Led by the Beltran Leyva brothers Marcos Arturo, Carlos, Alfredo, and Hctor, the Beltran Leyva Organization (BLO)was a vicious drug cartel in the Mexican state of Sinaloa (via Insight Crime/Wilson Center). He has been in detention since his arrest in Texas in 2015. Islas suspects the kidnappings and brutal murders are a warning to smugglers who havent paid their dues to the Zetas. The defendant in this case is Mariano Millan-Vasquez, known to everyone as "Chano." They told me to stop doing that," Reyna said in court. 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. He said that officers escorted him to remote locations to deliver guns to Millan-Vasquez on more than one occasion. 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. There are a handful of drug cartels in Mexico, most of which run almost like corporations. 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. Breitbart Texas Cartel Chroniclesare published in both English and in their originalSpanish. Mainly, Grayson notes a Zetalisation starting to occur among the other cartels. WebThere is a popular consensus that Los Zetas is the most brutal and inhuman drug cartel in history. 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. WebLos Zetas have also carried out multiple massacres and attacks on civilians and rival cartels, such as: the 2010 San Fernando massacre (24 August), where 72 migrants were found He said that the Zetas commanders ordered the killings because there was a government informant in the group. He holds dual bachelor's degrees from Pace University and a master's degree from New York University. A depressing fact about Los Zetas is that they are sometimes aided by Mexican police in the commission of unspeakable crimes. We rely on the generosity of our readers who believe that this work is important. Former governor Humberto Moreira was also singled out by former Mexican President Felipe Calderon has having protected Los Zetas in his state. Moraless most preferred method of killing was to stuff victims in oil barrels and set them ablaze. Yet the Cali cartel was still a powerful drug cartel that used violence if it had to, especially during its conflict with the Medellin cartel, which took many lives on both sides. They were given map reading courses, communications, and standard Special Forces training and instruction on how to use light and heavy weapons, machine guns, and several other automatic weapons. These cases have highlighted the growing interest of Mexican cartels in influencing politics.[5]. WebOn behalf of Los Zetas." It was a solid lead, as cartels were known to take over ranches and convert them into makeshift jails or execution chambers. The 34-year-old, known as "Chano", was a regional boss in the Mexican border town of Piedras Negras. Jair Cabrera/NurPhoto/Getty ImagesTributes to the 2011 San Fernando Massacre. The winners got to become Zetas recruits, while the losers got death. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Who knows what is going on in American Samoa. The rest of us agreed.". Their operations in Colombia and Guatemala can be taken for granted because these countries have homegrown drug cartel problems of their own. Mexico's largest and most powerful drug gangs are the Zetas and the Sinaloa cartel. You can contact her at [emailprotected]. Navarro from Ciudad Victoria. If their relatives do not pay for their release, they may be killed and dumped into mass graves. Besides drug smuggling, the cartel is involved in every facet of trade in its territory including human trafficking. 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. 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. The following facts also illustrate the reality that an immediate defeat of the drug cartel may be far from feasible. 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. In April 2019, CJNG killed 14 people in Minatitlan, a Zetas territory. Reporter-producer Larisa Epatko contributed to this report. 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. 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. "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. However, according to Insight Crime's profile, the cartel's influence has been compromised by arrests and infighting, limiting their territory to Tijuana, a vital smuggling city on the US-Mexico border. It is practically impossible to list all the atrocities that this extremely violent group has committed. The last time Reyna saw his son was Sept. 11, 2011. In August 2010, the Mexican military stumbled upon the bodies of 72 people bound and executed. !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"); 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. Jesus Gonzalez/AFP/Getty ImagesFollowing the 2011 San Fernando Massacre, Federal Highway 101 was colloquially dubbed the highway of death or the devils road.. Inside The Brutal 1955 Murder Of 14-Year-Old Emmett Till That Galvanized The Civil Rights Movement, 101-Year-Old Woman Who Began Trapping Lobster Before The Great Depression Has No Plans To Retire, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch, Following the 2011 San Fernando Massacre, Federal Highway 101 was colloquially dubbed the highway of death or the devils road.. In the human smuggling business, migrants pay $100 to $200 upfront, then pay the rest once theyve reached the United States. WebOn behalf of Los Zetas." WebThe Most Brutal Execution Methods Reportedly Used By Mexican Cartels Beheading By Chainsaw. The field was linked to the Los Zetas cartel. The 2010 San Fernando Massacre bore similarities to the June 2011 confession of Zetas member dgar Huerta Montiel. WebFrom March 24 to March 29, 2011, the Los Zetas drug cartel viciously slaughtered nearly 200 Central American migrants in Tamaulipas, Mexico. Notifications can be turned off anytime in the browser settings. 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. It was the second time in eight months that the town of 57,000 in the border state of Tamaulipas had been the site of mass graves. During 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. It was one of the deadliest attacks ever on Mexican This gang violence occurs in their stronghold of Ciudad Jurez, where 1,200 people were murdered in 2018. Top 10 Dark Facts About The Death Penalty [DISTURBING], Top 10 Truly Disturbing Facts About Japan's Suicide Forest, Top 10 Disturbing Facts About The Unabomber, Top 10 Disturbing Facts About Sid & Nancy's Doomed, Top 10 Disturbing Facts About the "Night Stalker", Top 10 Iconic Fever Dreams Set In Los Angeles, Top 10 Murder Houses In Los Angeles And Their, 10 Controversial Toys You Might Already Have in Your Home, Ten Absolutely Vicious Fights over Inherited Fortunes, 10 Female Film Pioneers Who Shaped the Movies, Ten True Tales from Americas Toughest Prison, 10 Times Members of Secretive Societies and Organizations Spilled the Beans, 10 Common Idioms with Unexpectedly Dark Origins, 10 North American Animals with Misplaced Reputations, 10 Atrocities Committed By Mexican Drug Cartels, 10 Heinous Cases Of Misconduct By Crime Investigators, 10 Ruthless Gangs Who Dared to Stand Up to the Mafia, 10 Horrifying Facts About The Brabant Killers, 10 Disturbing True Crime Documentaries You Can Only Watch Once, 10 Tragic Cases Of Children Murdered By Social Workers. 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. There have been several arrests of purported Zeta members in the region but no trials. In June 2021, The Independent reportedinfighting between Gulf factions the Metros, the Scorpions and the Cyclonesresulted in 19 deaths, 15 of them innocent civilians. Several other executions and attacks during the weekend brought the total number of casualties to 19 and close to 24 wounded by gunfire. Months after the casino attack, 49 decapitated bodies were dumped on a Monterrey highway (via Insight Crime/The World). Traditionally, Mexican cartels like Los Zetas only grew and manufactured drugs in Mexican territory and other less advanced countries where government officials were collaborators or incapable of disrupting their operations. He was told to contact someone in Los Zetas to see if they had information. De Leon will serve time in jail after pleading guilty to a marijuana charge. Writing for the Los Angeles Times, William R. Long dubbed the Cali cartel as "Colombia's Gentlemen Cocaine Traffickers." De Leon said that he didn't voluntarily start working with the cartel; he was kidnapped and forced to participate. People began to disappear, said San Fernando priest Ramon Ruiz. There were only a few bullet casings at the scene, but one sledgehammer and bodies showing blunt trauma to the head. The load belonged to De Leon. After learning about the 2011 San Fernando Massacre, take a look at 33 photos of the Mexican drug war. 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. If the lawmakers are puppets to drug cartels, then there is very little hope that the war against the cartels will be won. "The first time [I was kidnapped], they took me with a group of about seven people. On Aug. 24, 2010, however, Mexican Armed Forces unearthed the bodies of 72 undocumented immigrants who were simply executed. 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. They also acted as lookouts for the cartel and turned a blind eye to their illegal activities. The FBI and the IRS eventually built a case against Morales and others, leading to his arrest. 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. Aside from manufacturing illegal drugs and trafficking them, the gang is also into kidnapping and extortion. Most harrowing of all was the forensic evidence. 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. Instead, they became the drug cartel they were supposed to fight. Officials are still counting the dead, but, as of this writing, the bodies numbered nearly 200. Authorities investigating the massacre reported numerous hijackings of passenger buses on Mexican Federal This wasnt the first time such a tragedy had visited San Fernando. The Zetas were involved in 20 different criminal activities, George Grayson, an expert on the Zetas and professor of government at the College of William & Mary, said. His evil career was so incredibly successful that he made Forbes' billionaire list from 1987 to 1993. 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). Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? 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. These are the top ten distressing facts about Los Zetas you dont want to know. The implication of this is that Los Zetas continues to bolster its criminal operations through nontraditional and unexpected means. 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. Rather than prioritizing corruption like its competitors, Los Zetas has preferred to use paramilitary violence to seize territory and intimidate rivals, according toInsight Crime. They were believed to have been killed for refusing to pay a ransom or join the Reyna never heard back from the cartel, so he said that he contacted the Mexican government. The macabre bloodsport was detailed in The Houston Chronicle. According to World Atlas, Tijuana had the highest homicide rate in the world in 2020, with 138 murder per 100,000 residents. 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. Los Zetas was formed in 1997 to serve as enforcers for the Gulf Cartel. He said that they spoke over the phone every day. In August 2010, the Mexican military stumbled upon the bodies of 72 people bound and executed. Former Zetas members testified Tuesday, claiming the cartel is responsible for a bloody massacre in Piedras Negras in 2011. 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. With all this being said, the power and brutality of the gang seem to be waning. Eventually, this group broke away to become a drug cartel of their own, which is now the notorious Los Zetas. Site made in collaboration with CMYK. They ordered the informant be killed along with anyone and everyone associated with him. With countless reports emerging of mayors and cops across Mexico collaborating with the cartels, it appears tragically unsurprising that many who knew the truth were either put into hiding or killed to keep them quiet. Please check your inbox to confirm. 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. When it was The group was originally made up of 34 Mexican Special Forces soldiers. WebCartel: Los Zetas Killed: Oct. 7, 2012 Lazcano was the leader of the Los Zetas cartel. In August 2010, the gang massacred 72 kidnapped migrants at a remote ranch in Based in the western state ofMichoacn, La Familia Michoacana is known for its history of violence as well as its quasi-religious trappings (via Insight Crime). She was known for being the crazy white one. It had only been a year since the 2010 But Los Zetas stands out. Los Zetas is a Mexican drug cartel known for its sophisticated crime machine and brutality. This article was written by M.A. Groups like Los Zetas have also been known to operate abroad, buying raw materials from Argentina and operating in Asian countries like Malaysia. 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. These types of brutal dealings by Los Zetas originally a bodyguard group for another cartel upset the status quo. Locals also reported of the many corpses found in the Cauca River, which runs through Cali. 330 76 comments Best Add a Comment ComfortableSoup5 2 yr. ago And these lives are often innocent civilians caught up in the dreadful violence and corruption, such as the shootout in Tulum, which killed two tourists and injured three more, according toThe Guardian. 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." 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). The way in which the killers carried 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). Put in pairs and given sledgehammers, they were forced to fight each other. 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. (Watch our piece Mexican Marines Kill Drug Lord Known as The Executioner.). Authorities expect more violence to ensue in the coming days. In 2009, the Mexican government identified the countrys 37 most wanted criminals. Promotional materials distributed by your outlet, including all social media work, must include cites for the Observer and our reporter. With Americans running the organization, winning the war against Los Zetas would be much more difficult. 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. Even the Sinaloas are now decapitating people, he said. US attorney Richard L Durbin Jr told the court in San Antonio, Texas, the killer had acted "without mercy or compunction". The Shrinking actor talks mental health, being queer, and why the Lone Star State is the perfect home for his new play Silver Foxes. 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. Shortly after the brutal execution, the CDN faction of the Los Zetas struck once more. Tomas Yarrington, former governor of Tamaulipas, is currently facing multiple drug trafficking and money laundering charges in the United States. In August 2017, the cartel kidnapped 17 people and kept them in a stash house in Nuevo Laredo. This was back when Lazcano and Z-40 were still running the Los Zetas cartel. 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 fledgling cartel were trained by members of Los Zetas, yet they would turn on their mentors because of local resentment to Zetas' methamphetamine business. Millan-Vasquez was found guilty last July of murder, violence, drug and weapons trafficking, and employing minors in a drug crime a total of 10 counts. With that grim context in mind, here are the most dangerous cartels to ever exist. The gang often kidnaps and holds poor migrants who try to operate outside the system for ransom. Victims were piled on top of one another haphazardly before the cartel used a backhoe to cover up their resting place.
