Guest Column
Los Zetas: The Ruthless Army Spawned by a Mexican Drug Cartel
By George W. Grayson
April 30, 2008
Drug-related violence in the border town of Nuevo Laredo,
the major portal for U.S.-Mexican commerce, left the city of
350,000 without a police chief until printing-shop owner
Alejandro Dominguez Coello valiantly accepted the post on
the morning of June 8, 2005. "I'm not beholden to anyone. My
commitment is to the citizenry," stated the 56-year-old
father of three. Within six hours, he lay in a thickening
pool of blood after hit men believed to belong to Los Zetas
paramilitary force fired more than 30 bullets into his body.
Their message was clear: narco-traffickers control the
streets of Nuevo Laredo. "They are openly defying the
Mexican state," said Mexico City political scientist Jorge
Chabat. "They are showing that they can kill anybody at any
time. It's chilling."[1]
The brutal, daylight murder of Dominguez provides an insight
into why Mexican scholar Raul Benitez insists that "Los
Zetas have clearly become the biggest, most serious threat
to the nation's security."[2] Meanwhile, the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration advises that these brigands "may
be the most technologically advanced, sophisticated and
violent of these paramilitary enforcement groups."[3]
ORIGINS
The several dozen drug bands that operate in Mexico furnish
the lion's share of cocaine, marijuana, heroin, and
methamphetamines that enter this country. They also
accounted for more than 4,500 deaths during the past two
years--with the figure spiraling to 961 by April 18 of this
year. These facts have spurred the White House to urge
furnishing $500 million as the first tranche of a $1.4
billion, multiyear security cooperation package. This
"Merida Initiative" would include aircraft, software,
hardware, communications technology, training to strengthen
the judicial system, intelligence instruction, and advice on
vetting new law-enforcement personnel (ubiquitous police
corruption is the Achilles' heel of Mexico's battle against
the production and transport of drugs). A reluctant U.S.
Congress, which is now pondering the program, may not act
until after the November election.
Of narco-trafficking organizations, two stand out in terms
of suborning officials, amassing resources, and authoring
violent acts: the Gulf Cartel, headquartered just below
Texas in Tamaulipas state, and its chief rival, the Sinaloa
Cartel, centered in Sinaloa state that nestles between the
Sierra Madre Mountains and the Pacific Ocean.
In early 1997, the Gulf syndicate began to recruit military
personnel whom General Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo--Mexico's
"drug czar" who was imprisoned for corruption--began to
assign Army officers as representatives of the Attorney
General's Office (PGR) in northern states. In the late
1990s, Osiel Cardenas Guillen, who was in a no-holds-barred
fight for leadership of the notorious organization, sought
out members of the Army's elite Airborne Special Forces
Groups (Gafes)[4] to provide protection and perform other
vital functions. His top recruit, Lieutenant Arturo Guzman
Decenas, brought with him approximately 30 other deserters
enticed by salaries substantially higher than those paid by
the Mexican government.[5] The original defectors, whose
nicknames include "El Winnie Pooh," "The Little Mother," and
"El Guerra," had belonged to the 15th and 70th Infantry
Battalions and the 15th Motorized Cavalry Regiment.[6] Once
Cardenas Guillen consolidated his position, he expanded the
role of Los Zetas to collecting debts, securing cocaine
supply and trafficking routes known as plazas, discouraging
defections from the cartel, and executing its foes--often
with grotesque savagery.
After the military killed Guzman Decenas (November 2002) and
captured his second-in-command, Rogelio Gonzalez Pizana
(October 2004), ex-Gafe Heriberto "The Executioner" Lazcano
Lazcano ascended to the apex of the paramilitaries. The
arrest (March 2003) and deportation to the United States
(January 2007) of Cardenas Guillen emboldened Lazcano and
his number-one henchman--Jaime "The Hummer" Gonzalez Duran--
to act independently of the other vicious contenders to head
the cartel: Osiel's brother Ezekiel and former municipal
policeman Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez. "The Gulf cartel
created the lion, but now the lion has wised up and controls
the handler," stated a U.S. law enforcement official. "The
Zetas don't ask the Gulf cartel permission for anything
anymore. They simply inform them of their activities
whenever they feel like it"[7]
Los Zetas emerged as the most dangerous force in the cities
of Matamoros, Reynosa, and Nuevo Laredo in Tamaulipas. In
addition to conducting activities along the border, they are
visible throughout the Gulf Coast region, in the Southern
states of Tabasco, Yucatan, Quintano Roo, and Chiapas, and
in the Pacific Coast states of Guerrero, Oaxaca, and
Michoacan, as well as in Mexico City.[8] They are also
active in Texas and, possibly, other U.S. states.
RESOURCES AND ORGANIZATION
Los Zetas' training as a local version of the Green Berets
constitutes their foremost asset. In cooperation with their
U.S. counterparts, the Mexican military created the Gafes in
mid-1990s. Foreign specialists, including Americans, French,
and Israelis, instructed members of this elite unit in rapid
deployment, aerial assaults, marksmanship, ambushes,
intelligence collection, counter-surveillance techniques,
prisoner rescues, sophisticated communications, and the art
of intimidation. President Felipe Calderon, who took office
in December 2006, has placed the Army in the forefront of
the war against drugs. It is ironic that loyal Gafes helped
to capture kingpins such as Cardenas Guillen, whom Gafes-
turned-Zetas were hired to safeguard.
Los Zetas have set up camps in which to train recruits aged
15 to 18 years old, 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. Reviled
as "killing machines," these tough-as-nails experts in
jungle warfare and counterinsurgency adhere to the motto:
"If I advance, follow me. If I stop, urge me on. If I
retreat, kill me."
Their arsenal includes AR-15 and AK-47 assault rifles, MP5s
submachine guns, 50-mm machine guns, grenade launchers,
ground-to-air missiles, dynamite, bazookas, and helicopters.
When conducting operations, they wear dark clothing, blacken
their faces, drive new, stolen SUVs, and delight in
torturing victims before administering the coup de grace.
Some criminals carry images of bandit Jesus Malverde, the
"Narco Saint" known also as the "Generous One" and "The
Angel of the Poor" because of his fight for the downtrodden
against a nineteenth-century dictatorship.
There are several other Los Zetas groups in addition to
commandoes. Los Halcones (The Hawks) keep watch over
distribution zones; authorities have found 80 members,
equipped with radio-transmitters, in Matamoros alone. 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 Manosos (The Cunning Ones) acquire
arms; Las Leopardos (Leopards) are prostitutes who slyly
extract information from their clients; and Direccion
(Command) are approximately 20 communications experts who
intercept phone calls, follow and identify suspicious
automobiles, and even accomplish kidnappings and
executions.[9]
Furthermore, Los Zetas have forged links with "La Familia"
enforcer gangs in Michoacan, the venue for cocaine imports
and methamphetamine laboratories, which regularly crosses
swords with the Sinaloa Cartel and its allies.
Los Zetas may number between 100 and 200 men and women, most
of whom are believed to be in their early- to mid-twenties.
Although the Army has detailed information about deserters,
even key law enforcement agencies must guess at their size
and composition because small-time criminals identify
themselves as "Zetas" in hopes of exciting fear in their
victims. "It's gotten to the point where you get drunk,
shoot at some cans and paint your face black, and that makes
you a Zeta. . . . A lot of it is image and myth."[10]
To enhance their esprit de corps, Los Zetas go to great
lengths to retrieve the bodies of their fallen comrades-in-
arms. In what pundits labeled the "invasion of the body
snatchers," in early March 2007 four armed men broke into
the graveyard in the town of Poza Rica, Veracruz state, tied
up a security guard, smashed Roberto Carlos Carmona's
gravestone with hammers, and carried off his ornate coffin
containing their comrade's corpse.[11]
They also honor their dead. Three months after authorities
killed Guzman Decena in late 2002, a funeral wreath and four
flower arrangements appeared at his gravesite with the
inscription "We will always keep you in our heart: from your
family, Los Zetas."
In addition, they retaliate with sadistic savagery against
their enemies. Witnesses claim that the paramilitaries set
fire to four Nuevo Laredo police officers inside barrels
filled with diesel fuel. Their remains were buried there the
next day.[12]
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.
MAJOR OPERATIONS
Los Zetas most notable strikes over the past several years
include the following:
* June 2007: Robbed casinos in the states of Nuevo Leon,
Veracruz, Coahuila, and Baja California in a move to
gain a share of these businesses.
* May 2007: Kidnapped and later murdered Jacinto Pablo
Granda, a Mexican infantry captain near Chilpancingo,
Guerrero.
* April 2007: Gunned down local police chief, Ernesto
Gutierrez Moreno as he dined at a restaurant with his
wife and son in Chilpancigo.
* March 2007: Believed to have attempted to murder the
secretary of public safety in Tabasco, Francisco
Fernandez Solis.
* February 2007: Dressed in military uniforms, they
disarmed and massacred five police officers and two
administrative assistants in Acapulco.
* March 2006: Forced the resignation of Nuevo Laredo
police chief, Omar Pimentel, after eight months in
office. He stepped down hours after police found three
charred bodies dumped by the side of a road leading
into the border city.
* June 2005: Killed Alejandro Dominguez Coello, the
police chief of Nuevo Laredo.
* February 2004: Efrain Teodoro "Zeta 14" Torres
and Gustavo Gonzalez Castro freed 25 fellow narco-
traffickers from a prison in Apatzingan,
Michoacan.
MAJOR SETBACKS
President Calderon, who has compared Los Zetas to Al Queda,
has made combating the drug mafias his highest law-
enforcement goal. Some of his successes and those of his
predecessor, Vicente Fox, include:
* April 2008: Army units apprehended Armando Gonzalez
Lazcano, police chief of the Apan, Hidalgo, and his
brother Alberto "The Red" Gonzalez Lazcano, who are
believed to be linked to Los Zetas (they are nephews of
the local director of public security) and who
possessed a fragmentation grenade, an AR-15 rifle, and
a 45-mm pistol.
* April 2008: Guatemalan authorities caught and
imprisoned Daniel "The Basher" Perez Rojas, one of the
first Zetas to sign up with the Gulf Cartel and a
confidant of Costilla Sanchez.
* April 2008: Secretary of Public Security Genaro Garcia
Luna reported that his agency had spearheaded the
capture of Jose Alberto Martinez Medrano and four
accomplices, who had had $6 million in their
possession, in Nuevo Laredo; the following day, the
Ministry of National Defense issued a communiqu‚
indicating that the 5th Motorized Cavalry Regiment had
accomplished the April 2 arrest and that the amount
seized was $6.1 million. (Defense Secretary Guillermo
Galvan Galvan's dislike of Garcia Luna sparks such turf
battles and impedes cohesion within Calderon's Security
Cabinet.)
* March 2008: The Army and the PGR took into custody
Raul "Dutchman 1" Hernandez Barron, believed to be a
founder of the Zetas who controlled the Gulf Cartel's
drug trafficking in Northern Veracruz.
* February 2008: Military forces discovered a weapons
cache in Nuevo Laredo that included eight military
uniforms to be used as disguises.
* February 2008: Soldiers raided the "El Mezquito" ranch
west of Reynosa and found one of the largest illegal
arsenals in recent memory: 89 assault rifles, 83,355
rounds of ammunition, and plastic explosives capable of
demolishing buildings.
* January 2008: The Ministry of Public Security (SPP)
announced the capture of former municipal police
director Hector Izar Castro in San Luis Potosi, where
he is believed to have been a leader of the local cell
of Los Zetas. His cache of supplies included an AR-180
rifle, three hand guns, 100 cartridges, 65 packages of
cocaine, and three paddles bearing the letter "Z,"
which were used to beat foes.
* January 13, 2008: The SPP reported the apprehension of
11 people, most of whom were former military men, in
San Pedro de las Colonias, Coahuila. The Zetas had been
using an auto workshop to dismantle stolen cars. The
federal police also arrested the town's police
commander and four police officers, while seizing 23
walkie-talkies, 17 cell phones, nine cars, one
motorbike, 28 kilograms of marijuana, and weapons,
including five semi-automatic rifles, one shotgun, one
revolver and one rifle.
* April 2007: The Attorney General's Office announced the
capture of Eleazar Medina Rojas and nine other Zetas in
Nuevo Laredo. Identified as a top killer and kidnapper
for the Gulf Cartel, Medina Rojas had a stash of
weapons, including an AR15, a Colt .223, a Belgian-made
PS90, a Beretta, and various cartridges, as well as
cell phones, radios, bulletproof vests, and a
collection of vehicles.
* April 2007: Authorities apprehended Nabor "El Debora"
Vargas Garcia, a founder of Los Zetas, and 20 allies
after a shootout in Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche. The
government claims that Vargas Garcia, who admitted to
serving in the Presidential Guard's assault battalion,
ran Los Zetas in Tabasco, Campeche, and Chiapas.
* February 2007: The Attorney General's Office detained
Jose Ramon Davila Lopez, a six-year veteran of the
Gafes and close ally of Zeta leader Lazcano, in Ciudad
Victoria, Tamaulipas.
* September 2006: The Army arrested three former
Guatemalan soldiers and five presumed Zetas in
Aguililla, Michoacan. They found in their possession 12
assault rifles AK-47 and AR-15; one 9-mm pistol, and
three thousand rounds of ammunition; three
fragmentation grenades, blacks fatigues, tactical vests
and 10 Kevlar ballistic helmets.
BILATERAL ISSUES
President Calderon has pledged to pursue all of Mexico's
criminal organizations. To this end, he has dispatched
25,000 soldiers, marines, sailors, and federal police to
more than a dozen states and cities. Limited resources mean
that he will have to set priorities. Although the Sinaloa
Cartel remains an important enemy of the state, it is less
violent than its Gulf/Zeta counterpart; it does not have a
paramilitary capability; and the inter-marriage of the
families that work under its umbrella invest it with a
cohesion lacking in the Gulf/Zeta mafia, which suffered the
loss of its capo, Cardenas Guillen.
Moreover, the recent success of Mexican law enforcement
agencies aside, Los Zetas pose a more serious threat to
citizens on both sides of the border.
First, many of the commandos have homes north of the Rio
Grande where they seek safe haven and where they attempt to
lure young Americans into their clutches.
Second, drug distribution routes run through the United
States, which means that the narco-gangsters have no respect
for international boundaries. The U.S. Justice Department
bulletin has warned that: "The violence will spill over the
Mexican border into the United States and law enforcement
agencies in Texas, Arizona and Southern California can
expect to encounter Los Zetas in the coming months," In
March, the Justice Department said the Zetas were involved
"in multiple assaults and are believed to have hired
criminal gangs" in the Dallas area for contract killings,
according to the Dallas Morning News.[13] In fact, Los Zetas
are believed to have carried out executions in Texas and
other American states. The Dallas police have launched a
search for Maximo Garcia Carrillo, a suspected Zeta who owns
a house in the Oak Cliff suburb of the city, who is believed
to have killed police officer Mark Nix. Known as a "second-
generation" Zeta, the 34-year-old Garcia Carrillo travels
with bodyguards armed with automatic weapons and grenade
launchers. Reportedly, Los Zetas, who consider Dallas a key
point for the transportation and distribution of drugs, also
pursue their criminality in Houston, San Antonio,
Brownsville, Laredo, and Del Rio.
Third, the FBI has reported that Los Zetas have control over
such U.S.-based gangs as the Mexican Mafia, the Texas
Syndicate, MS-13, and the Hermanos Pistoleros Latinos.[14]
Fourth, Los Zetas allegedly conduct training at locations
southwest of Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville;
just north of the Nuevo Laredo airport; near the town of
Abasolo, between Matamoros and Ciudad Victoria; and at a
place called "Rancho Las Amarrillas," near a rural
community, China, that is close to the Nuevo Leon-Tamaulipas
border. To the degree that the Calderon administration
achieves more successes, the paramilitary criminals may move
their boot camps into the U.S.[15] The escalating violence
at the border prompted Ambassador Tony Garza to close
temporarily the United States Consulate in Nuevo Laredo.
Fifth, the armed forces, with which the U.S. enjoys
unprecedented cooperation, are especially eager to track
down Los Zetas because of the embarrassment they represent
to their institution. In fact, the Defense Ministry has
requested that the Mexican Congress authorize both the trial
in military courts of deserters who cast their lot with
cartels and the imposition of prison sentences of up to
sixty years for such soldiers.[16]
Finally, as mentioned earlier, Los Zetas are involved in
myriad criminal activities. They have branched out into
kidnappings, murder-for-hire, assassinations, extortion,
money-laundering, and human smuggling. At the right price,
these bloodthirsty mercenaries could move into terrorism
focused on vulnerable targets in Texas and throughout the
Southwest. With or without the Merida Initiative,
authorities on both sides of the border should concentrate
on curbing the growth of these lethal paramilitaries.
________________________________________________
George W. Grayson is the Class of 1938 Professor of
Government at the College of William & Mary, an associate
scholar at FPRI and a senior associate at the Center for
Strategic & International Studies. His latest book, Mexican
Messiah (Penn State University Press, 2007), is a biography
of Mexico's self-anointed "legitimate president," Andres
Manuel Lopez Obrador. The New York-based Foreign Policy
Association will publish Grayson's monograph on U.S.-Mexican
narcotics relations.
- Notes
[1] Quoted in "Border-town Killing Sends Message," Los
Angeles Times, June 10, 2005.
[2] Quoted in Alfredo Corchado, "Cartel's Enforcers Outpower
their Boss," Dallas Morning News, June 11, 2007.
[3] Quoted in U.S. Department of Justice, National Drug
Threat Assessment 2008 (Washington, D.C.: National Drug
Intelligence Center, 2007)
www.usdoj.gov/dea/concern/18862/2008.pdf.
[4] The Mexican Army has several special forces units,
including the regular Gafes, who are deployed in the twelve
military regions; and the extremely select "High Command
Special Forces Airmobile Group," whose cadres report
directly to the Secretary of Defense.
[5] The Mexican Army suffered 99,849 desertions, including
1,023 officers, between 2000 and 2006; see Alberto Najar,
"Desertaron 100 mil militares con Fox," Milenio, July 20,
2007 www.milenio.com. Most defections occur during
soldiers' first year in uniform.
[6] Marco A. Rodr¡guez Martinez, "El poder de los 'zetas',"
www.monograf¡as.com.
[7] Quoted in Corchado, "Cartel's Enforcers Outpower their
Boss."
[8] Alejandro Gutierrez, Narcotr fico: El gran desaf¡o de
Calder¢n (Mexico City: Planeta, 2007, Chapters 1 and 5.
[9] Alejandro Suverza, "Los Zetas, una pesadilla para el
cartel del Golfo," El Universal, January 12, 2008, p. 1; and
Mart¡nez, "El poder de los 'zetas'."
[10] Quoted in Corchado, "Cartel's Enforcers Outpower their
Boss."
[11] "Invasion of the Body-Snatchers," Reuters, March 9,
2007 www.reuters.com.
[12] Alfredo Corchado, "Drug Cartels Operate Training Camps
near Texas Border Just inside Mexico," Dallas Morning News,
April 4, 2008.
[13] Corchado, "Drug Cartels Operate Training Camps near
Texas Border Just inside Mexico."
[14] Ruben Mosso, "FBI: Los Zetas problema de seguridad
nacional para EU," January 9, 2008, www.milenio.com.
[15] Corchado, "Drug Cartels Operate Training Camps."
[16] Abel Barajas, "Soldiers Face 60 for Aiding
Traffickers," Laredo Morning Times-Reforma News Service,
October 2, 2006.
Copyright Foreign Policy Research Institute
(http://www.fpri.org/). You may forward this essay as you
like provided that it is sent in its entirety and attributed
to FPRI. , provided that you send it in its entirety.
Contact FPRI for permission to repost it at another website.
For further information or to inquire about membership in
FPRI, please contact Alan Luxenberg, lux@fpri.org
FPRI, 1528 Walnut Street, Suite 610, Philadelphia, PA 19102
For information, contact Alan Luxenberg at 215-732-3774,
ext. 105 or email fpri@fpri.org or visit us at www.fpri.org
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed by HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com) without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)