In the latest outbreak of violence in Mexican border city Nuevo Laredo, 23 bodies were found on Friday accompanied by notes indicating that they were victims of a war between the Zetas, the Sinaloa and the Gulf Cartel.
The Zetas forced one of their henchmen to surrender to the authorities after killing a US agent last year, in the hope of heading off a Washington-backed offensive against the group, according to a captured lieutenant.
On Tuesday, May 12, 2011, some 10 SUVs and pickups with tinted windows pulled up to a local gasoline station in Coban, the capital of Alta Verapaz state, north Guatemala. The men were heavily armed and flaunting the fact. The gasoline station is about a half block from the national police headquarters in Coban. They filled their four-by-fours with close to 150 gallons of gasoline, then drove about 100 km north along a major highway to start a week-long criminal spree that has shaken the foundations of this country of 14 million people.
The state of siege had not yet ended and they had already returned.
"Did you hear a cardamom seller was killed? Well, it was them," said a civilian intelligence agent, who was waiting for me in Coban.
The businessman was Boris Humberto Pinot, age 44. On the morning of February 17, he, who always participated in Coban's half marathon, was training on a runners' track in Jose Angel Rossi stadium, when two men showed up on a motorcycle. They made two circles around the track, and during the third circle they shot him, from less than a meter away.
When the agent speaks of "them," he means the Zetas.
Authorities have arrested 55 suspects, including 16 police, for participating in the murders of at least 217 people located in dozens of mass graves in the northern border state of Tamaulipas, El Informador reports. Many of the victims were pulled from buses, and the perpetrators are alleged members of the Zetas criminal gang. There's no clear motive or design behind the murders. It's hard to say when these arrests will bump into the law of diminishing returns, i.e., provoke the obvious question: Why weren't these arrests made earlier?
Authorities this weekend captured Martin Omar Estrada Luna, alias “El Kilo,” who answered to the top levels of the Zetas criminal organization. But does Mexico even care?
The armored cars Mexican gangs use to do battle in the contested state of Tamaulipas are increasingly technologically sophisticated, equipped with sniper platforms and James Bond-style gadgets.
The Zetas, once the military wing of the Gulf Cartel, is now among one of the most violent groups in Mexico. The Zetas started out as an enforcer gang for the Gulf Cartel, taking their name from the radio code used for top-level officers in the Mexican army. Not only are they highly organized, but their use of brutality and shock tactics – petrol bombs, beheadings, and roadblocks – has led the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to describe them as perhaps “the most technologically advanced, sophisticated and violent of these paramilitary enforcement groups.”
The video offers a glimpse of the extensive street intelligence networks run by the Zetas, one of the most powerful and violent criminal syndicates in Mexico.
In the low-quality video, distributed by Blog del Narco, an alleged Zeta operative can be heard speaking rapidly into what is apparently a 2-meter radio. The video shows the operatives driving a car through city streets somewhere in Tamaulipas state, according to Blog del Narco. A military convoy can be seen passing in the background. "We're arriving at the stoplight on 42nd street," a voice on the radio is heard saying, while other voices rapidly list street numbers and directions.
Mexican Marines seized 230 40mm grenades used for grenade launchers in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico’s El Universal newspaper reported.
