Mexico's "Great Drug War": Zetas and Gulf Cartel

[Kartal1]

The Beginning of the Nightmare-The Great War between Zetas and Gulf Cartel

The Bullets Warmed up and the War Began.

Gulf Cartel goes public on break-up with former allies Los Zetas

Q. And how much money did the Zetas make in any year from cocaine trade to America?
A. $350 million. About.
Q. And what type of expenses did the Zetas have that they had
to pay from that $350 million?
A. The expenses of the war. That’s it.
Q.Fight who?
A: Gulf Cartel

The testimony of El Mamito Z7-(Historic leader of the Zetas) Rejon later said that all of Zeta’s profits were directly concluded with the payment of the war against the Gulf Cartel.


“Mexican forces have seized more than 5,800 live grenades since 2007-2010, a small fraction of a vast armory maintained by the drug cartels, officials said.Not all grenades found in Mexico are American-made. Many are of Asian or Soviet and Eastern European manufacture, ATF officials said, probably given to leftist insurgents by Cuba and Nicaragua’s Sandinistas.One of the most common hand grenades found in Mexico is the M67, the workhorse explosive manufactured in the United States for American soldiers and for sale or transfer to foreign militaries. Some 266,000 M67 grenades went to El Salvador alone between 1980 and 1993, during the civil war there.” By Nick Miroff and William Booth
The Washington Post


This is not a game .This is a real war.These men have enough resources to fight anyone.They’are making billions and billions of dollars.


By July 17, 2006, Lazcano had taken control of the outfit. Al-though not a product of the military as he claimed, Miguel Ángel “El 40” Treviño Morales became No. 2 in the ranks of the upstarts. Los Zetas gradually turned with a vengeance against their master. They entered into situational alliances with the rival BLO, a Sinaloa-founded cartel that had severed ties with the Sinaloa Cartel.Zeta-Gulf fissure gradually widened, but the break did not occur until early-2010; nevertheless, “El Goyo” Saucedo (arrested on April 29, 2009), “Tony Tormenta” (killed on No-vember 5, 2010), and “El Coss” (captured on Septem-ber 12, 2010) were businessmen who regarded the grotesque practices relished by Lazcano and Treviño Morales as bad for their sales of cocaine, marijuana, and heroin. Never more than a few hundred cadres .

Miguel Ángel “El 40” Treviño Morales
When Cárdenas Guillén was arrested by Mexican security forces in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, on 14 March 2003, the leadership of the Gulf Cartel was handed over to his brother Antonio Cárdenas Guillén (alias “Tony Tormenta”) and Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez (alias “El Coss”). The leadership of Los Zetas, on the other hand, was kept under the control of Lazcano.

HERİBERTO LAZCANO-Z3
Mexico’s drug war has become so brutal that nothing seems off-limits to the criminal imagination. It is as if rival cartels are competing for ever more shocking methods of execution.‘The Changing Mexican Drug War Brings New Challenges”.
American agents have been concerned for some time about military weapons and explosives falling into the hands of Mexican cartels.The problem is, the drug war is not underfunded; it’s unwinnable. As long as a lucrative market exists, the cartels will find a way to serve it. Eliminating operatives, even high-level leaders, merely diversifies and redistributes the business. Cartels have years of experience building flexible structures, with new leaders or rival gangs replacing displaced or weakened ones. At the lower levels, they draw from an inexhaustible pool of young men with few prospects in life, who have adopted the slogan, “Better to die young and rich than old and poor.”

The Zetas waged hard-fought battles against rival organizations in various territories, from Michoacán—for the control of Lázaro Cárdenas’ port—to Guatemala, to access South American cocaine and migrant routes.” Dudley Zetas in Guetemala”

THE WAR IS BEGINNING


“There was already a war between CDS and CDG and a conflict between CDS and AFO and a conflict between CDS and Juarez Cartel. CDG and Zetas split after a major arrest. The leader of CDJ dies and then the military invades Juarez and then CDS follows. CDS and CDJ go to war. Then a huge war between CDG and Zetas begins. La Familia Michoacana gets involved. War becomes apocalypse.
CDG began to do business with La Familia Michoacána, El Mayo Zambada with el Chapo Guzman and people from Jalisco. They created their alliance.That’s when the organization was split in two: Los Zetas and Gulf Cartel. ” PRELIMINARY INFORMATION

The Zetas cartel executes members of the Gulf cartel.
Osiel was captured at his daughter’s birthday party. When he was extradited to the United States in 2007, the cartel he directed was divided into two large cells. The first civilian wing, Antonio Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen, Tony Tormenta and José Eduardo Costilla Sánchez, were left by El Coss. The other was in the shadow of Heriberto Lazcano and Miguel Angel Treviño: mostly the capo’s guardian circle.As the Gulf Cartel Zetas grew and expanded, he could not control more. Lazcano partially increased the organization’s capabilities. The absence of Cárdenas Guillén has expanded Zetas’s regional presence. The Zetas cartel members skillfully dispersed and organized geographically.
They raised their cells and hired elite military commanders. They recruited police and later local representatives.Poverty, corruption and the earning power of illicit drugs are the three pillars on which the Zetas and the other cartels have been built.They developed themselves as firepower and educational level. As another factor, Zetas was not limited to drug trafficking.For this reason, the Zetas expanded the territory of the organization.Hard forces brought new business opportunities.This is supply side capitalism in its purest and most brutal form. The U.S. has created the demand for the product(s). The U.S. consumers pay their money and are supplied.


They were involved in local criminal affairs and ganged elsewhere.Criminal activities such as kidnapping and extortion; control of gambling, horse racing and shopping centers.Robbing shops, kidnapping, selling drugs on the street, stealing fuel, performing illegal activities, collecting tribute from nightclubs, smuggling DVDs and smuggling alcohol. I think the main reason for Zetas’s diversification of crimes: high profitability rates and tax payments to CDG when cross-border drug trafficking. The Gulf Cartel commanders focused on strengthening their main strength.
Source of income: cross-border drug trafficking, particularly from Matamoros to Brownsville and Reynosa to McAllen, This limited the interaction between the two structures and
It freed Zetas’ independence and operational capacity. Zetas was directly earning income. Zetas was no longer part of the commanders of the Gulf Cartel. Over time this triggered a series of friction between the Zetas and other units in the US. The ZETAS cartel expanded on the Gulf coast of Mexico and reached Central America. Nuevo León, San Luis, Coahuila, Hidalgo and ın areas like Chiapas, Zetas fought hard against rival organizations. In several regions, La Familia was fighting with the Michoacana family for control of Lázaro Cárdenas – from Michoacán. They also worked hard to reach Guatemala’s cocaine and immigrant routes in South America. The Zetas controlled liquor sales, drug smuggling, border crossings of illegal aliens, loan sharks, beer distribution (en los depositios), they were even shaking down street taco vendors for (la quota)This expansion also required the recruitment of new members. Thus, the core of Zetas’s main operation expanded. It is worth clarifying that the recruitment process continued after 1998; the Zetas gradually brought into their ranks soldiers with less training, former policemen, and even criminals, whom they sent to training camps run by the organization. The elite and respectability of the Zeta began to decline at this point.


The strategic value of border crossings in Tamaulipas may be a factor explaining the persistence of violence. Tamaulipas is the main route of access to illegal substances to the US territory (from 2006 to 2013, 56% of smuggling in the northern border states corresponds to Tamaulipas). Therefore, the Tamaulipas border produces enormous income for organized crime.Prior to Zetas’ departure, the Gulf Cartel intensified its efforts to hire municipal police officers in border-bound cities. In addition, the Gulf and Los Zetas managed to silence the local media through threats to companies or individuals exposing their crimes and acts of violence. Given the anemia of the state security institutions, these threats reached their goal.

 

[Kartal1]

ZETAS CARTEL SİCARİOUS



Zetas had now stopped tax payments to CDG. They had a lot of power in Tamaulipas. The military wing of the Gulf Cartel already had tensions with Zetas after the capture of Osiel. Zetas were independent. The CDG could no longer give orders. The CDG failed to control them, If you read The Prince by Machiavelli, he says you should never let your mercenaries get too much power. If you look at Chapo, he has a better functional wing of sicarios. By spreading the groups, calling them different names and appointing different commanders you diversify your armed forces. Which in the end, it makes it a lot easier to get rid of the one that is not following orders…Of course, the Mexican government and the DEA had intelligence. It was clear that the two sides were in a tension. Everyone was very nervous. The governor of Tamaulipas denied there was tension between the CDG-Z two months before the war began. But this would be a real war and completely change the fate of Mexico.Zetas and CDG were preparing for war. Silence prevailed in Tamaulipas for a while. But this silence was the silence of the coming war.

• 

Zetas Sicarious
Mr Lazcano with all his strength won territories by “thundering heads”. He executed those who got in his way.
Always by his side was a young man with a child’s face, named Miguel Angel Trevino. Trevino always dreamed that one day he would be the top leader of the cartel. This is how the violent story of a man named Z-40 begins.
From an early age he lived on the streets. He knows what it means to be cold and hungry. In some places they call street criminals ‘bandits’. Trevino called it “the way to stay alive”. He left his family and loved ones.
Seeking his destiny, he exchanged his toys for guns. He left his childhood behind and became a bandit. He soon met his new family. He began to associate with high-ranking cartel members.
Inside the mafia he became an important figure.

PHOTO: Z40 and Zetas Amblem
Miguel Angel Trevino Z40 had no military background and joined the civilian cartel with the L-40 key. In March 2003, the fall of the osiel Cardenas climbed rapidly in the structure of the I-40 cartel. Their sign of identity, extreme violence, attracted the attention of one of Osiel and one of the successors of Z-3. When the people of Joaquin el Chapo Guzman came to the Northeast in 2004 with the intention of exploiting Cardenas’ power gap with the arrest, Heriberto Lazcano did not hesitate to appoint the Z40.
He played an active role in defending the border through the elimination of competitors.


Since 2009, the group, known as Zetas, controlled more than half of the province of Tamaulipas and a quarter of the country’s most dangerous country. In 2009, a clash at the Fortress of the Gulf Cartel set the stage for a new blood bath in the north-east. The relationship between Zetas and the Gulf cartel was formally broken on January 18, 2010.The break in the relationship resulted when El Coss sent assassins to Reynosa to kill Victor Peña Mendoza, El Concord 3, the chief of finance for the Zetas, and close friend of Miguel Treviño Morales. The man who kidnapped him is a former police officer, code name Metro 3- Samuel Flores Borrego. He was responsible for Metro 3- Osiel Cardenas’ work in Matamaros.Z40 gave an ultimatum to the Gulf Cartel. He said, “If you don’t leave my friends, the war will begin.” The Gulf Cartel rejected this request and Concord 3 killed.The Z40 retaliation was not delayed. He kidnapped and killed 16 Gulf Cartel members.Thus began the apocalypse. The Gulf-Zetas tension, which began in 2008, has now turned into war. The reason why the Gulf Cartel had Concord 3 killed was clear.The Gulf Cartel wanted to fight Zetas. Likewise, the Zetas cartel wanted to get rid of the Gulf pressure and to dominate the Tamaulipas region.Everything was an excuse. The break-up was made public through street banners allegedly signed by the Gulf Cartel, which were displayed over footbridges in the Mexican city of Matamoros, on the US border.



CDG Banner says
‘The Gulf Cartel distances itself from the Z. In our ranks we do not want kidnappers, terrorists, bank-robbers, rapists, child-killers and traitors,’ read the banners signed ‘Sincerely, CDG


“Zeta leaders did not declare war immediately. Lazcano and Treviño
Morales asked Ezequiel Cárdenas Guillén and Costilla Sánchez to hand over the hitmen, or else they would start to attack members of the Gulf Cartel. The Gulf Cartel leaders refused, creating a definitive break between the two organizations. The Zetas began the offensive in Tamaulipas at the end of January. ” Osorno, La Guerra de los Zetas: viaje por la frontera de la nectropolítica.

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The day of the war in the CDG-Z war. Graph of murders

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The murder curve at Tamaulipas.
It is necessary to pay attention to February 2010.
In late February, the dispute between Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel unleashed a wave of panic in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas. In the initial clashes, the Gulf Cartel Zetas managed to narrow the area of the cartel. Only a month later, Zetas launched an intense counter-attack against the CDG to reclaim the lost territory. The Gulf Cartel then posted its own messages with banners on Reynosa bridges, saying there was no cause for panic. ‘Reynosa is a safe city. Nothing is happening and nothing will happen, keep up your normal lives. We are a part of Tamaulipas, and we do not disturb civilians,’ the banners said at the time.Of course, this was not the case. “The war was going to grow all over the country. The Zetas lived for the day of this war. Fighting against old masters and liberating.

 

[Kartal1]

 

[Kartal1]

Images from clashes between Gulf Cartel -Zetas

For these wars, guatemalans, salvadorites, hondurans were hired. Many are caught trying to reach the United States through Mexican territory. A lot of the murders that happened where under the orders, or it’s wrong to say orders, more like, it was under the contract from CDG.. A lot of the beheadings, bloody massacres where under jobs the Zetas got from CDG.. Within days of the start, citizens began to take audio, video, and photographic documentation of the violent events. These echoes were posted by the dozens on You-Tube.Although local media was silent, #Reynosafollow in Tamaulipas and Mexico Nueva Revolucion in Nuevo Leon, began to unite Mexican “Twiteros” to give 24 hour real time updates on happenings within their cities and towns.They alone took on what no other local media had dared: Reporting, debunking and confirming the suspicious acts, roadblocks, gunfire, grenade attacks, and kidnappings of two warring mega cartels.

burnt vehicles, narcobloques, destroyed roads
As the weeks turned into months, narco-banners, kidnappings, videotaped interrogations, beheadings, mass mutilations, executions, grenade attacks, car jackings, roadblocks, and massacres became of daily life for the population caught in the crossfire. The carnage started in Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas but spread like a cancer to states such as San Luis Potosi, Vera Cruz, Coahuila, Tabasco and Quintana Roo.Especially in the eyes of Tamaulipas, anxiety, insomnia, gastritis, panic attacks and headaches became very common in both young and old.Classes have been suspended at schools in Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo, as well as in rural towns in Nuevo Leon because of the rumors circulating about potential new confrontations between the Gulf cartel and Los Zetas.While both sides fought, the Mexican media almost ignored most of the war in their city and did not report the truth. Authorities called local residents to calm down, saying the streets were calm and the clashes were exaggerated.

 

[Kartal1]

Violent clashes between CDG-Zetas
. High-profile battles with 50-caliber heavy weapons.
Mexican soldiers and police have been deployed along the border between Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas because of reports that Gulf cartel commandos have been sent to the region in more than 50 SUVs. The US Reynosa Consulate has been completely closed.

Gulf Cartel-CDG Members
The Gulf Cartel began to attack the policemen working for Zetas in the first place. Police stations, prisons were set on fire.What this means is that the CDG is engaging in all-out war on the Zetas’ security structure across four fronts.The first front is of course their attacks on cops; then they’re also executing huge numbers of “tienderos” (street drug dealers, the cannon fodder) and “halcones” (the spies who inform on military or suspicious activity).
CDG started massacres in Zetas regions.This tactic is a clever tactic to capture the territories of the opposing cartel. This tactic works this way: the more heat you bring on the state, the more the state beefs up its military presence. Mass-killing of innocent bystanders is a pretty high-impact tactical crime that the cartels use to trigger a big military presence and disrupt the operations of the rival cartel in the plaza. It’s all off the record of course.Zetas began to bleed after the CDG attacks.They have organized mass escapes in Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Zacatecas and Coahuila.

 

[Ryder]

Isnt Los Zetas formed by former Mexican special forces???

There is also allegations that Hezbollah has ties with the numerous cartel groups.

You have shia radicals perhaps allied with drug lords.

 

[Kartal1]

Violent clashes in Reynosa.

The largest mass escape organized by Los Zetas occurred the morning of December 17, 2010 at the Center of sentencing (Cedes) of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas where two vehicles [a van and a school bus] were used to pick up 151 convicts.
“The guards didn’t even resist and left the cells unlocked making it easy for the prisoners to escape.”Because they were taking bribes from Zetas.The Zetas not only administered half of the Mexican state, they also administered half of the countries ‘ prison system.


Since President Felipe Calderon launched a military-led offensive against the cartels in Mexico in 2006, Mexican prisons have turned into battlefields for rival cartels, often leading to violent fights and frequent deaths.
Many prisons are essentially run by one cartel or another. The Zetas have also orchestrated massive prison breaks to free gang members and to recruit inmates as soldiers for their organization.



Several of the inmates were transferred to Tamaulipas and others sent to strengthen the Zetas in their war against the Gulf Cartel (CDG).Zetas were within reach of hundreds of trained assassins in the municipal and state police departments.In some metropolitan areas, the word cartel and law enforcement were synonymous.
Zetas changed their approach and began to recruit ‘hitmen’ and ‘halcones’ and strengthened their stakes with the street gangs in thousands of marginalized areas. Because they started to lose so much.The Gulf Cartel came in full force. What about El Chapo? He was already premeditating a huge war. El chapo was already in everyones business.

In February, giant banners heralding an alliance of the Gulf, Sinaloa and La Familia drug cartels against Los Zetas appeared in the northern city of Monterrey.The gang war has especially affected Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas. The Gulf cartel had sought help from its former enemies, the Sinaloa Cartel, to defeat Zetas. The Sinaloa Cartel agreed. Already in 2008, the Sinaloa cartel was broken with the Beltran Leyva brothers. The sudden emergence of Beltran Leyva’s powerful cartel, and his rapid alliance with the Juarez and Los zetas cartels, changed the correlation of forces between major criminal organizations and led to Intercártel wars. Beltran Leyva formed an alliance with the brothers of Carrillo Fuentes, leaders of the Juarez Cartel, whose first goal was to prevent cross-border access to the property of the Sinaloa Cartel.For the drugs to get to Ciudad Juarez and from there into the U.S., they have to pass through military-controlled territory. So why did the Beltran Leyva brothers and the Sinaloa Cartel break? What we know for sure is the morning of January 21, 2008, Mexican special forces arrested Alferedo, brother of Arturo Beltran Leyva. Arturo gathered a caravan of 300 powerful sicarios ready to attack the Cefereso Occidente Prison in Jalisco to save his brother. He requested the support of El Chapo and El Mayo for the attack. But the Federation of Sinaloa denied that Arturo wanted it. After this event, Arturo began to realize that the Federation was willing to let itself rebut as a sacrificial pawn. Don Arturo only knew that reacting in a hostile situation, going forward, paving the way for war.
In 2008, he launched an entire war against the Chapo / Mayo organizations. He also made an official deal with Los Zetas and CDG, Juarez Cartel and La Familia Michoacana.


After two months of planning, the Gulf Cartel Sinaloa Cartel and Familia Michoacana joined forces and launched a war against the Zetas cartel for control of major drug trafficking routes in South Texas.



When the war began, close family members of the Sinaloa Cartel body began to leave Culiacan. This is where the alliance of Zetas and Beltran Leyda brothers began. CDS had also fought with the Juarez cartel. Lazcano supported Beltran Leyva and Juarez Cartel in financial, logistic and military terms. CDG, La Familia Michoacan and CDS had an agreement. After that they would act together against Zetas. This split the country into two.

• United Zetas Federation (Juarez Cartel, Beltran Leyva Cartel)
• United Sinaloa Federation (Gulf Cartel, Sinaloa Cartel and La Familia Michoacana Family

At the same time, as this war weakened Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, he began to complete his cash revenues in other ways, such as the theft of the Mexican government’s parastatal gas pipeline of pemex. Oil smuggling became widespread in this period. At stake is not just control of cocaine and marijuana smuggling routes but migrant trafficking routes, and extortion and kidnap rackets.When the fighting started, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Familia Michoacana joined forces with the Gulf Cartel to take out the Zetas. Los Zetas started hiring drug addicts of the streets. Because Zetas was losing so much blood Drug gangs have set up vehicle checkpoints along highways to the U.S. border, apparently to look for their rivals, according to the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey, two hours south of the Texas border.Gangs have frequently blocked streets in the middle of the cities to thwart soldiers coming to the aid of colleagues under fire.U.S. Zetas established roadblocks on each street in Piedras Negras, and checked all people entering or leaving the city.They also established a private communications network, with hundreds of relay antennas in buildings, commercial premises or nearby hills.In addition to the police collaboration, the group recieved support from local politicians, and some even financed their electoral campaigns.In exchange for this support the Zetas obtained police protection, but also contracts for public works, not only in municipalities or the state but with federal companies such as Pemex or the Federal Electricity Commission.The Z’s only major cause of concern was the Marina’s. They tried to avoid them and stay out of their way all the time.These places were used as safe houses or places to exchange money, drugs and weapons. The way they murdered their victims was atrocious, witnesses point out. Several were dismembered alive with an ax, the first blow on one of the knees .Many times the people killed were innocent. They were sentenced to death for the simple suspicion that they collaborated with rivals or authorities.The remains of the victims were usually incinerated or disposed of in acid. The Zetas call this method “cooking” .


November 5, 2010: Always protected by gunmen and police in his stronghold state of Tamaulipas, Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen, known as Tony Tormenta, is now one of the most wanted drug lords by the Drug Enforcement Administration in the United States.

 

[Kartal1]

According to official documents Ezequiel is involved in trafficking marijuana, cocaine and synthetic drugs to the US and is described as a drug kingpin who is “dangerous and bloody.” In 2009 the DEA put a price on his head by offering a reward of 5 million dollars to anyone who could provide information leading to his arrest.
He is often seen in public places like Reynosa, Ciudad Victoria, Matamoros and other cities in Tamaulipas surrounded by state and municipal police officers, whose commanders remain loyal to his criminal organization, one of the oldest in the country that was formed 50 years ago.The DEA informed the Navy the location of Tony Tormenta, one of the leaders of the Gulf Cartel. Story is that Tony was involved in a shootout with Zetas and the military got involved, a huge chase and shootout eventually broke out. Story behind that, Tony was cornered and captured.The members of the Gulf Cartel were blocking roads, burning lorries and sending military support. They were looking at a desperate way out. But that afternoon, the armed forces blocked all roads.
There were 660 soldiers and 150 army members deployed in the area. The shells led to the closure of three international bridges at the University of Texas at Brownsville. There were clashes with rocket launchers lasting more than six hours. Tony Tormenta was hiding in a building. The navy reported that the leader and two of his servants were killed in a safe house in the evening.There are obviously many conspiracy theories about the murder of Tony Tormenta. Tony Tormenta was killed as a result.

Burning cars block the road between/ November 5 2010 Matamoros / REUTER/STRİNGER
After Tony Tormenta was killed, the Zetas cartel would launch an operation against Ciudad Mier. But I end here because the writing is too long. The CDG-Z battle is a very complicated long battle. To be continued..


Sincerely Alper

The Beginning of the Nightmare-The Great War between Zetas and Gulf Cartel

The longest but exciting article I’ve ever written.

alpererdem1.wordpress.com

 

[TARAZ35]

 

[Kartal1]

View attachment 31391

They improved a lot and it is shocking how advanced equipment and weapons they have. I know that many of the weapons and equipment are imports from the US but the interesting thing for me is how they manage to smuggle so much into Mexico. Yes we know that the local police is corrupted there and the situation on the Mexico side of the border is suitable but how they manage to do all the business on US soil?

 

[Deliorman]

American authorities are maybe corrupt as hell too. Or just it is all being made on purpose. According to some the whole drug trade and supply with weaponry is being done with the help of the CIA.

 

[Ryder]

View attachment 31391

Wow seriously these guys are soldiers man this cant be denied.

A lot of Cartels also have basic military training to special forces training.

Los Zetas was also formed by former Mexican Commandos.

Its crazy how well equipped they are. People think cartels are just like gangs not realising those days are over they are soldiers who fight with military tactics and strategies.

No wonder the Mexican army is struggling because they are fighting soldiers that are equally capable if not better.

 

[TARAZ35]

They don't always have the advantage of having tactical equipment and sophisticated weapons, on several occasions they aresent into combat with airsoft equipment, all this to be baits and give their leaders the advantage of escaping and hiding from the authorities.