los Zetas. There were only a few bullet casings at the scene, but one sledgehammer and bodies showing blunt trauma to the head. The memo indicated that local police acted as lookouts and helped in the interceptions of persons across all cases. 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. The Times wrote how Escobar had always dreamed of being the President of Colombia, and this ambition showed in his twisted flair for governance. De Leon said that he didn't voluntarily start working with the cartel; he was kidnapped and forced to participate. The traditional cartels buy off politicians, establish traffic routes for smuggling and make money. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Los Zetas is the largest drug cartel in Mexico in terms of scale of operations. 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. The U.S. State Department issued warnings not to travel to or within Tamaulipas, as a result. The Horrific True Story Of The 2011 San Fernando Massacre. At this juncture, it is safe and reasonable to conclude that Los Zetas is one of the biggest headaches of the American people. There is a popular consensus that Los Zetas is the most brutal and inhuman drug cartel in history. He created a company, Tremor Enterprises, to purchase racehorses for American contests, winning millions in prize money through fixing races and doping horses. // ]]>. Subscribe to Here's the Deal, our politics newsletter. 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. There is a huge consensus that Mexican drug cartels are responsible for the drug epidemic in the United States. The cartels brutal murders came to a head under the leadership of Miguel Angel Trevino Morales. 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. The rest of us agreed.". Jalisco New Generation, often referred to as CJNG, is another Mexican cartel that emerged in 2010. Then, learn about the Mexican boys forced to eat human flesh as a cartel initiation. Follow @NewsHourWorld While police arrested 76 suspects, including senior Los Zeta member Martin El Kilo Estrada, there was no victory there. 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. 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. WebOn behalf of Los Zetas." 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. In this pivotal year, Zetas occupied territory in 405 Mexican municipalities, which Insight Crime found was more than double that of their biggest rivals. 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. You have to have cartel cred being known as the meanest, most savage criminal organization in the Americas.. The video shows four women on their knees in a field, their hands tied behind their backs. 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. Moreover, the extremely violent gang has made connections and collaborated with U.S. gangs all over the country since 2010. [8] Los Zetas has been linked to several other mass murders in Mexico. Los Zetas had begun to hijack buses along Federal Highway 101. With all this being said, the power and brutality of the gang seem to be waning. They told me to stop doing that," Reyna said in court. Former Zetas members testified Tuesday, claiming the cartel is responsible for a bloody massacre in Piedras Negras in 2011. 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. They also acted as lookouts for the cartel and turned a blind eye to their illegal activities. The group was originally made up of 34 Mexican Special Forces soldiers. 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." Whatever the motivations, the mass killings show just how little control the federal government exerts over Tamaulipas. They were believed to have been killed for refusing to pay a ransom or join the 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). Please check your inbox to confirm. They picked us up and told us we had to work for someone, for Los Zetas, De Leon said in court. According to reports in the BBC and Insight Crime, the latest cartel trend is the fragmentation of the drug trafficking landscape, especially in Mexico. They robbed stores, they broke into an auto repair shop and stole cell phones and several vehicles, all with the goal of spreading terror.". 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. WebLos Zetas is a powerful Mexican drug cartel that has made special use of fear to achieve its business goals. Los Zetas control a wide swathe of territory ranging from the Texas border to Guatemala. During their enforcer period, theUS Drug Enforcement Agency(DEA) described Los Zetas as perhaps "the most technologically advanced, sophisticated and violent of these paramilitary enforcement groups.". 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. At least two jurors broke down in tears as they listened to Jorge De Leon Navarro describe how Los Zetas killed their prisoners. The military gunned four Zetas members down, before capturing nine others and finding five abducted passengers inside the ranch. 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. It is practically impossible to list all the atrocities that this extremely violent group has committed. He said that the Zetas commanders ordered the killings because there was a government informant in the group. Colombian National Police/Wikimedia Commons, ShareAlike 4.0 International/BaptisteGrandGrand. 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. In fact, CNNreported that Cali mobsters even invested in four 500-pound bombs, which they intended to somehow drop on Pablo Escobar. She specializes in reporting on immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border. 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. 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. The following facts also illustrate the reality that an immediate defeat of the drug cartel may be far from feasible. Please notify us by email that the article will be republished at, Abbott Wants to Deny Undocumented Kids a Public Education, Border Security Is a Financial Black Hole that Will Consume Us All, Two Executions, Many Questions about Mental Health, Innocence, Remembering a Social Justice Lawyer Extraordinaire. In August 2010, the Mexican military stumbled upon the bodies of 72 people bound and executed. 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. The first one they asked, he didn't want to work, and [cartel members] said, that's fine. He turned around, and they shot him in the head. He frequently supervised killing experiments wherein new recruits were ordered to kill people with a machete or sledgehammer. In August 2017, the cartel kidnapped 17 people and kept them in a stash house in Nuevo Laredo. Piedras Negras, in the state of Coahuila, has a reputation as a hotbed for drug smuggling and violence. This article was written by M.A. 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. 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. // Sharika Completed Her Mba From A Prestigious University, In The Barrel 19th Century Punishment, Articles L