Thread: Mexican army captures Zetas drug lord Miguel Angel Trevino Morales

CBS News/ July 15, 2013, 7:21 PM

Mexican army captures Zetas drug lord Miguel Angel Trevino Morales


This photo of Miguel Angel Trevino Morales after his arrest was apparently leaked by the Mexican government and posted on Twitter by reporter Alfonso Ponce. / Alfonso Ponce/Twitter


One of Mexico's most wanted drug lords has been captured: Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, also known as "Z-40."

Trevino Morales, leader of the brutal Los Zetas cartel, was caught Sunday by Mexico Marines in his hometown of Nuevo Laredo, just over the U.S. border, CBS News has learned.

The U.S. State Department had offered a $5 million reward for Trevino Morales.
The Zetas cartel is among Mexico's most violent drug organizations, notorious for civilian killings and beheadings. Is leaders ordered the killing of 72 undocumented immigrants in 2010 in what is known as the San Fernando massacre. More recently in May, the Mexican army said their leaders ordered underlings to leave 49 mutilated bodies in a northern Mexico town square.

Trevino Morales' brother, Jose, was recently sentenced to 20 years in prison in Texas for using a racetrack to hide illegal drug profits for his brothers.
Las Zetas is one of eight major, rival drug cartels involved in an ongoing conflict for regional control.

Another horse ranch in Oklahoma was raided in June under suspicions it also hosted a money-laundering operation for Miguel Angel Trevino Morales.



The wanted poster for Miguel Trevino Morales on the Drug Enforcement Administration's website.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57593865/mexican-army-captures-zetas-drug-lord-miguel-angel-trevino-morales/

Capture of Mexican Crime Boss Appears to End a Brutal Chapter

Rodrigo Abd/Associated Press
Mourners in Guatemala City in March 2012, at the coffin of one of 193 bodies found in 26 mass graves in northern Mexico the year before. Guatemalan migrants were among the dead.

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD and GINGER THOMPSON

Published: July 16, 2013 20 Comments

MEXICO CITY — Body parts strewn on highways, etched with the letter Z. Videotaped torture sessions uploaded onto YouTube. Victims placed in barrels and dissolved into a “stew” of violent death.

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• Drug Kingpin Is Captured in Mexico Near Border (July 16, 2013)
  
  

Mexican Navy, via Associated Press

Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales in a photo released Tuesday.

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Tomas Bravo/Reuters

In Apodaca, Mexico, in 2010, the bodies of two women and three men were found with messages pinned to them signed “Z.”


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Since the Zetas emerged less than a decade ago as the brutal new figures in the storied history of organized crime here, Mexico has experienced some of its most shocking episodes of violence, and the bloodshed has seeped into other countries throughout the region.

Founded by heavily armed former soldiers trained for war, the Zetas did not pioneer sensational acts of violence in Mexico, but they perfected the practice of carnage as message, as they expanded beyond drug trafficking into extortion, migrant smuggling, kidnapping and other crimes.

With the arrest on Monday of Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales, the Zeta crime boss so greatly feared that many would not dare utter his name in public, Mexico’s long and bloody drug war may have reached a crossroads. Nobody believes that drug trafficking will let up now that the Zetas have been weakened. And an array of ruthless gunmen in and out of the Zetas have no qualms about continuing to kill.

But Mr. Treviño’s arrest, the killing of the previous Zeta commander in October and the recent capture of several other lieutenants have rocked the trafficking organizations that did the most to damage Mexico’s image and instill the most fear among the people.

Mr. Treviño, who was better known as Z-40, after his radio call sign given by the militaristic group, was captured before dawn on Monday, with $2 million in his pickup truck, after spending time with his newborn child in a rural area near the Texas border. American authorities played a key behind-the-scenes role in his apprehension and, after his arrest, confirmed his identity through biometric and DNA tests, according to officials on both sides of the border, who were not authorized to speak publicly on the case.

The relatively quiet denouement of Mr. Treviño’s career belies the mayhem that made his organization stand out. In some ways, analysts said, the Zetas became a victim of perverse success.

The organization grew so fast, drew in so much money and hired so many gunmen quick to pull the trigger that it lost the loyalty that other Mexican crime syndicates engendered toward their leaders, while older, more established cartels sought to take down the Young Turks making business tough for everybody.

“They broke the rules of the game,” said George W. Grayson, a professor at the College of William and Mary and author of “The Executioner’s Men,” a history of the Zetas. “They wanted to brand themselves, and the brand they chose was the meanest, leanest, most sadistic organization in the Americas. Just mentioning Zetas sparks fear in the hearts of those who hear them.”

Where family and community ties bind larger cartels, the Zetas, increasingly run by young recruits trained in remote camps to kill in spectacular fashion, depended on a culture of military discipline and a hierarchy that began to fracture under the pressure exerted by Mexican and American law enforcement.

The danger remains that the splintering of the Zetas will leave smaller, dangerous gangs copying their name and tactics as they continue to extort, kidnap and deal drugs. State and local police forces are generally too corrupted, ill prepared or not committed to take them on.

But several analysts said the arrest of Mr. Treviño, led by Mexican marines but supported with intelligence from the United States — where he is wanted on drug and gun charges — could be the beginning of the end of the group as a large cartel and, possibly, the large-scale violence it carried out with such bravado.

“As a cohesive group there is probably not much left of them,” said Alejandro Hope, a former Mexican intelligence officer and now security consultant at a Mexico City research group. “But there will continue to be people who call themselves Zetas, act like Zetas and belong to gangs that use their letter.”
International pressure will be a key factor, as arresting a capo is one thing, but taking apart an organization with offshoots in several countries is another, said Alberto Islas, a security expert in Mexico City.

In this case, President Enrique Peña Nieto, who took office in December promising to reduce the violence, had made clear that Mr. Treviño, who faces organized crime, murder, drug trafficking and torture charges, was a prime target. But, after years of what it saw as too much American involvement in its security agencies, the Mexican government wanted its forces to lead the way.

A senior American law enforcement official posted along the border, who was not authorized to speak on the record, described a recent meeting with his counterparts in Mexico City. “What I got from that meeting is that Mexico wants to prove it can handle this fight on its own — or at least on its own terms,” the official said.

Still, the Mexicans recognized the need for American help, and the two governments began sharing information on Mr. Treviño several months ago, with the Americans passing along word of the birth of Mr. Treviño’s child a little more than a month ago, the official said. The Americans also shared the information that he appeared to be making trips to visit the baby in the Nuevo Laredo area, near where he was captured, the official said.

The authorities traded intelligence gleaned from conversations caught on wiretaps and informants’ tips that led Mexican authorities to Mr. Treviño’s truck, moving before dawn on a highway near the border, the official said. Mexican marines in a helicopter intercepted Mr. Treviño and arrested him and two aides without a shot. Eight guns and $2 million in cash were confiscated.

“The reason they caught him without layers of security and without firing a shot,” said Art Fontes, a former F.B.I. official who spent years tracking Mr. Treviño, “is because he had $2 million in the vehicle and he thought he could buy his way out.”
While rumors about Mr. Treviño’s capture — including a photograph of him in custody — began appearing on Twitter late Monday morning, American officials said they were not formally notified about the arrest until hours later.

Mexican officials have not acknowledged any American role in the operation. Mr. Peña Nieto, the president, congratulated the navy on Tuesday and celebrated the capture as efficient coordination among agencies — Mexican ones. “I send my recognition and congratulation to the Mexican Navy and all the institutions in charge of our nation’s public security for the efficient work they have done,” he said at an event in central Mexico.

The Zetas took in substantial sums by running the migrant smuggling business through Mexico but were also known for preying upon those seeking to reach the United States. Mr. Treviño played a role in the death or disappearance of at least 265 of them, including 72 immigrants, mostly from Central America, who were found dead in northeastern Mexico in 2010, Mexican authorities said after his arrest.

The Rev. Pedro Pantoja, a Catholic priest in Saltillo, Mexico, who has been working with migrants for 20 years, said he had just returned from Guatemala, where he saw gang members working with the Zetas collecting thousands of dollars from people looking to reach the United States. No matter who is in charge, he said, the system will remain in place as poverty and criminal logistics combine, often with violence used as a way to maintain control.

“Organized crime still has all the power, with migrants, with kidnappings and with violence,” he said. “It will continue.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/17/world/americas/capture-of-mexican-crime-boss-appears-to-end-a-brutal-chapter.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Kingpin capture shows role of U.S.-trained Mexican marines

Jim Michaels, USA TODAY 7:07 p.m. EDT July 16, 2013


Mexican marines were integral in the capture of drug kingpin.(Photo: YURI CORTEZ, AFP/Getty Images)

Story Highlights

• Mexican army more nationalistic
• Marines seen as more open to outside influences
• U.S. officials have more confidence in Mexican marines

WASHINGTON — The capture of a notorious drug kingpin by Mexico's armed forces represents a significant victory for the government and highlights the emerging role of the country's marines in the violent battle against cartels, analysts say.

The successful capture comes as the Mexican marines have developed a close training relationship with their American counterparts.

A contingent of about two dozen U.S. Marines have been in Mexico training their counterparts in small-unit infantry tactics.

The American Marine contingent is made up of personnel on temporary assignment who rotate into the country and are limited to training, said John Cornelio, a spokesman for U.S. Southern Command. "They don't go outside the wire," he said.

The focus on the role of Mexican marines comes in the wake of their role in the capture of notorious drug kingpin Miguel Angel Treviño Morales outside the border city of Nuevo Laredo on Monday. Treviño Morales was the leader of the violent Zetas cartel and had long eluded capture.

He was nabbed by Mexican marines who swooped in and intercepted a pickup truck driving along a road in northern Mexico. He was captured with $2 million and a small arsenal of weapons. The U.S. military was not involved in the ground operation.

The role of the U.S. military in Mexico has long been sensitive because of the specter of imperialism that has historically cast a shadow over relations between the two countries.

But as Mexico's armed forces have been plunged further into the war on drug cartels, the U.S. military has stepped up help with mobile training teams and exchange programs.

"The relationship between the two militaries just continues to grow," Cornelio said.
The role of Mexico's navy and marines is emerging as an important player in the fight against cartels, analysts say. Mexico's 200,000-strong army is a more traditional force with a strong nationalist strain that runs through its officer corps, said George Grayson, a professor at William & Mary and an expert on Mexico.

The smaller navy and marines have been more open to outside influences, and their troops tend to be better educated and trained, said Roderic Camp, a professor at Claremont McKenna College, who has written extensively about Mexico. The Mexican marines currently have 21,500 troops but are expanding to 26,560, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

The Mexican marines have been quicker than the army to act on intelligence, which is often supplied by the United States, Camp said.

That has boosted the confidence of U.S. agencies that share intelligence with the Mexicans, he said.

"Of all the operational units in Mexico that are directed toward the cartels, they've proven to be the most effective," Camp said of the marines and navy.

"The navy is a modern force," Grayson said. "The navy is the favorite interlocutor in terms of military to military relations."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/07/16/mexico-marines-pentagon-drug-kingpin/2522855/

Zetas leader captured by Mexican marines, authorities confirm

By ALFREDO CORCHADO
Mexico Bureau

acorchado@dallasnews.com
Related
Miguel Angel Treviño Morales

• 10/14/12: Auction of horses allegedly linked to Zetas drug cartel draws interest

MEXICO CITY — Miguel Angel Treviño Morales, or “40,” leader of the brutal Zetas paramilitary drug cartel, has been captured, authorities on both sides of the border confirmed.

Known as much for his brutality as for his binational ties, Treviño Morales, who has ties to the Dallas area, was captured by Mexican marines early Monday near the border town of Nuevo Laredo, signaling the biggest victory against organized crime for the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto. The Zetas’ rise to power in Mexico changed the dynamics and ushered in a new era of violence across the country.

A picture obtained by The Dallas Morning News showing a beaten and bruised and somewhat overweight Treviño Morales was taken hours after his detention, one official said.

“He had a reputation of leading the most vicious group in Mexico,” said one law enforcement official. “This is a huge symbolic way to end his career.”
The capture of Treviño Morales, 40, drew immediate reactions on both sides of a border he had terrorized for years.

The fact he was captured without a fight caught some, including former FBI agent Arturo Fontes by surprise. Fontes has been tracking Treviño Morales for nearly a decade and believed that he would never be captured alive.

“He had told his closest associates he’d rather be captured dead than alive,” he said, adding that the region and “Mexico in general is breathing a sign of relief today. I’m especially pleased for so many families, so many victims who may now be able to know what happened to their loved ones. Who killed them and why?”

Mexican intelligence officials, with some help from U.S. intelligence, had been monitoring the area for months.

No shots fired

About 3:45 a.m. Monday, Treviño Morales and two companions were traveling on a dirt road between Nuevo Laredo and the state of Coahuila when authorities, in vehicles and a helicopter, gave chase. The vehicle carrying Treviño Morales was stopped without a shot being fired. Inside, authorities found $2 million, nine weapons and 500 rounds of ammunition, said Eduardo Sanchez Hernandez, spokesman for Mexico’s interior secretary.

Also captured were Treviño Morales’ security guard and treasurer, men identified as Abdon Federico Garcia and Ernesto Reyes Garcia.

Authorities say Treviño Morales had been in Nuevo Laredo visiting his newborn child and was headed back to Anahuac, Nuevo Leon, one of his hiding places in recent weeks.

Fontes, however, said he doesn’t believe the capture of Treviño Morales will lead to a decline in violence, at least not in the near future. The Laredo-Nuevo Laredo border is considered a key entry point into the U.S., with the so-called NAFTA highway — Interstate 35 — a prime possession for any cartel. In the days to come, rival cartels and corrupt police authorities will try to muscle in and fill the void left by the arrest, officials said.

Treviño Morales and the Zetas had grown organized crime from simply drug trafficking to extortion, kidnapping, piracy, prostitution and human trafficking, authorities say.

The Zetas are believed to be behind the killing of hundreds of poor migrants from Central America who were captured and killed on their way to the U.S. In one incident alone, more than 269 migrants were killed near the town of San Fernando, Tamaulipas, just miles from the Texas border.

“History will show that Chapo Guzman [Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman, leader of the Sinaloa cartel] was the bigger narco, but ‘40’ was the villain, the enforcer and game changer, the one who changed the landscape for Mexico, introducing unimaginable violence to the country,” said Fontes, one of the U.S. agents personally threatened by Treviño Morales. “This is a huge hit for the new government.”

Former U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza added, “This is a big hit, and you can’t underestimate the signal it sends to the Zetas, and to those within other organizations that have chosen to resort to what can only be called ‘narco-terrorism.’”

“I am certain there are many within the law enforcement community, both U.S.. and Mexican, who are reflecting on their lost colleagues this evening and know that this was the man responsible for so much suffering,” Garza said, adding the name of Jaime Zapata, a Homeland Security investigations special agent whose vehicle was ambushed in February 2011 by members of the Zetas believed to be operating under the orders of Treviño Morales.

“More broadly,” Garza added. “I think this administration is saying they mean business.”

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City congratulated the government in a statement and said, “This is yet another advance by the people of Mexico in the dismantling of organized crime.”

Likely successor

Treviño Morales’ younger brother, Omar, who was also raised partly in Dallas, is likely to be the new leader of the Zetas. Omar Treviño Morales, known as “42,” is known as the Zetas leader in the Piedras Negras area, across the Texas border town of Eagle Pass.

One of the groups to watch closely is the Gulf cartel, which originally recruited members of the elite Mexican special force squad that later reinvented themselves into the Zetas.

Unlike the founders, Treviño Morales had no military background and, like the majority of the Zetas today, represents more an image of thugs than disciplined army deserters.

His knowledge of the northeastern region and his brand of brutality — beheadings and corpses hanging from bridges — made him a threat to residents on both sides of the border. How his capture affects the violence across Mexico remains to be seen.

“Unclear, hard to say,” said one law enforcement official. “But things may worsen before they get better. I expect a lot of rivals jockeying for position, which may make the situation more violent.”

Treviño Morales came of age as a criminal in North Texas, setting deep roots in Mesquite where some family members, including his mother and sister, still live. He was born and raised in Nuevo Laredo, but moved to North Texas as a teenager. He later returned to his hometown and rose from car washer and chimney cleaner to street thug, authorities say. He has many nicknames, among them, “Death” and “Chacal,” because he was a night owl who roamed the back streets of Mexico.

He was wanted in the U.S. in connection with a 2006 double homicide in Texas and conspiracy to manufacture and distribute cocaine into the U.S.

According to court documents and U.S. authorities, Treviño Morales used North Texas as his playground. Last May, his older brother Jose was convicted by a jury in Austin of money laundering. He faces up to 20 years in prison for funding a racehorse operation with millions of dollars from the Zetas. His operation was based in Lexington, Okla., and North Texas. Sentencing is set for Sept. 5.
Treviño Morales had a $5 million bounty on his head placed by the U.S. government, $2 million by the Mexican government, and had rivals of his cartel gunning for him.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/natio...es-confirm.ece

Dangerous Los Zetas Drug Cartel Leader Attempted To Run From Capture In Mexico

Published July 18, 2013Fox News Latino

• 
  2010 Getty Images

As one of Mexico’s most dangerous drug lords tried, Miguel Angel Trevino Morales was not going to be captured easily.
According to a Mexican federal government official who spoke Wednesday, the Los Zetas cartel leader fled into heavy brush and fell at least once scratching his face during his failed attempt to escape capture this week.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the case, said the scrapes, which could be seen on Morales' face in photos distributed by authorities after his arrest, didn't result from mistreatment by the marines who stopped his truck before dawn Monday.
He said two men travelling with the purported leader of the brutal Zetas dropped to the ground when a navy helicopter positioned itself in front of their truck. Trevino Morales tried to run off into the brush on the side of the dirt road, but was caught, he said.
It was a strange end for the man considered Mexico's most vicious and violent drug lord. Authorities said they found eight rifles in the truck, but not a single shot was fired.
Federal security spokesman Eduardo Sanchez said Wednesday that Trevino Morales would first face trial in Mexico on multiple charges before any extradition request by the United States is considered.
"There is a long list of accusations in Mexico that he will have to face," including homicide, torture, organized crime, drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons possession, Sanchez said.
Trevino Morales, 40, better known by his nickname "Z-40," has been indicated in the U.S. on drug-trafficking charges.
Sanchez said that as far as he knew, the U.S. had not yet made any extradition request. The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City declined to comment.
Some Mexicans expressed cautious hope that their country might finally be emerging from six years of nightmarish drug violence that has been blamed for more than 70,000 deaths and thousands of people being reported missing.
"I think this capture (of Trevino Morales) is very important, and could make the difference," said Samuel Gonzalez, Mexico's former top anti-drug prosecutor.
"These people (the Zetas) are the ones who invented the whole process of violence, of decapitations, of hanging people from bridges," Gonzalez said. "If, despite all that, you see one of their most violent leaders arrested, it means that even despite those methods, they're being brought to justice."
Gonzalez said that given the brutality, low educational level and lack of sophistication of many of the Zetas' foot soldiers, the cartel's local affiliates could splinter to the point "where local authorities could handle them" if no clear leader emerges to replace Trevino Morales.
Mexico released figures this month suggesting drug-related killings nationwide had dropped nearly 18 percent in the seven months since President Enrique Pena Nieto took office Dec. 1.
However, experts said non-drug-related killings had not dropped as much, suggesting some deaths might simply have been reclassified, and noted that a decline in drug killings had started under the previous president, Felipe Calderon.
U.S. government figures on killings of U.S. citizens in Mexico say such homicides have dropped precipitously, to levels not seen since 2008. From a peak of 113 killings of U.S. citizens in 2011 and 108 in 2010, such homicides dropped to 71 in 2012. The U.S. government has not provided any figures for the first six months of 2013.
Alejandro Hope, a former member of Mexico's domestic intelligence service, said that "it's too early to know" what will happen to violence in the wake of Trevino Morales' arrest.
In the past, Mexico has seen varied reactions to the take-down of a major drug lord.
Following the arrests of most of the leaders of the Arellano-Felix cartel in the 2000s, the border city of Tijuana quieted down and killings dropped sharply while the rival Sinaloa cartel moved in to quietly take over much of the drug trafficking.
But after Arturo Beltran Leyva was killed in a shootout with Mexican marines in 2009, his cartel split into competing factions that waged bloody turf battles in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero and the resort city of Acapulco.
"I wouldn't be surprised if in places like Nuevo Laredo, where Z-40 had control, there may be battles to take over the leadership" of the Zetas cartel, Hope said. "But in other areas that are more in dispute ... there may be a more Tijuana-style solution."
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2013/07/18/dangerous-los-zetas-drug-cartel-leader-attempted-to-run-from-capture-in-mexico/