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. Largely funded by the international drug trade, Mexican cartels wield military-grade weapons in firefights with Mexicos Armed Forces that often leave collateral damage. Please check your inbox to confirm. 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. This time around, the horrific body count eclipsed all expectations with 193 people rotting in 47 mass graves. These cases have highlighted the growing interest of Mexican cartels in influencing politics.[5]. Since the war began, the fighting has resulted in daily kidnappings, shooting, drive by shootouts, beheadings, dismemberments and other gory executions. Killed: Oct. 7, 2012 The cartel member he spoke with was Jose Luis Rodriguez. Los 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. 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. He sent soldiers into San Fernando after the massacre to protect migrants and Mexican families, but they soon withdrew unlike the cartels. All rights reserved. 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. There were only a few bullet casings at the scene, but one sledgehammer and bodies showing blunt trauma to the head. This radio communication technology has given them a edge over Mexican law enforcement agencies for years. Who knows what is going on in American Samoa. While police arrested 76 suspects, including senior Los Zeta member Martin El Kilo Estrada, there was no victory there. In 2015, Los Zetas leader Morales was arrested in Mexico City. On Wednesday morning, prosecutors called Jaime Abascal Reyna to the stand. He frequently supervised killing experiments wherein new recruits were ordered to kill people with a machete or sledgehammer. [10] The authorities havent succeeded in shutting down the cartels sophisticated radio communication due to two reasons: The first is that the radio equipment is easy to replace; the second is that the gang relies on free forced labor to build and maintain its radio equipment. 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. This article was written by M.A. Border / Cartel ChroniclesBreitbart TexasCartel ChroniclesCartel ViolenceCDNCiudad VictoriaGrupo BravoLos ZetasVieja Escuela. However, the Gulf remains entrenched in theirTamaulipas stronghold, which provides steady revenue from narcotics and migrant smuggling (via Insight Crime). You can contact her at [emailprotected]. Then come the Zetas, with no background in narcotics, and they start chopping peoples heads off, Grayson said. They would rape and kill the women and offer men a macabre choice. Captured: July 15, 2013 Rival gang MS-13 may have the most terrifying tattoos (see featured image), but Los Zetas wins the prize for violence. Marciano Millan-Vasquez, who was a member of the 'Los Zetas' organised crime gang, "brutally murdered anyone and everyone as it suited him and his cartel", the prosecuting lawyer said. He was recruited to Los Zetas, where he rose to commander. However, in the late 1990s/early 2000s, a set of El Milenio lieutenants rebelled and created their own cartel. He alleged that the victims were abducted from buses and killed for refusing to join the cartel or pay their way out. Then, in May, SinEmbargo reported that the cartel had destroyed a military helicopter with an RPG, killing 5 soldiers. 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. Subscribe to Heres the Deal, our politics They told me to stop doing that," Reyna said in court. An armored police vehicle carrying Los Zetas member dgar Huerta Montiel in June 2011. ", The Gulf cartel's control in the northeast state of Tamaulipas has seen many violent incidents, both against rivals and each other. WebCartel: Los Zetas Killed: Oct. 7, 2012 Lazcano was the leader of the Los Zetas cartel. Sadism was their brand. 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). 330 76 comments Best Add a Comment ComfortableSoup5 2 yr. ago Outlets must also tag the Observer in all social media posts. Victims were piled on top of one another haphazardly before the cartel used a backhoe to cover up their resting place. 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. Colombian National Police/Wikimedia Commons, ShareAlike 4.0 International/BaptisteGrandGrand. Mexico's largest and most powerful drug gangs are the Zetas and the Sinaloa cartel. 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. The cartel can trace its roots to the 1960s and '70s, when farming families entered the marijuana business. 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. He said that officers escorted him to remote locations to deliver guns to Millan-Vasquez on more than one occasion. When it was 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. Notifications can be turned off anytime in the browser settings. 4 He has been in detention since his arrest in Texas in 2015. [8] Los Zetas has been linked to several other mass murders in Mexico. When Reyna didn't hear from his son for several days, he started making calls. The Los Zetas cartel gunmen even executed the family dog. Some believe the victims were simply killed for refusing to join the cartel but, ultimately, San Fernando had become so violent that few journalists ever entered to investigate. US attorney Richard L Durbin Jr told the court in San Antonio, Texas, the killer had acted "without mercy or compunction". Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty ImagesSan Fernando woman Alma Miriam Ruiz holding a photo of her daughter Dalia missing since 2010. De Leon said that he helped Los Zetas stash drugs, transport firearms and deliver marijuana to drug mules along the river to be smuggled to the U.S. 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. WebThe Most Brutal Execution Methods Reportedly Used By Mexican Cartels Beheading By Chainsaw. At least two jurors broke down in tears as they listened to Jorge De Leon Navarro describe how Los Zetas killed their prisoners. 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. Put in pairs and given sledgehammers, they were forced to fight each other. Somewhere near San Fernando, which lies on the interstate to Matamoros, the buses were hijacked, and convoys of armed men snatched passengers. 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. On Aug. 24, 2010, however, Mexican Armed Forces unearthed the bodies of 72 undocumented immigrants who were simply executed. Los Zetas cartel members and San Fernando Massacre suspects being presented to the press on June 30, 2011. There have been several arrests of purported Zeta members in the region but no trials. In fact, CNNreported that Cali mobsters even invested in four 500-pound bombs, which they intended to somehow drop on Pablo Escobar. If Mexican governors have been indicted as Los Zetas collaborators, then there is a possibility that one day, the criminal organization could produce a governor from its ranks. He said that they spoke over the phone every day. However, despite these smaller groups' threat to the Guerrero and Morelosstates, the Beltrn-Leyva Organization is merely a trace of its former self. The 2010 San Fernando Massacre bore similarities to the June 2011 confession of Zetas member dgar Huerta Montiel. Tomas Yarrington, former governor of Tamaulipas, is currently facing multiple drug trafficking and money laundering charges in the United States. Los Zetas is indeed the worst Mexican drug cartel in history. WebMarciano 'Chano' Millan Vasquez, 34, was jailed in San Antonio, Texas, for 29 killings carried out for notorious northern Mexican gang Los Zetas between 2009 and 2015, as well as According to reports in the BBC and Insight Crime, the latest cartel trend is the fragmentation of the drug trafficking landscape, especially in Mexico. 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.". Former Zetas members testified Tuesday, claiming the cartel is responsible for a bloody massacre in Piedras Negras in 2011. You have to keep up with the Joneses. The cartels brutal murders came to a head under the leadership of Miguel Angel Trevino Morales. 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. In and around Cali if the mafia doesn't like you, you just disappear.". 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). The last time Reyna saw his son was Sept. 11, 2011. 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. 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. WebCIUDAD 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 However, despite its success in cocaine and methamphetamine, La Familia Michoacana's power was curtailed by yet another splinter group, The Knights Templar. 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. The Gulf cartel is among the oldest cartels in Mexico and has held varying degrees of power since its origins in 1984, according toInsightCrime. 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). 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. 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). It was a solid lead, as cartels were known to take over ranches and convert them into makeshift jails or execution chambers. Reyna discovered that his son's co-worker and girlfriend were also missing. A significant part of this bloodshed is caused by the Tijuana cartel, which is in constant conflict with the Sinaloa cartel. 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 2014, years after the conviction of the Orejuela brothers, the US government declared that the Cali cartel was no longer a threat, lifting sanctions that had been imposed by the Clinton administration in 1995 (via ABC news/Insight Crime). With the Los Zetas fighting the Gulf Cartel for control of human trafficking networks, police corruption was no surprise. 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.. One official said, "The valley is the most dangerous region in Colombia in terms of drug violence. [1] The deadly organization started out as the enforcement branch of the Mexican Gulf Cartel. Captured: Sept. 26, 2012 The witness said that the commanders kidnapped him and his two superiors until they paid what they owed for the seized load of marijuana. It would occur to many as an unacceptable surprise that Los Zetas recruits members in the United States. 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. She released videos of her beheading the caught zeta members herself. 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. 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. 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. Lazcano was the leader of the Los Zetas cartel. They picked us up and told us we had to work for someone, for Los Zetas, De Leon said in court. 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. He made a mistake in his greedbelieving he was invincible and untouchable. Photos, illustrations and other art may be available for syndication but must be confirmed. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. What should we expect from a heartless criminal organization put together by ex-military men? Since 2011, there have been numerous scandals exposing the collusion between politicians and drug cartels. It was found in Webb County, near the border city of Laredo. Instead, they were raped and beaten to death or vanished into a new life as cartel soldiers. The implication of this is that Los Zetas continues to bolster its criminal operations through nontraditional and unexpected means. There is a huge consensus that Mexican drug cartels are responsible for the drug epidemic in the United States. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Marciano Millan-Vasquez 'brutally murdered anyone and everyone as it suited him and his cartel', Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. The cartels have now moved beyond drug violence to murdering busloads of civilians, and the government seems incapable of stopping it. Information obtained from authorities points to the victims being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Then, in December 2009, Arturo Beltrn Leyva was killed by Mexican marines. On July 12, 2012, authorities seized over 50 kilograms of marijuana at the Del Rio port of entry. // ]]>. Former governor Humberto Moreira was also singled out by former Mexican President Felipe Calderon has having protected Los Zetas in his state. 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. To set the records straight, Los Zetas was formed by Mexican ex-military men. De Leon said that he didn't voluntarily start working with the cartel; he was kidnapped and forced to participate. Islas suspects the kidnappings and brutal murders are a warning to smugglers who havent paid their dues to the Zetas. In this pivotal year, Zetas occupied territory in 405 Mexican municipalities, which Insight Crime found was more than double that of their biggest rivals. Miguel Angel Trevino Morales (aka Comandante 40) Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. Los Zetas control a wide swathe of territory ranging from the Texas border to Guatemala. 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. It was one of the deadliest attacks ever on Mexican The Horrific True Story Of The 2011 San Fernando Massacre. Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican, A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. 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. But Los Zetas stands out. The two claimed credible fear, telling agents that they feared for their lives if they were to stay in Mexico. You have to have cartel cred being known as the meanest, most savage criminal organization in the Americas.. Curiously, no bus line reported their buses or passengers missing. The Shrinking actor talks mental health, being queer, and why the Lone Star State is the perfect home for his new play Silver Foxes. Learn more about Friends of the NewsHour. Human smugglers often use buses to transport migrants north to the Texas-Mexico border. WebOn behalf of Los Zetas." Tamaulipas Lieutenant Governor Morelos Jaime Canseco Gmez admitted police were still looking for another bus of passengers. WebIn 2010, the Zetas killed 72 undocumented immigrant workers in the San Fernando massacre. The defendant in this case is Mariano Millan-Vasquez, known to everyone as "Chano." Follow @NewsHourWorld Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty ImagesLos Zetas cartel members and San Fernando Massacre suspects being presented to the press on June 30, 2011. You can chip in for as little as 99 cents a month. 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. WebLos Zetas is a powerful Mexican drug cartel that has made special use of fear to achieve its business goals. The way in which the killers carried Groups like Los Zetas have also been known to operate abroad, buying raw materials from Argentina and operating in Asian countries like Malaysia. Her work has been featured in various national and international media outlets, including the Guardian, PBS, NPR and Marie Claire. 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Yarrington is reported to have allowed the Gulf and Los Zetas cartels to operate in his state without hindrance in return for bribes. About two dozen have been captured or killed, including some from Los Zetas: Ivan Velazquez Caballero (aka El Taliban) Jair Cabrera/NurPhoto/Getty ImagesTributes to the 2011 San Fernando Massacre. De Leon said that during his captivity, he witnessed Zetas commanders dismember people while they were still alive and throw the body parts into a flaming barrel. Extortion, smuggling, torture, possible harvesting of human body parts. Mexicos National Human Rights Commission estimated that 20,000 migrants were abducted in 2010, alone. As the cartel made connections across Mexico and the world, their death toll increased exponentially. 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 fact that Los Zetas was able to grow and nurture $2 million worth of marijuana in Texas is quite distressing. Most harrowing of all was the forensic evidence. De Leon is now cooperating with authorities. 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. He said that cartel members kidnapped him again and held him captive for 13 days until he found the money. The heartless drug lord is claimed to have personally killed 2,000 people, in addition to ordering and supervising thousands of other murders. Imagine how tragic it would be for such a respected and honored organization to become an evil one like Los Zetas. With population of 60,000, San Fernando is near the Texas border and epitomizes cartel carnage. 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. Breitbart Texas Cartel Chroniclesare published in both English and in their originalSpanish. Cartel: Los Zetas Among the first deaths in the conflict was Edgar Guzman, El Chapo's son. The fact that Los Zetas and other Mexican gangs sponsor politicians in Mexico is a huge problem. 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. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. If a debtor refused, Escobar deployed his team of lethal "sicarios.". He was arrested by the Mexican Navy in 2012. The rescue was made possible by an anonymous tip about gunmen bringing victims into a house in the Villas de la Fe neighborhood. 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. WebZetas behead and dismember four women from the Gulf Cartel. 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). Los Zetas is a Mexican drug cartel known for its sophisticated crime machine and brutality. 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. Then, in December 2015, Insider reported that La Familia founderCarlos Rosales Mendoza was found dead baring torture wounds. This wasnt the first time such a tragedy had visited San Fernando. [4] The cartel recruits in US prisons and also courts street gang members for its drug trafficking activities in Mexico and the U.S. De Leon will serve time in jail after pleading guilty to a marijuana charge. Whatever the motivations, the mass killings show just how little control the federal government exerts over Tamaulipas. 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. 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. They were forcibly recruited and haven't been paid or fed by their bosses. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. 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. Site made in collaboration with CMYK. Drug cartels influencing politics paints a picture of total disaster.
