SUMMARY

The Los Zetas – Juan Pedro Salvador Saldivar Farias faction was a prison gang consisting of members of the Los Zetas cartel, imprisoned in the Topo Chico prison in the town of Monterrey in Mexico. The group’s leader, which has given name to this faction, also called "El Z-27”, was believed to have been in charge over a region in Tamaulipas on behalf of Los Zetas prior to his arrest. Juan Pedro Salvador Saldivar Farias was transferred to the Topo Chico prison in either late 2015 or early 2016, having earlier served time in other prisons.

The prison was known for being old and overcrowded and had been criticized by human rights organizations for the bad conditions the inmates lived in, with most of them lacking running water and electricity, as well as for the prison directors’ inability to stop violence within the prison. This stood in stark contrast to the “luxury cells” that was later found in the prison where the privileged inmates that controlled the prison lived, these cells were equipped with large televisions, saunas, air conditions and other luxury items.

By 2016 another prison gang, Los Zetas – Jorge Ivan Hernandez Cantu faction, had been in control of the prison for some time, something that Juan Pedro Salvador Saldivar Farias and his supporters wanted to change and thus challenged the group for this privileged position.