Another Mexican State Falls Under The Control Of The Zetas Drug Cartel

[longknife]

by War News Updates Editor @ War News Updates: Another Mexican State Falls Under The Control Of The Zetas Drug Cartel

Zetas Cartel Occupies Mexico State Of Coahuila -- L.A. Times

The aggressively expanding and gruesomely violent Zetas group dominates territory by controlling all aspects of local criminal businesses.

SALTILLO, Mexico — Few outside Coahuila state noticed. Headlines were rare. But steadily, inexorably, Mexico's third-largest state slipped under the control of its deadliest drug cartel, the Zetas.

The aggressively expanding Zetas took advantage of three things in this state right across the border from Texas: rampant political corruption, an intimidated and silent public, and, if new statements by the former governor are to be believed, a complicit and profiting segment of the business elite. It took scarcely three years.

What happened to Coahuila has been replicated in several Mexican states — not just the violent ones that get the most attention, but others that have more quietly succumbed to cartel domination. Their tragedies cast Mexico's security situation and democratic strength in a much darker light than is usually acknowledged by government officials who have been waging a war against the drug gangs for six years.

Read more ....Zetas cartel occupies Mexico state of Coahuila - latimes.com

My Comment: More evidence that Mexico is losing it's war against the drug cartels.

This is truly frightening and the USA media is ignoring it! Their new president takes office Dec 1 and it will be of great interest to see what he does about this.

 

[waltky]

Mexico Nabs Cartel Leader: Officials...

Mexico reports capture of alleged Zetas cartel commander
Nov 9, 2012 - The Mexican navy says it hopes Said Omar Juarez's capture in Coahuila state will lead authorities to the cartel's remaining top leader; Alleged local Zetas boss said to have ties with cartel's top commander

An alleged local commander of the Zetas paramilitary cartel in the troubled border state of Coahuila has been captured, the Mexican navy announced Thursday, expressing hope that he might lead authorities to the notorious group's remaining top leader. Said Omar Juarez was taken into custody on a prominent street in Saltillo, Coahuila's capital, the navy said in a statement released as the suspect was presented to reporters in Mexico City. In his possession were weapons and packages containing what may be cocaine and marijuana, the statement said.

Juarez was described by the navy as the Zeta operative in charge of Saltillo, who "presumably" has direct ties to Miguel Angel Treviño, the Zetas' top leader. Treviño emerged as the undisputed Zetas capo after Heriberto Lazcano was killed in a shootout with navy special forces last month. Coahuila, which borders Texas and is Mexico's third-largest state, has recently been the subject of increased scrutiny after a series of high-profile events that revealed the extent to which the Zetas had grown to dominate the region.

In addition to Lazcano's killing, the subsequent stealing of his body by armed commandos, and the acknowledgment by officials that he was living freely in Coahuila, there were other events:

The former governor's son was slain in October, allegedly by Zeta operatives working in cahoots with local police, and in September one of the largest mass prison breaks in history took place, in the Coahuila town of Piedras Negras, staged by Zetas to free Zetas. The warden and 16 guards and other officials were detained on suspicion of aiding the escape; eight of the officials were released Thursday. All of that was followed by a stunning series of interviews by the former governor, Humberto Moreira, who accused the state's lucrative mining industry of entering into a devil's pact with the Zetas and helping to finance their murderous ways. Moreira, who is mired in a scandal involving a $3-billion debt that he saddled the state with, offered to supply proof of the complicity but has not yet done so.

MORE

See also:

Mexico charges agents for trying to kill CIA men
Nov 9, 12: Mexican prosecutors have charged 14 federal police officers with trying to kill two CIA officers and a Mexican navy captain in an August ambush south of the capital city.

In its Friday statement, the Attorney General's Office doesn't state a motive for the attack. The police officers have been charged with attempted homicide.

The statement says the police officers were off-duty and driving private vehicles when they opened fire 152 times on the U.S. Embassy vehicle carrying the CIA officers and navy captain. The targets were heading to a military training camp when they were injured in the attack.

The Mexican officers have spent nearly 80 days in a form of house arrest Mexico uses in organized crime cases.

Source

 

[waltky]

Sinaloa and Zeta drug cartels gang warfare...

4 tortured bodies found hanging from highway overpass in northern Mexico city of Saltillo
December 07, 2012 – Authorities in the northern Mexico state of Coahuila say police found the bodies of four men hanging from a highway overpass in the capital city of Saltillo.

Coahuila state security spokesman Sergio Sisbeles says the victims found Friday had been tortured and had their feet and hands bound with duct tape. Sisbeles says none had been shot and authorities were still trying to determine the cause of death.

On Sunday, police found the mutilated bodies of seven men in Torreon, a city in southern Coahuila.

Coahuila state is across the border from Texas and it has seen a spike in drug-related violence as the Zetas drug gang and the Sinaloa drug cartel fight over territory.

Source

 

[ScienceRocks]

Is there ever any good news out of any non-white nation(excluding east asian) ever??? WTF

 

[waltky]

Mexican drug gangs move into coal mining: More lucrative than drugs...

Mexican drug gangs dig into mining industry
4 Jan 2013 - The Zetas cartel, one of Mexico's most violent groups, has moved into coal mining as it's "more lucrative than drugs".

On October 7, Mexican marines swooped in on one of the most powerful men in organised crime. But as the navy triumphantly announced the death of Heriberto Lazcano, leader of the Zetas gang, there was puzzlement over where he had been found. Far from the Zeta's strongholds and practically unprotected, he had been watching a baseball game in the small mining village of Progreso. Theories abounded as to what exactly Lazcano had been doing in Progreso, a one horse town in the wide open spaces of the sorthern state of Coahuila. Humberto Moreira, ex-governor of Coahuila says that he has the answer: "Heriberto Lazcano changed from being a killer, kidnapper and drug dealer to something still more lucrative: mining coal. That’s why he lived in the coal region, in a little village called Progreso."

By paying low wages, gangsters are making large profits from unregulated mines in Coahuila state

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Moreira says that the Zetas gang is fast discovering that illegal mining is an even more lucrative venture than drug running. "They discover a mine, extract the coal, sell it at $30, pay the miners a miserable salary... It's more lucrative than selling drugs." Moreiras remarks have sparked a host of claims and counter claims. He is used to controversy. The ex-governor of Coahuila (his brother recently took on the post) was one of the most powerful figures in Mexican politics until allegations of huge financial irregularities during his government brought him down. After his son was killed by organised crime, he began speaking of government corruption and impunity in the state he had once governed.

'Narco coal'

His accusations have been borne out by the federal government, which also announced that it has found evidence of criminal infiltration in Coahuila's mines. Two hundred government inspectors are heading to the region to investigate mines it suspects are tied to organised crime. The state government has also been tarred by the accusations. A Coahuila government body (PRODEMI) buys coal from the companies and then sells it to the state electricity company. Now the country's attorney general is investigating its links with companies thought to have sold "Narco coal". The State of Coahuila presents a tempting target for any organised crime group looking to diversify from drug smuggling, kidnapping and extortion. It produces 95 percent of Mexico's coal, churning out 15 million tons a year. Unregulated "pozos", small roadside mines which are often little more than a hole in the road, abound; easy targets for those looking to make quick money.

An investigation by Mexican daily Reforma estimated that criminals were making half a million dollars a week off of these small unregulated mines, selling the coal on to legal businesses. The Zetas criminal group, dominant in Coahuila, is well structured to take advantage of the "Black Gold" rush. Mexico's other criminal powerhouse, the Sinaloa Cartel, deals almost exclusively with running drugs, Samuel Gonzalez, former Chief of Mexico's Anti-Organised Crime Unit, says that the Zetas are keen to sniff out new business opportunities wherever they lie.

Blurred lines

 

[waltky]

Rehydratin' mummified bodies to solve drug cartel crimes in Juarez, Mexico...

Feature: Mexican forensic expert bathes corpses to solve crimes
Thu, Mar 28, 2013 - Mexican forensic expert Alejandro Hernandez dips dry, yellowish cadavers in a see-through bath, hoping his technique to rehydrate mummified bodies will solve murders in crime-infested Ciudad Juarez.

The city bordering Texas has endured drug-related violence and a wave of murders of women in recent years, with bodies dumped anywhere and drying up quickly in the desert climate, complicating the task of identifying victims and their cause of death. With his special solution, whose recipe he keeps secret, Hernandez can rehydrate bodies, making facial features as well as gunshot or stab wounds reappear. “It is common with the climate in Ciudad Juarez … for bodies to mummify or stiffen, with the skin stretched like drums,” Hernandez, an expert at the Chihuahua State Prosecutor’s Office, told reporters. “It has always been a great satisfaction every time we were able to identify or determine the cause of death in the 150 cases that we participated in.” The scientist has plenty of work on his hands.

Juarez became infamous in the 1990s, when hundreds of women were killed in an inexplicable homicidal binge that cast a dark shadow over the city. The “femicides” were followed by a surge of violence between powerful drug cartels that left more than 10,500 people dead in the past six years. Sometimes, victims are discovered in a mummified state years after they were buried, often making it impossible to identify them. This is where Hernandez comes in. Techniques to rehydrate fingers to get fingerprints have existed for more than a decade, but Hernandez began using his method to restore entire bodies in 2008. He is currently seeking a patent to protect his secret method.

Elizabeth Gardner, a forensic science professor at the University of Alabama who saw a body treated by Hernandez, said that the “process works, the corpse was restored and looked like it could be identified from its facial features.” “To the extent of my knowledge, this is the only method for rehydrating a corpse,” she said. “This technique will be most useful in dry areas, like Juarez. It’s labor — and materials — intensive, but it will be useful when other techniques fail.” With the help of assistants in a lab that smells of death and chemicals, a cadaver is raised in a harness, gingerly lowered into the hermetically sealed bath and left to soak for four to seven days. Sometimes, technicians just dip a body part. “We spin [the body] around the whole time until the human parts or the cadaver regain a more natural aspect,” Hernandez said. “Then you can observe moles, scars, blemishes, pathological or traumatic characteristics, which allow you to find the cause of death.”

Hernandez freezes decomposing bodies until they dry up and then he soaks them in his special bath. “We are only doing this here in Ciudad Juarez,” he said, adding that the process is inexpensive. The brutal drug war between the Sinaloa and Juarez cartels has waned in the past year, dramatically lowering the homicide rate in the city that was once the murder capital of Mexico. However, bodies continue to pile up, with women still disappearing and human remains being discovered around the desert city of 1.3 million people. Just this month, mothers of people who disappeared worked with the police to look for remains in a desert area near Juarez, and found bones they hope to identify one day.

Source

 

[waltky]

Top Zetas leader nabbed...

U.S. federal official: Top leader of Mexico's brutal Zetas drug cartel captured
Monday, July 15, 2013 -- Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, the notoriously brutal leader of the feared Zetas drug cartel, was captured before dawn Monday in the first major blow against an organized crime leader by a Mexican administration struggling to drive down persistently high levels of violence, officials announced.

Trevino Morales, 40, was captured by Mexican Marines who intercepted a pickup truck with $2 million in cash on a dirt road in the countryside outside the border city of Nuevo Laredo, which has long served as the Zetas' base of operations. The truck was halted by a Marine helicopter and Trevino Morales was taken into custody along with a bodyguard and an accountant and eight guns, government spokesman Eduardo Sanchez told reporters. Sanchez said the Marines had been watching rural roads between the Texas border states of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas for signs of Trevino Morales, who is charged with murder, torture, kidnapping and other crimes.

The Zetas leader and his alleged accomplices were flown to Mexico City, where they are expected to eventually be tried in a closed system that usually takes years to prosecute cases, particularly high-profile ones. Trevino Morales, known as "Z-40," is uniformly described as one of the two most powerful cartel heads in Mexico, the leader of a corps of special forces defectors who went to work for drug traffickers, splintered off into their own cartel in 2010 and metastasized across Mexico, expanding from drug dealing into extortion, kidnapping and human trafficking.

This undated file image downloaded from the Mexican Attorney General's Office rewards program website, shows the leader of Zetas drug cartel, Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, alias “Z-40”. Mexican media reports and a U.S. federal official confirmed that Trevino Morales has been captured.

Along the way, the Zetas authored some of the worst atrocities of Mexico's drug war, leaving hundreds of bodies beheaded on roadsides or hanging from bridges, earning a reputation as perhaps the most terrifying of the country's numerous ruthless cartels. On Trevino Morales' watch, 72 Central and South American migrants were slaughtered by the Zetas in the northern town of San Fernando in 2010, authorities said. By the following year, federal officials announced finding 193 bodies buried in San Fernando, most belonging to migrants kidnapped off buses and killed by the Zetas for various reasons, including their refusal to work as drug mules.

Trevino Morales is charged with ordering the kidnapping and killing of the 265 migrants, Sanchez said. President Enrique Pena Nieto came into office promising to drive down levels of homicide, extortion and kidnapping but has struggled to make a credible dent in crime figures. And his pledge to focus on citizen safety over other crimes has sparked worries among U.S. authorities that he would ease back on predecessor Felipe Calderon's U.S.-backed strategy aimed above all at decapitating drug cartels.

Read more: U.S. federal official: Top leader of Mexico's brutal Zetas drug cartel captured | CTV News

 

[longknife]

The problem with this is that the cartel will up the violence as they fight among themselves to select a new leader - who'll probably be worse than the last.

The ONLY way to ever stop this crap is by drying up the market here in the USA!

 

[waltky]

Ruthlessness runs in the family...

Zetas heir just as ruthless as brother: former officials
Fri, Jul 19, 2013 - FAMILY FUN: The violent and sadistic captured Zetas boss’ younger brother, who is his heir apparent, has boasted to informants of killing more than 1,000 people

The captured leader of Mexico’s Zetas drug cartel is a tough act to follow, a man accused of having a penchant for beheading victims, boiling rivals and tormenting migrants. His arrest raised hopes that the cartel’s reign of terror had finally ended, but the man tipped to succeed Miguel Angel Trevino is his younger brother, who also boasts a blood-stained resume that includes claims of killing 1,000 people, according to US court documents. Former US law enforcement officials say Omar Trevino, alias “Z-42,” is the likely heir apparent to “Z-40” after his brother was captured by Mexican marines on a dirt road near the northeastern city of Nuevo Laredo on Monday.

The 39-year-old sibling, who was Z-40’s right-hand man, is expected to replicate his brother’s violent ways to assert his authority over the cartel and fend off rivals, according to two former US officials who worked in Mexico. “Omar is equally ruthless as his brother, though he doesn’t have the organizational skills that his brother had,” said Mike Vigil, a former chief of the US Drug Enforcement Administration’s international operations. “He was nurtured and tutored by Miguel Angel Trevino in terms of using wholesale violence to intimidate other criminal organizations and security forces,” Vigil said. “He’s an individual who will probably use the same tactics as his brother in terms of consolidating power.” Omar Trevino would likely face challenges to his rule as the head of a cartel present in huge swaths of the northeast as well as Central America, experts say.

A photograph released on Tuesday by the Mexican Navy shows Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, alias “Z-40,” leader of the Zetas drug cartel, after his arrest in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.

The Zetas have been warring with the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who may see an opening to raid Nuevo Laredo, a city highly coveted by drug traffickers because it lies at a major Texas border crossing. Mexican security forces may also ride the wave of their successful capture of Miguel to relentlessly pursue his younger brother. On top of it, the toppling of a drug lord often leads to internal wars of succession. The Zetas, who were founded by former elite troops, may not appreciate a new civilian boss, although Miguel Trevino was never a soldier himself. Davy Aguilera, a former special agent for the US firearms and explosives agency ATF, said Omar Trevino is the “logical successor because everybody was so afraid and intimidated by Miguel.” “There were indications that if something happened to him, Omar was his successor. Nobody wanted to betray Miguel,” Aguilera said. “Like Miguel, [Omar] will surround himself with the worst of the worst, the most violent criminals” to tighten his grip, he added.

Little is known about Omar Trevino and Mexican Interior Ministry spokesman Eduardo Sanchez said he knew nothing about him. Former US officials say the younger Trevino, born in Nuevo Laredo, began his life in the criminal underworld as a “small-time thug” who committed petty crimes like robbery and extortion — always by his brother’s side. He rose through the ranks of the Zetas thanks to his older brother, who made him his top lieutenant when he took over the cartel last year after kingpin Heriberto Lazcano was killed in a gunfight with troops. While Miguel reportedly melted victims in a 208 liter “stew” and is accused of ordering the murder of 265 migrants, his sibling has his own checkered past. In 2010, Omar Trevino told an informant that he had killed more than 1,000 people while Miguel had killed 2,000, according to an affidavit filed in a US court for a search warrant on the property of another Trevino brother in Texas.

MORE

 

[ABikerSailor]

Is there ever any good news out of any non-white nation(excluding east asian) ever??? WTF

Way to be a bigoted racist asshole. Good job!