Los Zetas

Los Zetas is a paramilitary criminal gang that operates as a hired army for the Mexican Gulf Cartel. [Oscar Becerra, "New Traffickers Struggle for Control of Mexican Drug Trade," Jane'sIntelligence Review, September 1, 2004.] cite book|title=Networks, Terrorism and Global Insurgency |first=Robert |last=Bunker |publisher=Routledge |month=July |year=2005 |isbn=0-41534819-6 |pages=xv] cite book|title = Weak bilateral law enforcement presence at the U.S.Mexico border |publisher = Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security |month = November |year = 2005] cite book|title=Texas Monthly On . . .: Texas True Crime |Publisher=University of Texas Press |year=2007 |month=April |isbn=0-29271675-3 |pages=44] The group is mostly composed of ex-soldiers now led by Heriberto "The Executioner" Lazcano.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) advises that these paramilitaries may be the most technologically advanced, sophisticated and violent of paramilitary enforcement groups. cite web|url=http://www.fpri.org/enotes/200805.grayson.loszetas.html |title=Los Zetas: the Ruthless Army Spawned by a Mexican Drug Cartel |accessdate=2008-08-23 |last=Grayson |first=George |publisher=U.S. Foreign Policy Research Institute ]

Origin

The Zetas were originally members of the Mexican Army’s elite Airborne Special Forces Group (GAFE), trained in locating and apprehending drug cartel members. It is believed that they were originally trained at the military School of the Americas in the United States, [cite web|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/30/international/americas/30mexico.html|title=Mexico Fears Its Drug Traffickers Get Help From Guatemalans|last=Thompson|first=Ginger|date=September 30, 2005|publisher=New York Times|accessdate=2008-04-27] [Laurie Freeman, State of Siege: Drug-Related Violence and Corruption in Mexico, Washington Office on Latin America, June 2006] . Also, they were trained by foreign specialists, including Americans, French, and Israelis, in rapid deployment, aerial assaults, marksmanship, ambushes, small-group tactics, intelligence collection, counter-surveillance techniques, prisoner rescues and sophisticated communications.

In the late 1990s, the Gulf Cartel leader Osiel Cardenas Guillen, began to recruit GAFE members to provide protection and perform other vital functions. His top recruit, Lieutenant Arturo Guzmán Decena, brought with him approximately 30 other deserters enticed by salaries substantially higher than those paid by the Mexican government

Zeta training locations have been identified as containing the same items and setup as GAFE training facilities, it is also further believed the group employs the same internal organizational structure. Current estimates place Los Zetas around 200 members strong, which includes several rogue Kaibil Guatemalan forces. The name "Zeta" comes from the Federal Preventive Police radio code for high-ranking officers.

Some of the original members are: [ cite web|url=http://www.monografias.com/trabajos28/poder-zetas/poder-zetas.shtml |title=El poder de los "zetas" |accessdate=2008-08-23 |last=Rodríguez Martínez |first=Marco A. |publisher=Monografias |language=Spanish ] Arturo Guzmán Decena, Rogelio González Pizaña, Heriberto Lazcano, Jaime González Durán, Efraín Teodoro Torres, Raúl Hernandez Barrón, Óscar Guerrero Silva, Luís Alberto Guerrero Reyes, Jesús Enrique Rejón, Mateo Díaz López, Jorge López, Daniel Peréz Rojas, Sergio Enrique Ruiz Tlapanco, Nabor Vargas García, Ernesto Zatarín Beliz, Eduardo Estrada González, Flavio Méndez Santiago, Prisciliano Ibarra Yepis, Rogelio Guerra Ramírez, Miguel Ángel Soto Parra, Galindo Mellado Cruz, Gonzalo Ceresano Escribano and Daniel Enrique Márquez Aguilar.

After the military killed Guzmán Decenas on November 2002 and captured his second-in-command, Rogelio González Pizaña on October 2004, ex-GAFE Heriberto "The Executioner" Lazcano ascended to the leadership of the paramilitaries.

Gulf Cartel

The Gulf Cartel leader Osiel Cardenas Guillen recruited Los Zetas in the 1990s and employed them to track down and kill rival cartel members. Once Guillen consolidated his position, he expanded the role of Los Zetas to collecting debts, securing cocaine supply and trafficking routes known as "plazas" and executing its foes, often with grotesque savagery. Los Zetas are primarily based in the border region of Nuevo Laredo where it is believed they have carved the city into territories, placing lookouts at arrival destinations such as airports, bus stations and main roads.

The Zetas have now become completely entrenched in Nuevo Laredo and have grown to more than five hundred with hundreds more in a support network throughout Mexico. In an example of the Zeta’s capabilities, a shootout on September 22, 2006 in Nuevo Laredo between the Zetas and an assassination target lasted approximately 40 minutes. The shootout included grenade launchers and hand grenades.

In response to such aggressive efforts on the part of the Zetas to defend and control its smuggling corridors to the U. S., the rival Sinaloa Cartel established its own heavily-armed enforcer gang, Los Negros. The group operates in a similar fashion to the Zetas. Los Negros, attempting to wrest control from the Zetas in Nuevo Laredo are believed to be responsible for the recent rise in violence there.

Upon the arrest of Gulf Cartel boss, Osiel Cardenas Guillen in 2003, it is believed Los Zetas began transporting their own drug shipments through former Gulf Cartel routes and made a collaboration pact with the Beltran Leyva brothers gang to head the cartel.cite news | first=Francisco | last=Gómez | coauthors= | title=Los ‘Zetas’ por dentro; los entrenan en Coahuila | date=Agosto 17 de 2008 | publisher=Vanguardia | url =http://www.vanguardia.com.mx/diario/noticia/seguridad/nacional/los_zetas_por_dentro;_los_entrenan_en_coahuila/209970 | work = | pages = | accessdate = 2008-08-18 | language =Spanish ] [Alfredo Corchado, "Cartel's Enforcers Outliower their Boss", Dallas Morning News, June 11, 2007.]

Tactics

Los Zetas have set up camps in which to train recruits as well as ex-federal, state, and local police officers. In addition, they have invited into their ranks ex-troops from Guatemala known as Kaibiles.

The group is extremely well armed, they wear body armor and some wear Kevlar ballistic helmets; their arsenal includes AR-15 and AK-47 assault rifles, MP5 submachine guns, 50 cal. machine guns, grenade launchers, ground-to-air missiles, dynamite and helicopters. They are known to operate with modern wiretapping equipment and purchase the cellular phone codes of their intended targets directly from the phone companies and providers.

Los Zetas is known to operate with a higher tactical degree than the local authorities. During one shootout against law enforcement the group employed grenade launchers and 50 cal. machine guns. The group has been linked to monitoring and kidnapping of journalists, and the murder of rival cartel members and their families. Los Zetas gang has been known to hire local gangs such as Texas Syndicate, MS-13 and Hermanos Pistoleros Latinos to carry out contract killings. [Ruben Mosso, 'El MIlenio" “FBI: Los Zetas liroblema de seguridad nacional liara EU,” January 9, 2008]

Often, Los Zetas operate while uniformed as Federal Preventive Police and driving similarly labeled vehicles. In addition to conducting activities along the border, they are visible throughout the Gulf Coast region, in the Southern states of Tabasco, Yucatan, Quintana Roo, and Chiapas, and in the Pacific Coast states of Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Michoacán, as well as in Mexico City. [Alejandro Gutierrez, "Narcotráfico: El gran desafío de Calderón." Mexico City: Lilaneta, 2007, Chapters 1 and 5.] They are also active in Texas and, possibly, other U.S. states.

There are several other Los Zetas groups in addition to commandoes. "Los Halcones" (The Hawks) keep watch over distribution zones and use 2 meter radio band. "Las Ventanas" (The Windows) comprise bike-riding youngsters in their mid-teens who whistle to warn of the presence of police and other suspicious individuals near small stores that sell drugs. "Los Mańosos" (The Cunning Ones) acquire arms; "Los Leopardos" (Leopards) are prostitutes who slyly extract information from their clients; and "Dirección" (Command) are approximately 20 communications experts who intercept phone calls, follow and identify suspicious automobiles, and even accomplish kidnappings and executions. [Alejandro Suverza, “Los Zetas, una liesadilla liara el cartel del Golfo,” El Universal, January 12, 2008, li. 1; and Martínez, “El lider de Los Zetas’.”]

Los Zetas are involved in myriad criminal activities. They have branched out into kidnappings, murder-for-hire, extortion, money-laundering and human smuggling. For security purposes, Los Zetas have adopted a cell-like structure to limit the information that any one member of the organization knows about his associates.

Law Enforcement Raids

Following a joint investigation, titled Operation Black Jack, by the ATF, DEA, ICE and the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through the FBI, two Zeta safe houses were identified and raided, recovering over 40 kidnapped individuals.

Cartel alliances

While in prison, the head of the Tijuana Cartel, Arellano Felix and Gulf Cartel leader Osiel Cardenas, forged an alliance against the Sinaloa Cartel and its ally the Juarez Cartel. As a result, the cartels are now largely aligned into two blocks, some which support the Gulf Cartel and others which support the Sinaloa Cartel.cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=The Mexican Drug Cartels Update May 2008 | date=May 5, 2008 | publisher= | url =http://www.rightsidenews.com/20080505855/border-and-sovereignty/the-mexican-drug-cartels-update-may-2008.html | work =The Right Side News | pages = | accessdate = 2008-08-20 ] It is these two blocks that are involved in the massive and violent turf wars which are currently being carried out in northern Mexico.

;The Sinaloa CartelThe Sinaloa Cartel began to contest the Gulf Cartel’s domination of the coveted southwest Texas corridor following the arrest of Gulf Cartel leader Osiel Cardenas in March 2003. The Federation is the result of a 2006 accord between several groups located in the Pacific state of Sinaloa. It's led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, Mexico's most-wanted drug trafficker.

;The Juarez Cartel
Vicente Carrillo Fuentes heads the Juarez Cartel.

;The Tijuana Cartel The cartel of the Arrellano-Felix family, the Tijuana Cartel was once among Mexico's most powerful but has fallen on hard times, thanks to the arrests of several top capos. The cartel entered into a brief partnership with the Gulf Cartel. It has been the frequent target of Mexican military confrontations and might be breaking into smaller groups.

;The Gulf Cartel The Gulf Cartel, based in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, has been one of Mexico's two dominant cartels in recent years. It is strengthened by its armed wing Los Zetas. The cartel leader Osiel Cardenas, was extradited to the U.S. in 2007 and is currently awaiting trial in Houston.

ee also

*Mexican Drug War
*Illegal drug trade
*Kaibiles
*United States–Mexico border
*Mérida Initiative

References