Boss known as 'Z-40' heads cartel behind some of the worst atrocities
of the Central American country's drug war, leaving hundreds of bodies
beheaded on roadsides or hanging from bridges
Tuesday 16 July 2013
1 / 1
Miguel
Angel Trevino Morales, known as 'Z-40,' is uniformly described as one of
the two most powerful cartel heads in Mexico
AP
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The notoriously brutal leader of the feared Zetas drug cartel has
been captured in a dramatic dawn raid, in what is being heralded as the
first major blow against an organized crime leader by a Mexican
administration struggling to reduce high levels of violence, officials
announced.
Miguel Angel Trevino Morales was apprehended by Mexican
Marines who intercepted a pickup truck loaded with $2 million in cash
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, an
accountant and eight guns, government spokesman Eduardo Sanchez told
reporters.
Trevino Morales has now been charged with orchestrating the kidnapping and killing of the 265 migrants, Sanchez added. He was indicted on drug trafficking and weapons charges in New York in 2009 and Washington in 2010, and the US government issued a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
According to the indictments, Trevino Morales coordinated the shipment of hundreds of pounds of cocaine and marijuana each week from Mexico into the U.S, much of which had passed through Guatemala. He also transported bulk shipments of dollar bills back into Mexico, the documents suggest. He said Marines had been watching rural roads between the Texas border states of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas for signs of Trevino Morales.
The Zetas leader and his alleged accomplices were flown to Mexico City on Monday, where they are expected to eventually be tried in a closed system that can take 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 worked for drug traffickers, splintered off into their own cartel in 2010 and metastasized across Mexico, expanding from drug dealing into extortion, kidnapping and even human trafficking.
During their operation, the Zetas committed 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 the 40-year-olds watch, 72 migrants were slaughtered by the Zetas in the northern town of San Fernando in 2010, according to Mexican authorities. By 2011, federal officials discovered 193 bodies buried in San Fernando. Most were identified as migrants kidnapped off buses and killed by the Zetas for various reasons, including their refusal to work as drug mules.
The arrest of Trevino, a man widely blamed for both massive northbound drug trafficking and the deaths of untold scores of Mexicans and North American migrants, will almost certainly earn praise from Pena Nieto's US and Mexican critics alike.
Trevino Morales' capture adds to the long list of Zetas' leaders who have been arrested or killed in recent years, including Zeta head Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, whose fatal shooting by authorities last year left Trevino Morales in charge.
“There continues to be the perception that capturing this type of individual has a strategic value and the logic persists that it's preferable to fragment criminal groups and reduce them in size. On this point there isn't much change,” said Alejandro Hope, a former member of Mexico's domestic intelligence service.
Trevino Morales is expected to be succeeded by his brother, Omar, a former low-ranking turf boss seen as far weaker than his older brother.
Miguel Angel Trevino Morales began his career as a teenage gofer for the Los Tejas gang, which controlled most crime in his hometown across the border from Laredo, Texas. He was quickly promoted from washing cars and running errands to running drugs across the border, and was recruited into the Matamoros-based Gulf cartel.
He joined the Zetas, a group of Mexican special forces deserters who defected to work as hit men and bodyguards for the Gulf cartel in the late 1990s.
Stories about the brutality of “El Cuarenta,” or “40” as Trevino Morales became known, were quickly circulated among his associates, his rivals and Nuevo Laredo citizens terrified of incurring his anger.
One technique favored by Trevino Morales was the “guiso,” or stew, in which enemies would be placed in 55-gallon drums and burned alive, said a US law-enforcement official in Mexico City, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic. Others who crossed the commander would be beaten with wooden planks, the official said.
Around 2005, Trevino Morales was promoted to boss of the Nuevo Laredo territory, or “plaza” and given responsibility for fighting off the Sinaloa cartel's attempt to seize control of its drug-smuggling routes, according to US and Mexican officials. He orchestrated a series of killings on the US side of the border, several by a group of young US citizens who gunned down their victims on the streets of the American city.
In 2006, the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas defeated the Sinaloa cartel in Nuevo Laredo, a victory that emboldened them as they began spreading south to towns and cities that had never before seen extensive organized crime. They set up criminal networks to control transit routes for drugs, migrants, extortion, kidnapping, contraband of pirated DVDs and CDs and countless other criminal activities, intimidating local residents and committing gruesome murders as an example to the uncooperative.
According to the US official, Trevino Morales was in charge of Nuevo Leon, Piedras Negras and other areas until March 2007, when he was sent to the city of Veracruz following the death of a leading Zeta in a gunbattle there.
That same year, Trevino Morales and Lazcano began pushing for independence from the Gulf cartel after cartel head Osielo Cardenas Guillen's extradition to the US.
The Zetas split from the Gulf cartel and by 2008 had operations in 28 major Mexican cities, according to an analysis by Grupo Savant, a Washington-based security think tank.
In February 2008, Lazcano sent Trevino Morales to Guatemala, where he was responsible for eliminating local competitors and establish Zetas control of smuggling routes. Trevino Morales was then named by Lazcano as national commander of the Zetas across Mexico despite his lack of military background, earning him the resentment of some of the original ex-military members of the Zetas, the official said.
The promotion involved Trevino Morales in virtually every decision by the Zetas, the official said.
Trevino rose to the top of the Zetas last year after leader Lazcano died in a shootout with Mexican marines in Coahuila state.
Trevino Morales has now been charged with orchestrating the kidnapping and killing of the 265 migrants, Sanchez added. He was indicted on drug trafficking and weapons charges in New York in 2009 and Washington in 2010, and the US government issued a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
According to the indictments, Trevino Morales coordinated the shipment of hundreds of pounds of cocaine and marijuana each week from Mexico into the U.S, much of which had passed through Guatemala. He also transported bulk shipments of dollar bills back into Mexico, the documents suggest. He said Marines had been watching rural roads between the Texas border states of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas for signs of Trevino Morales.
The Zetas leader and his alleged accomplices were flown to Mexico City on Monday, where they are expected to eventually be tried in a closed system that can take 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 worked for drug traffickers, splintered off into their own cartel in 2010 and metastasized across Mexico, expanding from drug dealing into extortion, kidnapping and even human trafficking.
During their operation, the Zetas committed 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 the 40-year-olds watch, 72 migrants were slaughtered by the Zetas in the northern town of San Fernando in 2010, according to Mexican authorities. By 2011, federal officials discovered 193 bodies buried in San Fernando. Most were identified as migrants kidnapped off buses and killed by the Zetas for various reasons, including their refusal to work as drug mules.
The arrest of Trevino, a man widely blamed for both massive northbound drug trafficking and the deaths of untold scores of Mexicans and North American migrants, will almost certainly earn praise from Pena Nieto's US and Mexican critics alike.
Trevino Morales' capture adds to the long list of Zetas' leaders who have been arrested or killed in recent years, including Zeta head Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, whose fatal shooting by authorities last year left Trevino Morales in charge.
“There continues to be the perception that capturing this type of individual has a strategic value and the logic persists that it's preferable to fragment criminal groups and reduce them in size. On this point there isn't much change,” said Alejandro Hope, a former member of Mexico's domestic intelligence service.
Trevino Morales is expected to be succeeded by his brother, Omar, a former low-ranking turf boss seen as far weaker than his older brother.
Miguel Angel Trevino Morales began his career as a teenage gofer for the Los Tejas gang, which controlled most crime in his hometown across the border from Laredo, Texas. He was quickly promoted from washing cars and running errands to running drugs across the border, and was recruited into the Matamoros-based Gulf cartel.
He joined the Zetas, a group of Mexican special forces deserters who defected to work as hit men and bodyguards for the Gulf cartel in the late 1990s.
Stories about the brutality of “El Cuarenta,” or “40” as Trevino Morales became known, were quickly circulated among his associates, his rivals and Nuevo Laredo citizens terrified of incurring his anger.
One technique favored by Trevino Morales was the “guiso,” or stew, in which enemies would be placed in 55-gallon drums and burned alive, said a US law-enforcement official in Mexico City, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic. Others who crossed the commander would be beaten with wooden planks, the official said.
Around 2005, Trevino Morales was promoted to boss of the Nuevo Laredo territory, or “plaza” and given responsibility for fighting off the Sinaloa cartel's attempt to seize control of its drug-smuggling routes, according to US and Mexican officials. He orchestrated a series of killings on the US side of the border, several by a group of young US citizens who gunned down their victims on the streets of the American city.
In 2006, the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas defeated the Sinaloa cartel in Nuevo Laredo, a victory that emboldened them as they began spreading south to towns and cities that had never before seen extensive organized crime. They set up criminal networks to control transit routes for drugs, migrants, extortion, kidnapping, contraband of pirated DVDs and CDs and countless other criminal activities, intimidating local residents and committing gruesome murders as an example to the uncooperative.
According to the US official, Trevino Morales was in charge of Nuevo Leon, Piedras Negras and other areas until March 2007, when he was sent to the city of Veracruz following the death of a leading Zeta in a gunbattle there.
That same year, Trevino Morales and Lazcano began pushing for independence from the Gulf cartel after cartel head Osielo Cardenas Guillen's extradition to the US.
The Zetas split from the Gulf cartel and by 2008 had operations in 28 major Mexican cities, according to an analysis by Grupo Savant, a Washington-based security think tank.
In February 2008, Lazcano sent Trevino Morales to Guatemala, where he was responsible for eliminating local competitors and establish Zetas control of smuggling routes. Trevino Morales was then named by Lazcano as national commander of the Zetas across Mexico despite his lack of military background, earning him the resentment of some of the original ex-military members of the Zetas, the official said.
The promotion involved Trevino Morales in virtually every decision by the Zetas, the official said.
Trevino rose to the top of the Zetas last year after leader Lazcano died in a shootout with Mexican marines in Coahuila state.
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