Borderland Beat

by Alex Marentes

  That being said, here in the US many of us in my particular military unit keep our finger on the pulse of what’s going on down in Mexico. You have no idea how many of us are just itching at the chance to avenge the deaths of all those innocent people and children, to restore peace and hope in the people of Mexico and to end the scourge of the indiscriminate assaults, shakedowns and kidnappings on the population. We consistently and independently prepare daily sitreps on the happenings and truly pray that we are given the green light soon.

  Not one more citizen Mexican or American should live in fear of these amateurs. We live and train to fight every day perfecting our craft and I would gladly give my life to ensure true freedom and prosperity to the REAL honest hardworking citizens of Mexico. I took an oath several years ago to defend my country from ALL enemies foreign and domestic and right now every DTO member is a foreign enemy to me and my unit. Godspeed to the people of Mexico and you are not alone.

  Anxiously awaiting the greenlight.

  Sua Sponte

  SSG M. Dietrich

  3rd Bn 75th Ranger Regiment”

  One of the GAFE that deserted the military to join Los Zetas that he was talking about was Lazcano who had a weakness for blonde women, a passion for horse racing and in the last five years, he had been passionate about another sport: the hunting of gazelles, zebras and exotic animals in reserves in Coahuila and San Luis Potosí.

  He was born in 1974 in Apan, Hidalgo, a place that is famous for its pulque (a Mexican alcoholic drink made by fermenting sap from the maguey). He had planned to make the army a career, but a former soldier convinced him to become a bodyguard and lured him to leave the military armed forces to join another force, a criminal organization known as Los Zetas. That was pivotal point in his life, it was 1998.

  His name was Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, they call him "El Verdugo" (The Executioner) or "El Lazca." He managed the forces of more than 400 criminal elements in 18 states of the Republic that dedicated themselves to abductions, extortions, homicides and the sale of illicit drugs.

  That is why he was number one in the organization of "Los Zetas."

  This was the origin of "Los Zetas", which owes its name to the color blue zeta, the color of the uniforms of Army officers.

  Second Lieutenant Alejandro Lucio Morales Betancourt "Z-2" was a boss of the criminal group until his arrest on November 17, 2001. The first task entrusted to Los Zetas was the elimination of the Gulf cartel’s adversaries.

  And from that moment on, Lazcano distinguished himself from the others.

  In February 1999 Osiel Cárdenas Guillén met Arturo Guzmán Decena "Z-1" in a house in Reynosa and ordered him to gather 20 gunmen to assassinate Rolando López Salinas "El Rolys."

  They arrived at a house in Miguel Aleman but failed to achieve their goal because Arturo Guzmán and Lazcano were the only one who assaulted the house firing gunshots but were met with heavy gunfire from the people inside.

  Lazcano fired a gas grenade inside the house causing an explosion and everyone ran out causing various casualties in the house. The Ministerial Police was responsible for covering up the crime scene so that no one knew who the killers were.

  At that time, in March 2002, Decena and Lazcano were "hunting" 4 police officers of the Nuevo Laredo Municipal Police. They were following them and the police officers noticed they were being followed. The officers were abducted, tortured and made them confess that they worked for the rival gang of Dionisio Román García "El Chacho," operator of "El Chapo" Guzmán.

  The police officers were killed by Guzmán Decena, Lazcano, "El Caris" and Leopoldo Flores Soto. The bodies were incinerated inside a 200-liter metal drum, until they were completely consumed.

  Then it was the turn of "Chacho" himself, whom "Los Zetas" executed on May 13, 2002.

  Between 1997 and 2002, Osiel Cárdenas implemented an internal investment to expand his organization.

  They called it "la polla" and it consisted of giving each new soldier that deserted and any civilian who joined their ranks a sum of 3 thousand dollars.

  With the money, they were to buy cocaine, cross it to the United States, place it in the market and make contacts for distribution.

  Everyone bought the cocaine from the Colombians Vicente and Camilo, who were contacted in Coatzacoalcos. As they made profits, each Zeta reinvested them in more coke and were able to grow their quantities of drugs from various transactions.

  Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano with the code "Z-3," bought 18 kilos of cocaine.

  The reproduction of the criminal enterprise was moving fast and up until then, there were no information or records from the PGR, that the Zetas were dedicated to the criminal activities of drug trafficking. Everything would change in a short period of time.

  Various investigations of the ministerial department and federal files in Mexico as well as in the United States closely followed "El Lazca." He had managed to maintain his leadership role in the organization through his brutal methods in counteracting with his enemies and establishing his regime of internal discipline: any "Zetas" that violated the code or betrayed the organization were executed, tortured or punished.

  Even if it was a friend. Lazcano always separated his businesses from his personal relationships. That was very well known by Alfredo Rangel Buendía "El Chicles", one of his most trusted men, who one day borrowed money form Lazca but did not pay him back in the time agreed.

  "Lazcano ordered all of the sicarios from the Gulf Cartel to kill El Chicles. The plan was for Iván Velásquez Caballero "El Talibán" or "L-50 " to tell him to come to a central point in Colonia Madero in Nuevo Laredo. When El Chicles arrived, they were to intercept him, abduct him and kill him.

  Instead El Taliban convinced Lazcano to just punish him instead and that he himself will get his money back. Lazcano hesitantly agreed, ordering El Taliban to just tie him up and sequester him for a month. To give him a little bit of water and food a day so that he did not need to go to the bathroom too often. This was related by a protected witness named "Karen."

  Since the capture of Osiel Cárdenas in 2003, Lazca directed "Los Zetas" from drug trafficking to other crimes, established new operations similar to the military that included sicarios from the "Kaibiles" of Guatemala. He would deploy spectacular tactical assaults in operations to rescue some of his accomplices.

  The Kaibiles were a special operations wing of the Armed Forces of Guatemala. They specialize in jungle warfare tactics and counter-insurgency operations.

  His gunmen claim to be part of "La Compañía" and Lazcano had been responsible for making them feel that way. Every end of the year, he would organize narco parties (posadas) in Matamoros with their plaza bosses and, they would make plans for operations and assignments.

  On January 14, 2002, the Army arrested Rubén Sauceda Rivera "El Cacahuate", the treasurer of the organization, and on November 21 of the same year, the historical leader of Los Zetas, Arturo Guzmán Decena "El Z1", was killed in a confrontation with the military in Matamoros.

  The final climate came on March 14, 2003, when Osiel Cárdenas was arrested in a military operation.

  In 14 months, the Army left the Gulf Cartel without its leader, without their finance chief and without the head of its armed wing Los Zetas. Coincidentally, at the same time a new external front was waged when Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán and partner Arturo Beltrán Leyva "El Barbas", then partners, decided to invade and steal the plaza of Nuevo Laredo from Los Zetas, when they invaded with 200 sicarios Sinaloenses (from Sinaloa).

  The Zetas found themselves in a fierce war that they had to face with very little finances and without leadership.

  One day in late 2009, Zeta bosses Heriberto “El Lazca” Lazcano and Miguel Angel “El40” Treviño called a meeting of top Zetas in Matamoros, where they voted to split from the Gulf Cartel. After the split, Los Zetas and Gulf cartel began to secretly arm themselves in anticipation of conflict. By February 2010, the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas began a bloody war in northern Ta
maulipas for the main drug trafficking routes into South Texas.

  By late 2010 the tensions between the Gulf cartel and Los Zetas boiled over into open war in the country’s east, with the Gulf cartel reaching out to its former rivals in Sinaloa as well as La Familia Michoacána to align under the name “New Federation” and pushing Los Zetas from one of their traditional strongholds, Reynosa, though not out of Nuevo Laredo or Monterrey. In its weakened state, Los Zetas began increasing operations outside the normal scope of drug trafficking, such as kidnapping for ransom. Cartel-related violence in the country reached new heights, with more than 11,000 deaths on record.

  Violence continued to rise in all parts of the country. The Sinaloa Federation continued to expand its territory north and east, taking over areas formerly under the influence of the Carrillo Fuentes Organization (Juarez Cartel) and the Arellano Felix Organization (Tijuana Cartel). With the help of Sinaloa, the Gulf cartel had been able to repel offenses from Los Zetas in Reynosa and Matamoros, though the Zetas proved to be very resilient.

  Mateo Díaz López "El Comandante Mateo" or "Z-10" testified on July 17, that everything changed when Lazcano emerged as the new leader.

  His first action was to employ "Kaibiles" from Guatemala and capitalize on the abductions, extortions and homicides inside and outside of Tamaulipas, to have financial resources that this war demanded.

  When Osiel was arrested, there were many problems within the organization, as their main leaders such as Eduardo Costilla and Gregorio Sauceda became disorganized and wanted to hide, but Lazcano took control of the organization and tried to bring calm.

  In order to sustain an organization with different operations, Lazcano created a new structure divided into regional specialized cells that dedicated themselves in criminal activities; "estacas" or groups of people that operated at the municipal level; "halcones" or lookouts, and auditors who reviewed the whole operation from time to time.

  For El Lazca it was important to have basic rules regarding communications between members of the Cartel.

  The number of Nextel cell phones belonging to Lazcano were identified by the letters MD, but every time they would arrest a member of the organization, all cellular phones would be destroyed and new ones bought along with the radios.

  Along with being coerced to participate in the reunions (posadas) at the end of the year, there was also incentives. The reunions were held so that everyone who worked for Los Zetas got to know each other. At those meetings bonuses were paid, raffles were held to give away houses and cars. And in those reunions was when Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano decided what sicarios were going to go with them to the different places they had at their command, including Mexico City, all under the command of "El Rex." This was testified by protected witness "Karen" on June 24, 2007.

  Thus, the Zetas resisted.

  Lazcano would eventually be killed in a shootout with the Mexican Marines on October 7, 2012. After his death, his body was stolen from the funeral home by armed sicarios.

  Alliances or agreements between drug cartels were shown to be fragile, tense and temporary. Since February 2010, the major cartels had aligned in two factions, one integrated by the Juárez Cartel, Tijuana Cartel, Los Zetas Cartel and the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel; the other faction integrated by the Gulf Cartel, Sinaloa Cartel and La Familia Cartel.

  There were few publicly available details regarding the history and earlier organization of the Cartel del Pacifico (CPS), which was formerly known as the Beltran Leyva Organization (BLO). The cartel’s leadership was comprised of five brothers, the top lieutenants, and the organization was based out of Sinaloa state. The CPS used to maintain operations on both Mexican coasts and its northern and southern borders, which moved significant quantities of cocaine into the US.

  The dynamics of how the cartels were fragmented had a lot to do on how the federal government deploy their offensive. The Calderon regime had taken on the cartels, but some were hit more than others and then there was the other thing that not many were talking about, corruption at the highest level.

  The Allende Massacre

  From March 18 through March 20, 2011, Coahuila lived one of its bloodiest chapters in recent history, the massacre and mass disappearance of people in Ciudad Allende, that also extended to other towns north of Allende.

  Los Zetas had established a strong hold in the north part of Coahuila when they advanced on that territory for the Gulf Cartel (CDG) to take Piedras Negras. Mellado Galindo Cruz, Commander Mellado or Z-10 , had led about 100 gunmen who threatened all drug traffickers in that border to join them or be killed.

  Before they arrive, Hector Moreno smuggled narcotics on his own along with US citizen Alfonso "Poncho" Cuellar and José Luis Garza Gaytan. Another independent drug trafficker was Efren Tavira, who operated with a group of "narco juniors".

  They decided to join Los Zetas.

  Miguel Treviño Morales Z-40 and his brother Omar Treviño Morales Z-42 decided to use the experience of those drug traffickers and put them in front of their cocaine smuggling operation to the United States.

  To protect their illegal activities, they bought protection from the Army, Federal Police, delegates from the PGR and state officials, especially the attorney general department.

  The leader in the Piedras Negras plaza was reported to be Raul Lucio Hernandez Lechuga “El Lucky.”

  Lucio Hernandez was the owner of several businesses using assumed names, among them the Black City Mall and Mario’s Steakhouse. Adriana Monserrat Cardenas, an associate and lover of el Lucky, was managing several of his business interests in Piedras Negras, along with other members of her family.

  Under Lucio Hernandez hierarchy in the plaza was Mario Alfonso “Poncho” Cuellar, an ex-officer with the defunct Policia Federal de Caminos (federal transit police). Poncho Cuéllar was initially recruited and mentored by the late Tony Tormenta. Cuéllar was known to be a close friend and associate of Z-40.

  The DEA had found $802,000 dollars in cash vacuum-packed and hidden in the gas tank of a pickup. The driver said he worked for a guy he knew only as “El Diablo.”

  After more arrests, DEA Agent Richard Martinez and Assistant U.S. Attorney Ernest Gonzalez determined that El Diablo was Jose Vasquez who was now the leading Zetas cocaine distributor in east Texas, moving truckloads of drugs, guns and money each month. Cuéllar and Vasquez were moving between 500 and 800 kilos of cocaine per month across the border.

  As they prepared to arrest him, Vasquez slipped across the border to Ciudad Allende, Coahuila, Mexico where he sought protection from members of the Zeta’s inner circle.

  But Martinez and Gonzalez saw an opportunity in his escape. If they could persuade Vasquez to cooperate, it would give them rare access to the senior ranks of the notoriously impenetrable cartel and a chance to capture its leaders, particularly the Treviño brothers, Z-40 and Z-42.

  DEA Agent Martinez persuaded Vasquez, a member of los Zetas, to give him the traceable identification numbers of the cell phones of Miguel Ángel Treviño Z-40 and his brother Omar Z-42, both leaders of Los Zetas.

  What Assistant U.S. Attorney Martinez wanted was the trackable personal identification numbers of the Treviños’ cellular phones. Vasquez had good reason to cooperate with the US agents, his wife and mother were still living in Texas.

  Under pressure to get the PINs, Vasquez turned to Hector Moreno, by using some leverage he had of his own. Gilberto Moreno was Hector Moreno’s brother who had been caught driving the truck with the $802,000 in the gas tank.

  Facing 20 years in prison, Gilberto had confessed that he was working for Los Zetas and that the cash belonged to the Treviño brothers.

  Mario Alfonso "Poncho" Cuéllar was the man responsible of getting new cell phones every three or four weeks for his bosses. Cuéllar assigned that task to his right-hand man, Héctor “El Negro” Moreno. The Zeta who would end up giving the numbers to the DEA was José Vásquez, a native of Dallas and one of the largest cocaine movers in Texas.

&
nbsp; Vasquez got all the numbers, including the ones for Z-40, and Z-42. Vasquez didn’t know what the DEA was going to do with them. He thought they were going to try to wiretap them or something to that effect. Vasquez never thought they were going to send the numbers back to Mexico. He warned them not to do that, because it was going to get a lot of people killed. They promised they wouldn’t. DEA Agent Martinez told Vasquez he had to trust him.

  However, the DEA made a huge mistake of sharing the information with an agency of the Mexican police despite the warning. The chilling reports that would eventually come out about the horrific massacre in Allende made the US authorities realize the grave mistake that had triggered a leak by Mexican authorities. After Martinez gave the intelligence information to his superior, it was passed to a DEA supervisor in Mexico City. He then, in turn, shared them with a Mexican federal police unit that had been specially created to conduct operations under the DEA’s direction.

  The confidential information on the PIN cell numbers was leaked to Z-40, warning him that someone in his organization had betrayed him.

  Most members of the Mexican Federal Police Unit received mandatory training and vetting by the DEA. But despite that vetting, most Mexican police units had a poor record of keeping information out of the hands of criminals. It was revealed that a supervisor with the Mexican federal police had leaked the information of the cellular PIN numbers to Los Zetas.

  Vasquez had been given the cellular IDs by Héctor Moreno, a lieutenant under Mario Alfonso Cuéllar, who was the main operator of Los Zetas in Coahuila. The cellular PIN numbers were shared with the DEA and were used by Mexican intelligence to attempt to trace the location of the top bosses.

  It was not difficult for the Zetas leaders to narrow down the list of people under suspicion, very few people had access to their PIN numbers. It didn't take long for the Zeta bosses to find out exactly who had betrayed them. They knew exactly who they needed to get revenge from. As soon as they found out who it was, the certain death of the traitors was assured.