The gang often kidnaps and holds poor migrants who try to operate outside the system for ransom. Largely funded by the international drug trade, Mexican cartels wield military-grade weapons in firefights with Mexicos Armed Forces that often leave collateral damage. 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. How could such a tragedy occur in San Fernando not once but repeatedly? 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. 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. Officials are still counting the dead, but, as of this writing, the bodies numbered nearly 200. Officials exhuming the bodies noticed that many bore the marks of blunt trauma. The gunmen murdered a young girl by the name of Estefania Martinez Diaz, a woman by the name of Mara Campillo Mata and a man by the name of Miguel Angel Mendoza. It was one of the deadliest attacks ever on Mexican The 6 most infamous crimes committed by Mexico's Zetas cartel 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. Then, in December 2009, Arturo Beltrn Leyva was killed by Mexican marines. The defendant in this case is Mariano Millan-Vasquez, known to everyone as "Chano." Cartels have dominated the international drugs trade since the 1980s, earning many billions of dollars and killing tens of thousands of people in Mexico and Colombia alone (via Al Jazeera and Britannica). 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. The rescue was made possible by an anonymous tip about gunmen bringing victims into a house in the Villas de la Fe neighborhood. All rights reserved. Authorities expect more violence to ensue in the coming days. 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. He was recruited to Los Zetas, where he rose to commander. Read more about illegal drugs and those who deal in them on 10 Atrocities Committed By Mexican Drug Cartels and 15 Notable Drug Traffickers. These are the top ten distressing facts about Los Zetas you dont want to know. In August 2010, the Mexican military stumbled upon the bodies of 72 people bound and executed. 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. This wasnt the first time such a tragedy had visited San Fernando. Then, in December 2015, Insider reported that La Familia founderCarlos Rosales Mendoza was found dead baring torture wounds. WebThe Los Zetas used improvised weapons like knives, rocks, and burning mattresses. Extortion, smuggling, torture, possible harvesting of human body parts. The chief and 16 of his 25 men were questioned under suspicion of helping the Zetas abduct, kill, and bury the passengers. In April 2019, CJNG killed 14 people in Minatitlan, a Zetas territory. Put in pairs and given sledgehammers, they were forced to fight each other. Los Zetas' Brutal Business Model 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. Some had been killed by sledgehammer. Partners must notify. On Aug. 24, 2010, however, Mexican Armed Forces unearthed the bodies of 72 undocumented immigrants who were simply executed. However, despite these smaller groups' threat to the Guerrero and Morelosstates, the Beltrn-Leyva Organization is merely a trace of its former self. Brutal Mexican Zetas cartel leader chopped up girl, 6, with an axe The field was linked to the Los Zetas cartel. Islas suspects the kidnappings and brutal murders are a warning to smugglers who havent paid their dues to the Zetas. The military gunned four Zetas members down, before capturing nine others and finding five abducted passengers inside the ranch. Los Zetas Today, the cartel retains a small presence in southern Mexico. The cartel can trace its roots to the 1960s and '70s, when farming families entered the marijuana business. The largest two graves were 10 feet deep and each held around 45 corpses. Jalisco New Generation, often referred to as CJNG, is another Mexican cartel that emerged in 2010. Cartel: Los Zetas 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). These types of brutal dealings by Los Zetas originally a bodyguard group for another cartel upset the status quo. BBC News Groups like Los Zetas have also been known to operate abroad, buying raw materials from Argentina and operating in Asian countries like Malaysia. 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. // Gore video - four women dismembered by the gang - xgore An 18-year old Ecuadorian migrant who survived the massacre told officials that it was Los Zetas, a brutal drug cartel, that had kidnapped the group of Central and South American migrants. WebIn 2010, the Zetas killed 72 undocumented immigrant workers in the San Fernando massacre. Victims were piled on top of one another haphazardly before the cartel used a backhoe to cover up their resting place. 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. The fact that Los Zetas was able to grow and nurture $2 million worth of marijuana in Texas is quite distressing. 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. With all this being said, the power and brutality of the gang seem to be waning. 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. 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. You cannot underestimate the capabilities of a cartel whose founding fathers were trained by the U.S. military. Reporter-producer Larisa Epatko contributed to this report. 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. He was told to contact someone in Los Zetas to see if they had information. 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. "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. 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.". Besides drug smuggling, the cartel is involved in every facet of trade in its territory including human trafficking. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless, Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican, A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California, A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho, Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open, Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally, A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. When prosecutors asked De Leon if "Chano" was in the courtroom, the witness stood up and scanned the courtroom for close to three minutes, before pointing at Millan-Vasquez. Shortly after the brutal execution, the CDN faction of the Los Zetas struck once more. Human smugglers often use buses to transport migrants north to the Texas-Mexico border. You have to keep up with the Joneses. Specific forms of torture are discussed as well as the most likely victims and perpetrators. Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty ImagesLos Zetas cartel members and San Fernando Massacre suspects being presented to the press on June 30, 2011. Information obtained from authorities points to the victims being at the wrong place at the wrong time. However, despite its success in cocaine and methamphetamine, La Familia Michoacana's power was curtailed by yet another splinter group, The Knights Templar. Killed: Oct. 7, 2012 Cartel: Los Zetas Instead, they were raped and beaten to death or vanished into a new life as cartel soldiers. Whats distressing about the criminal organization is the atrocities they have committed in the past and the potential they possess to increase their scale of operations and perpetuate more horrors in the future. We rely on the generosity of our readers who believe that this work is important. 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. Mexican government security spokesman Eduardo Sanchez (C) speaks during a press conference, accompanied by Mexican Navy General Jorge Victor (L) and Mexican Army General Martin Terrones (R) to present details of the military operation in which Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, the alleged drug lord behind the cartel Los Zetas, was arrested. SAN ANTONIO, Texas - In San Antonio today, a federal judge sentenced 34-year-old Marciano Millan Vasquez, a high ranking member and a former sicario for the Los Zetas drug cartel, to seven consecutive life imprisonment sentences for committing and aiding and abetting the commission of numerous murders and other acts of violence, Rather than prioritizing corruption like its competitors, Los Zetas has Web270p Video: Notorious Mexican Los Zetas cartel boss, Moises Escamilla May, 45, who was jailed for a string of ruthless beheadings, dies in jail from coronavirus Jalisco Cartel According to reports in the BBC and Insight Crime, the latest cartel trend is the fragmentation of the drug trafficking landscape, especially in Mexico. Outlets must also tag the Observer in all social media posts. The rest of us agreed.". 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 last time Reyna saw his son was Sept. 11, 2011. Los Zetass status as the largest drug cartel in Mexico carries additional implications. The women have been identified as Lourdes Gregorio Garcia Amaya from Texas, Raymunda Amaya Contreras, Maria Del Rosario Carrizales Amaya, Griselda Carrizales Amaya and Maria Cirila Contreras Garcia. 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). Among the first deaths in the conflict was Edgar Guzman, El Chapo's son. Eventually, this group broke away to become a drug cartel of their own, which is now the notorious Los Zetas. The 2011 San Fernando Massacre was both disturbing and, tragically, far from a one-off occurrence. Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. De Leon will serve time in jail after pleading guilty to a marijuana charge. Then come the Zetas, with no background in narcotics, and they start chopping peoples heads off, Grayson said. It had only been a year since the 2010 If their relatives do not pay for their release, they may be killed and dumped into mass graves. Former Los Zetas worker: I was forced to witness brutal killings Los Zetas is indeed the worst Mexican drug cartel in history. The video shows four women on their knees in a field, their hands tied behind their backs. During the trial, witnesses said he had hacked apart his victims with an axe and burned their bodies in barrels, according to the San Antonio Express-News. You name it, the Zetas did it.. The two claimed credible fear, telling agents that they feared for their lives if they were to stay in Mexico. Families across Mexico reported that relatives had disappeared after boarding passenger buses bound for the Texas-Mexico border. If you support this mission, we need your help. What should we expect from a heartless criminal organization put together by ex-military men? He said that the Zetas commanders ordered the killings because there was a government informant in the group. Former Zetas members testified Tuesday, claiming the cartel is responsible for a bloody massacre in Piedras Negras in 2011. By the early 1990s, Medellin was the most violent city not just in Colombia but the entire world, and much of that was because of the Medellin cartel's war with the government (via Rapid Transition). There were only a few bullet casings at the scene, but one sledgehammer and bodies showing blunt trauma to the head. On March 13, 2013, De Leon and his father were apprehended by Border Patrol agents about three miles from the border near Comstock, TX. 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. 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. WebTubutama Gun Battle On July 1, 2010, Sinaloa Cartel gunmen clashed with their rivals from the Beltran Leyva and Los Zetas Cartel leaving more than 20 dead near the rural town of US attorney Richard L Durbin Jr told the court in San Antonio, Texas, the killer had acted "without mercy or compunction". Los Zetas control a wide swathe of territory ranging from the Texas border to Guatemala. Moraless most preferred method of killing was to stuff victims in oil barrels and set them ablaze. Example video title will go here for this video. The eventual split between the groups was described by theCongressional Research Serviceas"most violent in the history of organized crime in Mexico. 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 2010, Los Zetas established itself on its own terms, terrorizing the country with torture, beheadings and massacres (via Irish Times/Britannica). Inside Mexicos brutal drug cartels - The Sun An armored police vehicle carrying Los Zetas member dgar Huerta Montiel in June 2011. A significant part of this bloodshed is caused by the Tijuana cartel, which is in constant conflict with the Sinaloa cartel. 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. 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.. 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. Miguel Angel Trevino Morales (aka Comandante 40) Among these provincial traders and smugglers wasJoaqun Guzmn Loera, better known as "El Chapo.". Reyna never heard back from the cartel, so he said that he contacted the Mexican government. 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 In and around Cali if the mafia doesn't like you, you just disappear.". Gary Green and Arthur Brown Jr. are set to be killed next week by the State of Texas. Learn more about Friends of the NewsHour. 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. They recovered deleted material, which included death threats from the defendant and information regarding Zetas operations. There have been several criminal organizations in the world that have perpetrated destructive acts against humanity without any form of military training, either formal or informal. De Leon said that Millan-Vasquez would smile and laugh as he performed these killings. Tamaulipas Lieutenant Governor Morelos Jaime Canseco Gmez admitted police were still looking for another bus of passengers. Subscribe to Heres the Deal, our politics Attorney Jeff Blackburn, a crusader for the innocent, fought injustices across Texas in his improbable, utterly original, and often profane life. 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). 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. Velazquez started out stealing cars in his hometown of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, and was jailed there. This gang violence occurs in their stronghold of Ciudad Jurez, where 1,200 people were murdered in 2018. 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. 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. They were believed to have been killed for refusing to pay a ransom or join the If the lawmakers are puppets to drug cartels, then there is very little hope that the war against the cartels will be won.