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zetas cartel
Omar Trevino Morales, the leader of one of Mexico’s most notorious drugs gang, the Zetas cartel, has been captured by security forces, Mexican officials say.
Omar Trevino Morales, known as Z-42, was arrested on March 4 in the city of Monterrey in the northern state of Nuevo Leon, police said.
Z-42 is said to have run the cartel since the 2013 arrest of his brother, Miguel.
The arrest comes days after Mexican police captured another suspected drug lord, Servando “La Tuta” Gomez.
Servando Gomez was the leader of the Knights Templar cartel in Michoacan state.
Omar Trevino Morales is wanted in the US and Mexico on charges of drug trafficking, kidnap and murder.
Mexican media, citing officials, said he had been seized in the Monterrey suburb of San Pedro Garza Garcia in a joint operation by the army and the federal police.
The Zetas cartel is believed to be behind some of the bloodiest crimes carried out by Mexico’s drugs gangs.
It was blamed for an arson attack on a Monterrey casino in 2011 that killed 52 people and for dumping 48 decapitated bodies near the city in 2012.
Analysts say the cartel was weakened by the killing of former leader Heriberto Lazcano in 2012 and the capture of Miguel Angel Trevino Morales in 2013.
The Zetas began in the 1990s as the enforcement arm of another powerful criminal gang, the Gulf Cartel.
They were made up of defectors from an elite military unit and quickly became known for their brutality.
Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, one of the world’s most notorious drug-gang leaders, has been captured by Mexican marines in a raid near the US border.
Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, 40, head of the Zetas cartel, was intercepted with two lieutenants in a pick-up truck near Nuevo Laredo.
Mexican officials said he had eight guns and $2 million in cash.
Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, infamous for his brutality, was wanted on both sides of the border for ordering massacres and running drugs on a global scale.
He took control of the Zetas following the death of group founder Heriberto Lazcano in October 2012.
His is the highest-profile arrest since President Enrique Pena Nieto came to office last December.
Enrique Pena Nieto promised to change the policy of the previous government by tackling cartels through law enforcement on a local level rather than the capture of big-name targets.
Ex-President Felipe Calderon had deployed the army across the country and pursued cartel leaders.
Although the policy eliminated many senior criminal figures, it also created power vacuums that helped fuel the violence.
Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, one of the world’s most notorious drug-gang leaders, has been captured by Mexican marines
Miguel Angel Trevino Morales Trevino Morales, known as “Zeta-40”, was captured outside Nuevo Laredo, near the US border at dawn on Monday, government spokesman Eduardo Sanchez told a news conference.
“Three people in the truck were detained by ground troops, who had arrived to support the naval forces, who had carried out the detention via the helicopter. Not a single shot was fired,” he said.
It is thought the authorities were acting on a tip-off.
The Zetas began as the enforcement arm of the Gulf cartel, another powerful criminal gang.
They were made up of defectors from an elite military unit and quickly became known for their brutality.
Miguel Angel Trevino Morales was unlike most of the Zetas because he was a civilian who worked his way up through the ranks.
The Zetas split from the Gulf cartel in 2010, sparking brutal turf wars across northern Mexico.
By 2012, they were reputed to be the largest and most powerful cartel.
But expert Alejandro Hope says the arrest is another step towards the destruction of the Zetas as a coherent organization.
“There will still be people who call themselves Zetas, bands of individuals who maintain the same modus operandi,” said Alejandro Hope, a former member of Mexico’s domestic intelligence service.
Analysts say Miguel Angel Trevino Morales’ younger brother, Omar, has been one of his closest lieutenants and may try to position himself as successor.
The Mexican authorities fear that the arrest could lead to a period of in-fighting between different Zeta factions.
Miguel Angel Trevino Morales is believed to be responsible for ordering two notorious attacks on migrants from other Latin American countries.
In 2010, he allegedly ordered the torture and murder of 72 Central American migrants as punishment for their refusal to act as drugs mules.
A year later, he apparently oversaw the massacre of almost 200 immigrants for similar reasons.
Before he became the group’s overall leader, Miguel Angel Trevino Morales co-ordinated the gang’s important Nuevo Laredo drug corridor into the US, the region in which he was finally apprehended.
He is also believed to have controlled a squad of killers who operated in the US state of Texas.
The US authorities had offered $5 million reward for any information leading to Miguel Angel Trevino Morales’ capture, making him one of the world’s most-wanted drug traffickers.
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The body of Heriberto Lazcano, the leader of Mexican drug cartel Los Zetas who was killed in a shootout with marines, has been stolen by an armed gang, state officials say.
The corpse of Heriberto Lazcano, founder of the brutal Los Zetas gang, was being stored by the authorities at a funeral parlor in northern Mexico.
The Mexican Navy said tests confirmed that the man killed was Heriberto Lazcano.
Infamous for mass killings, the Zetas control key drug-trafficking routes in north-eastern Mexico.
Heriberto Lazcano, also known as “the executioner”, was killed in a gun battle with marines on Sunday in Progreso, some 125 km (80 miles) west of the Texan border in Coahuila state, the navy said.
His identity had not been confirmed until now.
The Navy said that fingerprints taken from the body matched those on its database, and that photos of the corpse’s face were compared with previous photographs of Heriberto Lazcano.
The Navy said that the body had then been handed over to the local authorities in Coahuila.
But early on Monday, a group of armed men raided the funeral parlor where the body was being kept, and stole the corpse, attorney general Homero Ramos told a news conference.
Heriberto Lazcano is suspected of involvement in hundreds of killings, including that of crusading newspaper editor Francisco Ortiz Franco in 2004.
Heriberto Lazcano is suspected of involvement in hundreds of killings, including that of crusading newspaper editor Francisco Ortiz Franco in 2004
The US had put up a $5 million reward and Mexico another $2.3 million for information leading to Heriberto Lazcano’s capture.
Mexican police believe a recent surge in mass killings is due to a split within the Zetas cartel.
Heriberto Lazcano was thought to be the leader of one faction, while the other is led by Miguel Angel Trevino Morales.
In the nearly six years of Felipe Calderon’s presidency, more than 50,000 people are believed to have died in violence blamed on organized crime.
The navy has been at the forefront of operations against Mexico’s drug cartels.
On Monday, it said it had arrested suspected regional Zetas leader, Salvador Alfonso Martinez Escobedo, who the navy says was behind the 2010 murder of 72 migrants in northern Tamaulipas state.
Officials say Escobedo works for Trevino Morales.
Trevino Morales, known as Z40, has a reputation for equal if not greater brutality than Heriberto Lazcano and remains at large.
Police has found 49 mutilated bodies dumped by a roadside near the city of Monterrey in northern Mexico.
Security officials said the 43 men and six women had been decapitated and had their hands cut off, making identification difficult.
They blamed the killings on a conflict between rival drugs gangs – a note left with the bodies said they had been killed by the Zetas cartel.
It is the latest in a series of recent massacres in northern Mexico.
The Zetas have been fighting the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels for control of smuggling routes into the US.
Police has found 49 mutilated bodies dumped by a roadside near the city of Monterrey in northern Mexico
The bodies were found at 04:00 local time in Cadereyta municipality on the road from Monterrey to Reynosa on the US border.
Security officials said the bodies appeared to have been killed at another location up to two days ago and dumped from a truck.
“We know from the characteristics that this is the result of violence between criminal gangs, it is not an attack on the civilian population,” Nuevo Leon State security spokesman Jorge Domene said.
State prosecutor Adrian de la Garza said the fact that hands and heads had been cut off made it difficult to identify the victims, but he said it was possible they were Central American migrants.
The grim find comes just days after police discovered the dismembered, decapitated bodies of 18 people in two abandoned vehicles in western Mexico.
Earlier this month 23 dead bodies – 14 of them decapitated – were found in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, also in Nuevo Leon state.
Around 50,000 people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico since 2006, when President Felipe Calderon deployed the army to combat the cartels.
The latest killings show that, although many Mexicans felt the drug violence had been easing this year, the conflict is still claiming many lives, often in the most brutal circumstances.
