SUMMARY
Los Zetas is one of the major drug cartels in Mexico currently battling for control over territory and smuggling routes.
Los Zetas was originally the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel, but has since its formation in the mid-1990s had its own structure and acted relatively independently. In early 2010 Los Zetas officially split from the Gulf Cartel and started fighting their former allies.
The Gulf Cartel originates from the 1970’s when the group, headed by Juan Nepomuceno Guerra, engaged in small-scale smuggling of alcohol through the Gulf of Mexico to the U.S. In the 1980’s the group included cocaine and marijuana in their business and in the 1990’s they grew into one of the largest drug cartels in Mexico. At the same time, the group gained a reputation as extremely violent as they eliminated rival groups threatening their territories.
The armed wing of the Gulf Cartel, Los Zetas, was created in the middle of the 1990’s by a group of deserters from the Mexican military’s Special Forces Airmobile Group (GAFES, Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales). This was the first time that a drug cartel controlled such a sophisticated and well-trained armed group. The name, Los Zetas, was given to the group after its first leader Arturo Guzmán Decena, whose police radio code was Z1. Decena died during a confrontation in 2002, and when his successor was captured in 2004 Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano took control of the group.
Los Zetas was loyal to Osiel Cárdenas Guillen, the previous leader of the Gulf Cartel, and functioned as his private hit squad. When Cárdenas Guillen was extradited to the U.S. in 2007, Los Zetas leader Lazcano grew increasingly powerful and Los Zetas gradually began to act on their own. In 2009, Los Zetas was more influential than the Gulf Cartel and in early 2010 they officially split from their former allies.
With its background in the Special Forces, Los Zetas has been referred to as the most formidable death squad to have worked for organized crime in Mexican history. The group has acquired lots of weaponry, mostly bought in U.S. shops just across the border. In November 2008, Mexican military raided a Los Zetas/Gulf Cartel safe house in Tamaulipas state and discovered the largest cache of arms ever found in Mexican history which included over 500 firearms and a half-million rounds of ammunition. The weapons of choice are AK-47- and AR-15-type rifles and high-caliber pistols, but Los Zetas also uses hand grenades and rocket-propelled grenades. The group is estimated to have around 2000 members.
In addition to the drug trade, Los Zetas are active in several other criminal activities such as extortion, oil theft and smuggling, trading with pirated CDs etc. Los Zetas has also been involved in human smuggling and has on several occasions killed Central and South American migrants passing through Mexico.
Since the cartel’s formation it has maintained a variety of loose alliances with other drug cartels embattled with the Sinaloa cartel. These loose alliances included support to the Tijuana Cartel, the Juarez Cartel, and the La Resistencia Cartel.
The cartel is based in the eastern parts of Mexico, along the Gulf Coast, and is particularly strong in the states of Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas and Coahuila. Furthermore, it has connections to criminal groups in other Central American countries, among others their Guatemalan equivalent, the ex-Kaibiles. There are reports that indicate that Los Zetas is present in Texas and in other U.S. states, and also in Italy where they have allegedly cooperated with the ‘Ndrangheta mafia. In 2010, the Guatemalan military reported that several cities in a northern province of Guatemala had been taken over by Los Zetas, and a state of siege was declared.
Los Zetas has been involved in the non-state and one-sided categories of UCDP organised violence.
