The Horrific True Story Of The 2011 San Fernando Massacre. The Gulf's cocaine business started when they brokered a deal with the Cali cartel, which was looking for new routes from Colombia to the United States. 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. It had only been a year since officials in the Mexican city found 72 victims of the Los Zetas drug cartel buried in the dirt. The witness said that the commanders kidnapped him and his two superiors until they paid what they owed for the seized load of marijuana. Cartel: Los Zetas Terrazas said the most corrupt was an elderly police officer and another named scar Jaramillo, who receive money from the organization to collaborate. Most troubling, however, is that The National Security Archive examining this memo stated that all 17 detained police officers had vanished from the public eye. Human smugglers often use buses to transport migrants north to the Texas-Mexico border. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Marciano Millan-Vasquez 'brutally murdered anyone and everyone as it suited him and his cartel', Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. Authorities had been notified of missing passengers from Highway 101 on May 24 and May 29, with soldiers following a tip that led them to the La Joya ranch a few miles off the road. Los Zetas had begun to hijack buses along Federal Highway 101. Mexico's largest and most powerful drug gangs are the Zetas and the Sinaloa cartel. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. Eventually, this group broke away to become a drug cartel of their own, which is now the notorious Los Zetas. Lazcano was the leader of the Los Zetas cartel. Locals also reported of the many corpses found in the Cauca River, which runs through Cali. This gang violence occurs in their stronghold of Ciudad Jurez, where 1,200 people were murdered in 2018. Some had been killed by sledgehammer. The cartels brutal murders came to a head under the leadership of Miguel Angel Trevino Morales. Like Los Zetas, their bitter rivals, CJNG is known for terrible violence. Killed: Oct. 7, 2012 Much of the cartel's drugs trade depended on theLazaro Cardenas port, an asset that La Familia killed some 1,500 people to protect. Partners must notify. Initially, the group was led by Osiel Crdenas Guilln, who recruited around 30 alumni from Mexico's special forces. However, the Gulf remains entrenched in theirTamaulipas stronghold, which provides steady revenue from narcotics and migrant smuggling (via Insight Crime). 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. Site made in collaboration with CMYK. When prosecutors asked if De Leon feared police while en route to deliver firearms to "Chano," he said that he wasn't worried because the majority of police were bought out. 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. A staff writer for All Thats Interesting, Marco Margaritoff has also published work at outlets including People, VICE, and Complex, covering everything from film to finance to technology. [7] As usual, theyve also brought an unprecedented level of violence to the trade. This is because La Familia styled itself as the people's cartel by performing social work and employing civilians, which won both popularity and new recruits. [CDATA[ Mainly, Grayson notes a Zetalisation starting to occur among the other cartels. His evil career was so incredibly successful that he made Forbes' billionaire list from 1987 to 1993. Since 2011, there have been numerous scandals exposing the collusion between politicians and drug cartels. "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. After learning about the 2011 San Fernando Massacre, take a look at 33 photos of the Mexican drug war. Prosecutors asked De Leon why it took him so long to point out the defendant. An armored police vehicle carrying Los Zetas member dgar Huerta Montiel in June 2011. 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). 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. So how does Morales, who came into power just last year after his predecessor was shot and killed by authorities and his Los Zetas fit into the underworld that is Mexican cartels? He sent soldiers into San Fernando after the massacre to protect migrants and Mexican families, but they soon withdrew unlike the cartels. Photo by Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images. 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. 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.". The largest two graves were 10 feet deep and each held around 45 corpses. Millan-Vasquez faces multiple charges, including conspiracy to distribute narcotics, enticing minors to sell drugs, giving a false identification to authorities, and charges for at least nine murders in South Texas and Northern Mexico. Attorney Jeff Blackburn, a crusader for the innocent, fought injustices across Texas in his improbable, utterly original, and often profane life. It was one of the deadliest attacks ever on Mexican Cartel: Los Zetas Los Zetas operates in 17 states, while Sinaloa operates in 16 states. 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. Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty ImagesAn armored police vehicle carrying Los Zetas member dgar Huerta Montiel in June 2011. While police arrested 76 suspects, including senior Los Zeta member Martin El Kilo Estrada, there was no victory there. Los Zetas is the largest drug cartel in Mexico in terms of scale of operations. De Leon said that he didn't voluntarily start working with the cartel; he was kidnapped and forced to participate. 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. One former member of the cartel told the court Millan-Vasquez had taken part in a 2011 massacre in which up to 300 people were allegedly kidnapped, with many never seen again. 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. A depressing fact about Los Zetas is that they are sometimes aided by Mexican police in the commission of unspeakable crimes. One official said, "The valley is the most dangerous region in Colombia in terms of drug violence. Following the murder of 72 kidnapped migrants in August 2010, a subsequent investigation revealed that some Mexican policemen assisted the Zetas in committing the slaughter. We rely on the generosity of our readers who believe that this work is important. Piedras Negras, in the state of Coahuila, has a reputation as a hotbed for drug smuggling and violence. WebLos Zetas, originally founded by Mexican special forces deserters, some with US training, started as the enforcement arm of the Gulf Cartel, a crime group from northeastern Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin, Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. This savagery is nothing new. However, Insight Crime suggests that the large traditional cartels may be over as Mexico's criminal underworld becomes increasingly fragmented and scattershot. CJNG have also committed several assassinations, including the June 2020 murder of Jalisco judge Uriel Villegas Ortiz and his wifeVernica, who were shot some 20 times, according to a El Pais report. Victims were piled on top of one another haphazardly before the cartel used a backhoe to cover up their resting place. In 2009, the Mexican government identified the countrys 37 most wanted criminals. Moreover, the extremely violent gang has made connections and collaborated with U.S. gangs all over the country since 2010. Islas suspects the kidnappings and brutal murders are a warning to smugglers who havent paid their dues to the Zetas. They were believed to have been killed for refusing to pay a ransom or join the 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. Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty ImagesLos Zetas cartel members and San Fernando Massacre suspects being presented to the press on June 30, 2011. [6] Mexican drug cartels are currently operating in 47 countries around the world, including Colombia, Guatemala, and others. Originally a security detail for the Sinaloa cartel, BLO seceded in 2008 and a fierce conflict ensued. The fact that Los Zetas and other Mexican gangs sponsor politicians in Mexico is a huge problem. 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. Mostly Central American immigrants, they were traversing the state of Tamaulipas to cross into Texas. 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. In 2017, the Mexican government extradited Joaqun "El Chapo" Guzmn, a If you support this mission, we need your help. I know that police and transit officials in San Fernando help the Zetas organization, because rather than take detainees to the Pentgano, which is to say the municipal jail, they would deliver them to the Zetas, said lvaro Alba Terrazas, one of the 17 detained police officials. Put in pairs and given sledgehammers, they were forced to fight each other. Graphic from a 2011 NDIC national drug threat assessment. Subscribe to Here's the Deal, our politics newsletter. Jesus Gonzalez/AFP/Getty ImagesFollowing the 2011 San Fernando Massacre, Federal Highway 101 was colloquially dubbed the highway of death or the devils road.. Months after the casino attack, 49 decapitated bodies were dumped on a Monterrey highway (via Insight Crime/The World). The macabre bloodsport was detailed in The Houston Chronicle. What should we expect from a heartless criminal organization put together by ex-military men? 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 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. Then, in May, SinEmbargo reported that the cartel had destroyed a military helicopter with an RPG, killing 5 soldiers. However, despite their swift and brutal success, Insight Crime reports that Los Zetas has experienced fragmentation since 2012, especially when the Trevino brothers fell out and split the group into rival clans,the Northeast Cartel and the Zetas Old School. 330 76 comments Best Add a Comment ComfortableSoup5 2 yr. ago The cartels have now moved beyond drug violence to murdering busloads of civilians, and the government seems incapable of stopping it. In August 2010, the Mexican military stumbled upon the bodies of 72 people bound and executed. They kidnapped a local farmers son and demanded $10,000, and when he gave them $5,000 everything he had they sent him half of his son.. The two claimed credible fear, telling agents that they feared for their lives if they were to stay in Mexico. 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. In fact, CNNreported that Cali mobsters even invested in four 500-pound bombs, which they intended to somehow drop on Pablo Escobar. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes, A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India, The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC, An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution, A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors, State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya, A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic, A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California, Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. 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). WebIn 2010, the Zetas killed 72 undocumented immigrant workers in the San Fernando massacre. Border / Cartel ChroniclesBreitbart TexasCartel ChroniclesCartel ViolenceCDNCiudad VictoriaGrupo BravoLos ZetasVieja Escuela. You have to keep up with the Joneses. He claimed that the drugs came from the Zetas "comandantes" or commanders, which included Millan-Vasquez. The implication of this is that Los Zetas continues to bolster its criminal operations through nontraditional and unexpected means. You can contact her at [emailprotected]. 1996 - 2023 NewsHour Productions LLC. 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. Their operations in Colombia and Guatemala can be taken for granted because these countries have homegrown drug cartel problems of their own. When Reyna didn't hear from his son for several days, he started making calls. He was told to contact someone in Los Zetas to see if they had information. Known for his brutality, one technique he allegedly favored was the guiso, or stew, in which enemies would be placed in 55-gallon drums and burned alive. Then, on April 21, 2011, police arrested San Fernandos police chief and got a little closer to the truth. In the human smuggling business, migrants pay $100 to $200 upfront, then pay the rest once theyve reached the United States. If a debtor refused, Escobar deployed his team of lethal "sicarios.". "The first time [I was kidnapped], they took me with a group of about seven people. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. 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. In 2018, analystParker Asmann dubbed the Sinaloa Cartel "Mexico's top crime group," despite El Chapo's arrest, trial and eventual detention in the United States. De Leon said that his mother sold her house for $20,000 to help him, and that the Zetas let him loose with the stipulation that he must pay $100,000 more in one week. Favors were done under threat of death, while higher-ranking officials were paid off. After the group's 1985 murder of DEA agentEnrique Camarena, the US and Mexico closed in on the cartel, causing several leaders to disperse across Mexico, leaving El Chapo and his partnerHctor Luis Palma Salazar as the Sinaloa chiefs. The 34-year-old, known as "Chano", was a regional boss in the Mexican border town of Piedras Negras. This radio communication technology has given them a edge over Mexican law enforcement agencies for years. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Captured: Sept. 26, 2012 Insight Crime and the BBC reported that these splinter groups are suspected to have abducted 43 Ayotzinapa students, which hit international headlines in 2014. 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 find is indicative of cartel operations in Texas and the United States as a whole. According to World Atlas, Tijuana had the highest homicide rate in the world in 2020, with 138 murder per 100,000 residents. WebCIUDAD VICTORIA, Tamaulipas -- Gunmen with the Los Zetas cartel butchered close to 20 victims over the weekend, three of those victims were Texas residents who had been The Juarez cartel's expansionist ambitions have been quelled in recent years, but they retain a strong grasp on their part of the US-Mexico border, which should maintain their threat to the region for some time. In early April, Mexican military officials made another grisly discovery in the once sleepy farming community of San Fernando: a series of mass graves among the mesquite brush. Only in 2014 was this dynamic officially exposed in a memo from the Mexico Attorney Generals Office on the 2010 San Fernando Massacre, the 2011 San Fernando Massacre, and the recovery of 49 human torsos in 2012. CJNG's battles with the Los Zetas and CRSL cartels are similarly brutal. Breitbart Texas Cartel Chroniclesare published in both English and in their originalSpanish. [1] The deadly organization started out as the enforcement branch of the Mexican Gulf Cartel. Drug lord Miguel Angel Z-40 Trevino Morales was arrested early in the morning Monday on a country dirt road after a Mexican Marine helicopter intercepted the pickup truck he was riding in. Then come the Zetas, with no background in narcotics, and they start chopping peoples heads off, Grayson said. Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano (aka The Executioner) The CJNG split from the Sinaloa Cartel after the killing of Ignacio Coronel, a capo whose death caused a power vacuum(via Insight Crime). 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.. 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. More terrifying is their ease of operations in countries like the US. He said that they spoke over the phone every day. From the mid-1980s to his death in 1993, Pablo Escobar was the "King of Cocaine," earning an estimated $420 million a week, according to Insider. WebCartel: Los Zetas Killed: Oct. 7, 2012 Lazcano was the leader of the Los Zetas cartel. 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. Los Zetas control a wide swathe of territory ranging from the Texas border to Guatemala. This article was written by M.A. Authorities expect more violence to ensue in the coming days. They picked us up and told us we had to work for someone, for Los Zetas, De Leon said in court. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo, A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota, Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. 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). Picture taken from a TV screen showing Miguel Angel Trevino Morales by Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images. Former Zetas members testified Tuesday, claiming the cartel is responsible for a bloody massacre in Piedras Negras in 2011. In the early 1990s, El Chapo steered the Sinaloa Cartel to dominance through his use of tunnel smuggling and widespread bribes. There have been several arrests of purported Zeta members in the region but no trials. In1997, PBS described the Tijuana drug cartel as "one of the most powerful and aggressive drug trafficking organizations operating from Mexico," adding that it is "undeniably the most violent." Rodriguez said that when he asked a commander about Reyna's son who disappeared, the commander said for him to stop asking about it, because they just finished "cooking him". 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. WebLos Zetas is a powerful Mexican drug cartel that has made special use of fear to achieve its business goals. Morales liked to betand bet bigon the horses. [8] Los Zetas has been linked to several other mass murders in Mexico. There is a huge consensus that Mexican drug cartels are responsible for the drug epidemic in the United States. Busloads of people were declared missing in 2011 when their luggage went unclaimed in Reynosa and Matamoros. However, despite these smaller groups' threat to the Guerrero and Morelosstates, the Beltrn-Leyva Organization is merely a trace of its former self. WebOn behalf of Los Zetas." Media speculation on the motives for the kidnappings range from the cartels need for new recruits to fight its turf battles to the notion that passengers are being extorted for money. However, recently, theyve taken their drug manufacturing activities to highly advanced countries like the United States. 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. He was recruited to Los Zetas, where he rose to commander. 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. Yarrington is reported to have allowed the Gulf and Los Zetas cartels to operate in his state without hindrance in return for bribes. Founded by the Orejuela brothers, the Cali cartel earned billions a year, inheriting the Medellin cartel's 80% market share and multi-ton shipments to the United States (via Seattle Times/Insider). Extortion, smuggling, torture, possible harvesting of human body parts. Authorities investigating the massacre reported numerous hijackings of passenger buses on Mexican Federal Not only are groups like Los Zetas interested in influencing politics, but Mexican politicians are equally interested in the dividends of the drug trade. Who knows what is going on in American Samoa. Instead, they were raped and beaten to death or vanished into a new life as cartel soldiers. In the past year, gunmen from Los Zetas Cartel performed unique retaliatory killings in response to their allys videotaped sexual assault behind bars. During their enforcer period, theUS Drug Enforcement Agency(DEA) described Los Zetas as perhaps "the most technologically advanced, sophisticated and violent of these paramilitary enforcement groups.". With the Los Zetas fighting the Gulf Cartel for control of human trafficking networks, police corruption was no surprise. Imagine how tragic it would be for such a respected and honored organization to become an evil one like Los Zetas. The rest of the video is a gruesome 40 seconds of cold-blooded murder, which caused international controversy recently when it was posted on Facebook. Families across Mexico reported that relatives had disappeared after boarding passenger buses bound for the Texas-Mexico border. If their relatives do not pay for their release, they may be killed and dumped into mass graves. With Americans running the organization, winning the war against Los Zetas would be much more difficult. 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. At least two jurors broke down in tears as they listened to Jorge De Leon Navarro describe how Los Zetas killed their prisoners. Notifications can be turned off anytime in the browser settings. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. In 2015, Los Zetas leader Morales was arrested in Mexico City. By 2020, the once leading cartel was wounded and facing competition from old rivals and new cartels, such as the Jalisco New General Cartel, often referred to as CJNG. 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. 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.
National Fall Rate Benchmark,
Dosed Lavender Perfume,
Articles L