gulf cartel and zetas

Skip to comments. By the end of 2011, Los Zetas had eclipsed the Sinaloa Cartel as the largest operating in Mexico by virtue of their geographic presence. [124] During the 71-year rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the Mexican government would conduct customary arrests and allow cartel business to continue. Other local high-ranking cartel members not included in the list are José Alfredo Cárdenas Martínez, alias 'El Contador'. [34], Los Zetas was named after its first commander, Arturo Guzmán Decena, whose Federal Judicial Police radio code was "Z1",[35] a code given to high-ranking officers. In the process, Los Zetas developed a reputation for violence and brutality. They tortured victims, strung up bodies, and slaughtered indiscriminately. [126][127] Tamaulipas was no exception; according to PAN politician Santiago Creel, the PRI in Tamaulipas had been protecting the Gulf-Zeta organization for years. [102] They are active in Europe, specifically in Italy with the 'Ndrangheta. Updates? Zetas Cartel Beheading Such A Little Pig .Zetas Behead Members of the Gulf Cartel. The Gulf Cartel originally dominated Tamaulipas, but since 2010 it disputes the state with the Zetas. [173] Together they control the drug trafficking routes in the Colombian La Guajira and the Venezuelan state of Zulia, Colombia as the producing country and Venezuela as the main port route toward the U.S. and Europe. Currently, the Sinaloa and Los Zetas Cartels are in a war, forcing other cartels to take sides and new alliances are forming. Los Zetas' training locations have been identified as having a similar setup as military GAFE training facilities. Los Zetas was a Mexican crime syndicate which was founded in 1999 by Arturo Guzman Decena and Osiel Cardenas Guillen, composed of Mexican Army commandos that deserted to the Gulf Cartel, which hired them as their mercenaries during the Mexican drug war.Los Zetas broke away from the Gulf Cartel in January 2010 and used a violent terrorist campaign, including … In spite of its break with the Gulf Cartel, the operational capacity of Los Zetas remained impressive. US offered $5m reward for his capture, he is responsible for importing thousands of kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine to the US every year and murdered an untold number of Guatemalan civilians during the systematic takeover of the Guatemalan border region. Los Zetas did not begin as a drug trafficking organization, but as the enforcement branch of the Gulf Cartel. [citation needed], After Osiel Cárdenas Guillén took control of the Gulf Cartel in 1997, he found himself in a violent turf war. Since then, the Zeta faction in San Fernando has rejoined with the Gulf Cartel, while others remain violently splintered. [117] Salcido Cisneros was the leader of the “Tropa del Infierno,” a group of hitmen under the direction of the Cartel Del Noreste (CDN) fraction of Los Zetas. With the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas, they fight for Monterrey and Reynosa, parts of Zacatecas, as well as the states of San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo, Veracruz, Puebla, parts of Oaxaca and the Chiapas border with Guatemala. [166], In the early 2010s, analysts indicated that Los Zetas were the largest organized crime group in Mexico in terms of geographical presence. The Zetas and the Gulf Cartel had held a tenous alliance since 2007, when the Zetas declared themselves independent, but the two split completely earlier this year when Gulf members assassinated a top Zeta operative and refused to hand over the assassins. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Drug Smuggling Isn’t Their Only Crime. [101], In a May 2013 interview with the International Crisis Group, researcher Daniel Haering stated, "The old networks were disrupted by the Zetas, and now the Zetas have disintegrated into Zetillas. In 2005–06 it also played a major role in beating back the attempt by the Sinaloa organization to seize control of Nuevo Laredo, a key city for warehousing cocaine and moving it into the United States. Born in 1974, Lazcano joined the Mexican military in 1991, and became a member of the elite Airbone Special Forces group, known by its Spanish acronym GAFES. [184] The complexity and territorial advantage of Los Zetas forced the Gulf Cartel to seek an alliance with the Sinaloa Cartel and La Familia Michoacana. [188], In a 2010 report, it was noted Sureño street gangs maintain ties with the Los Zetas cartel in California and South Carolina. [98] Their rivals, the Sinaloa Cartel, had lost some territories to Los Zetas, and went down from 23 states in dominion to 16. Because the cartel was quite new at the time, it competed with more established cartels by using extreme violence and cruelty as a form of psychological warfare. Violence in Veracruz. On April 6, 2001, the capture of Gilberto García Mena, operator of the Gulf Cartel, marked the emergence of the dispute with the criminal group Los Zetas, as well as new confrontations with groups from the Sinaloa Cartel and that of the Juárez Cartel. [167] They are primarily based in the border region of Nuevo Laredo and Coahuila with hundreds more throughout the country. By 2015, authorities arrested El Lic Meme during another labor union fight inside a building owned by the CROC union in downtown Monterrey. [78] Morales' active leadership gained him the loyalty and respect of many in Los Zetas, leading to many to eventually stop paying their tributes to Lazcano. [112], In early July 2019, Los Zetas leaders Jorge Antonio "El Yorch" Gloria Palacios, the second-in-command of the Cartel Del Noreste (CDN) faction of Los Zetas, and Hugo "El Ganso" Sanchez Garcia, who served as head of Los Zetas in San Fernando, were detained by Mexican authorities. During the late 1990s, Homero worked for the Gulf Cartel under the tutelage of his brothers. Ring in the new year with a Britannica Membership. This article originally appeared at InSight Crime.. At the time of the Zetas formation in the early 2000s, as an armed wing of the Gulf Cartel, little seemed to distinguish the group from scores of predecessors and contemporaries. The breakout took place shortly after dozens of Los Zetas ambushed and killed 44 members of the Gulf Cartel inside the prison compound. The infighting between the Metros and the Rojos of the Gulf cartel began in 2010, when Juan Mejía González, nicknamed El R-1, was overlo… In 2010, when the Zetas cartel, which had once worked as the Gulf cartel's security force, went into business for itself, violence in Tamaulipas … [118], The drug violence and political corruption that has plagued Tamaulipas, the home state of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas, has fueled fears of it becoming a "failed state" and a haven for drug traffickers and criminals. [115] The same month, Verónica Hernández Giadáns, the Attorney General of Veracruz, admitted that her cousin Guadalupe “La Jefa” Hernández Hervis was in fact chief of operations for Los Zetas and also a close association of former Los Zetas leader Hernán “El Comandante H” Martínez Zavaleta, who was arrested in 2017. The Zetas began attacking Mier just hours after the killing by Mexican marines last week of Gulf Cartel boss Antonio Ezequiel Cárdenas Guillén, better known as Tony Tormenta, or Tony Storm. [99], By the beginning of 2012, Mexico's government escalated its offensive against the Zetas with the announcement that five new military bases will be installed in the group's primary areas of operation. Under the leadership of Heriberto … After Decena was killed in 2002 and his deputy was captured the following year, Heriberto Lazcano (also known as El Lazco or Z3) took over the leadership of the group. The alliance ended in 2010 with a gruesome and chaotic battle between the Gulf Cartel and the Los Zetas. Thus far, of the resources promised by the United States Government regarding Mexico and their ongoing drug combat, little has been received, principally because Mexico's 2012–18 PRI government failed to honour the clause of improving and upholding human rights in the Mexican Federal Republic. The Gulf Cartel (Spanish: Cártel del Golfo, Golfos, or CDG) is a criminal syndicate and drug trafficking organization in Mexico, and perhaps the oldest organized crime group in the country.It is currently based in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, directly across the border from Brownsville, Texas. Los Zetas retained control of important trafficking routes along Mexico’s east coast, resisting pressure from a host of rival crime syndicates. [175] The war then spread out through eleven municipalities of Tamaulipas, nine of them bordering Texas. Likewise, the Zetas cartel wanted to get rid of the Gulf pressure and to dominate the Tamaulipas region.Everything was an excuse. Most of the leaders of the Gulf Cartel have been captured or killed, including Osiel Cardenas Guillen, Mario Alberto Cardenas Guillen, Antonio Cardenas Guillen and Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez. [176] Soon, the war reached Tamaulipas' neighboring states of Nuevo León and Veracruz. [66] Other reports mention, however, that the divide occurred due to a disagreement on who would take on the leadership of the cartel after the extradition of Cárdenas. Rival cartels struggling against the Zetas began to adopt some of their tactics, further ramping up violence in the country. The group was known for its violent tactics and tight organizational structure. [132][133] In 2012, Yarrington was further accused of money laundering for Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel. This, ironically, is what the cartel originally hired them to be. He eventually became the group’s top security strategist. Nov 12, 2016 . [134][135], In Tampico, Mayor Óscar Pérez Inguanzo was arrested on 12 November 2011 due to his "improper exercise of public functions and forgery" of certain documents. The Zetas, as Lawson had learned, were a group of former Mexican soldiers who had deserted the military to become enforcers for the powerful Gulf Cartel. He is the brother of the former Gulf Cartel leaders Antonio, Mario, and Osiel Cárdenas Guillen. Soon after P-90’s arrest, Gulf Cartel gunmen killed him in a Reynosa prison attack and then stole his body. This transformation was linked in part to the death or arrest of most of the group’s original members. [39][40][41] Decena lured more than thirty deserters from the elite Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales (GAFE) to become his personal bodyguards, and later, as his mercenary wing. According to a US Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on organized crime and drug trafficking organizations in Mexico, The split has helped make this the most violent year since President Felipe Calderon took power, with over 12,000 dying in criminal … More video's to come i bet.Los Zetas' and Gulf Cartel's areas of influence, Oct 2013 . [37] In addition to conducting criminal activities along the border, they operate throughout the Gulf of Mexico, in the southern states of Tabasco, Yucatán, Quintana Roo, and Chiapas, and in the Pacific Coast states of Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Michoacán, as well as in Mexico City. Guzman's first attempt to seize Nuevo Laredo, bordering Laredo, in 2005 sparked a gangland war with the Zetas and their then-paymasters in the Gulf Cartel. [185], Following the conflict with the Gulf Cartel, Los Zetas joined forces with the Beltrán Leyva Cartel (who was simultaneously separating from the Sinaloa Cartel) as well as the Juarez Cartel and Tijuana Cartel or Arellano Félix organization, to counteract the alliance of the Gulf Cartel, Sinaloa Cartel and La Familia Michoacana cartels. The emergence and evolution of Los Zetas can be understood as both a symptom and a cause of the militarization of the Mexican drug wars. Los Zetas (pronounced [los ˈsetas], Spanish for "The Zs") is a Mexican criminal syndicate,[17][18][19] regarded as one of the most dangerous of Mexico's drug cartels. In the late 1990’s, Osiel Cardenas Guillen was gaining control of the Gulf Cartel, but there were still several rivals for that position. [131] On 30 January 2012, the Attorney General of Mexico issued a communiqué ordering the governors and their families to remain in the country as they are being investigated for possible collaboration with cartels. In the late 1990s, Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, the former leader of the Gulf cartel, had other similar groups besides Los Zetas established in several cities in Tamaulipas. Los Zetas operates in 17 states, while Sinaloa operates in 16 states. [64] Los Zetas countered by posting their own banners throughout Tamaulipas, noting that they had carried out executions and kidnappings under orders of the Cartel and they were originally created for that sole purpose. In one key portion of the Gulf region, however, the calculus is a bit more complicated. After controlling drug trafficking all over Mexico, internal conflicts, rival cartels, and Mexican authorities lessened its influence and power in recent years. Unlike their Gulf Cartel progenitors, who earn much of their income from drug trafficking, Los Zetas' main revenues come from kidnapping, extortion, theft, piracy and other illegal activities. The case against El Chino points to widespread corruption within the Tamaulipas State Police at a time when the agency is reporting that government officials claim a decrease in crime despite the entire state being fought over by factions of the Gulf Cartel and the CDN-Los Zetas. [189] A recent report from the FBI shows US street gangs growing closer with Mexican cartels. Advertise Here for only $299 mo. Advertise Here for only $299 mo. Violence spiked after the now rival cartels fractured in late 2009. Los Zetas have also carried out multiple massacres and attacks on civilians and rival cartels, such as: In addition, sources reveal that Los Zetas may also be responsible for: By 2011 only 10 of the original 34 zetas remained fugitives,[94] and to this day most of them have either been killed or captured by the Mexican law enforcement and military forces. [36][48] However, in November 2002, Decena was killed in a military action at a restaurant in Matamoros, Tamaulipas,[49] allowing Heriberto Lazcano ("Z3") to take control of the group. [102], On 9 May 2014, one of the founding members, Galindo Mellado Cruz, and four other armed men were killed in a shootout after Mexican security forces raided Cruz's hideout in the city of Reynosa. [150] Consequently, the federal government assigned the Mexican Army and the Federal Police to guard some prisons until further notice; they were also left in charge of searching for the fugitives. Los Zetas, (Spanish: “the Zs”) Mexican crime syndicate formed in 1997 as the enforcement arm of the drug-trafficking Gulf Cartel; it broke away as an independent organized criminal enterprise in 2010. But perhaps the most telling detail about the war on the Zetas is the fact that La Familia Michoacan and the Sinaloa cartel have actually allied with the Gulf cartel to fight them. [58], Los Zetas was partially responsible for a qualitative increase in the brutality of the violence seen during the Modern Mexican Drug Wars. He contributed an article on “Los Zetas” to SAGE Publications’. Arturo Guzmán Decena, and this group formed the core of Los Zetas. [195] The cell leader was identified as Jaime González Durán (The Hummer), who was later arrested on 7 November 2008, in the border city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas. [63] In addition, the Cartel, through its narco-banners in Matamoros and Reynosa, accused Los Zetas of expanding their operations to murder, theft, extortion, kidnapping – actions that the Cartel allegedly disagreed with. Gulf Cartel The Gulf Cartel is one of the oldest and most powerful of Mexico’s criminal groups but has lost territory and influence in recent years to its rivals, including its former enforcer wing, the Zetas. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). [143] Eighty-five inmates escaped from the same Reynosa prison six months later. Some sources claim that Guillén, brother of Cárdenas and one of the successors of the Gulf Cartel, was addicted to gambling, sex, and drugs, leading Los Zetas to perceive his leadership as a threat to the organization. [30] However, in recent times Los Zetas has become fragmented and seen its influence diminish. [186][187] Since February 2010, the major cartels have aligned in two factions, one formed by the Juárez Cartel, Tijuana Cartel, Los Zetas and the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel; the other faction integrated by the Gulf Cartel, Sinaloa Cartel and La Familia Cartel. [153][154], Tamaulipas police forces are the worst paid in Mexico despite being one of the states hardest hit by drug violence;[155] in Aguascalientes, a state where violence levels are much lower, policemen are paid five times more than in Tamaulipas. It operates in more than half of the country’s 32 states. This capo was released in October 2020 after several stints in prison. [125], After the PRI lost power to the National Action Party (PAN) in the 2000 presidential election, all the "agreements" between the previous government and the cartels were lost along with the pax mafiosa. 2017; esglobal 28 June 2018). In 1999, Gulf Cartel leader Osiel Cardenas Guillen, hired a group of 31 corrupt former elite military soldiers now known as Los Zetas, who deserted from the Airmobile Special Forces Group (GAFE) and the Amphibian Group of Special Forces (GANFE) of the Mexican Army, and began operating as a private army for the Gulf Cartel. [119] The massacre of 72 migrants and the discovery of mass graves in San Fernando,[120][121] the assassination of the gubernatorial candidate Rodolfo Torre Cantú,[122] the increasing violence between cartels, and the state's inability to ensure safety have led some analysts to conclude that "neither the regional nor federal government have control over the territory of Tamaulipas. Has used corrupt policemen as informants in spite of its break with the 'Ndrangheta Cartel had Concord 3 killed clear.The. 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