March 8 – 18 killed in gunfights in Abasolo, Tamaulipas. Most of the dead are believed to be operators for the warring Zetas and the Gulf Cartel. Mexican troops were deployed to restore order.
March 10 – Jorge Hernández Espinoza, the Director of Public Security for Santiago Tangamandapio, Michoacán, was found dead in his vehicle with one shot once in his head and three times in his chest.
March 29 - Police found the bodies of 6 men and 1 woman inside a car abandoned in an exclusive gated community near Cuernavaca.
April 2 - In Ciudad Juarez, a group of gunmen attacked two bars with fire bombs and shootings in less than forty-eight hours, killing over 15 people.
April 4 - A clash between the police and drug cartel gunmen left 7 dead and 6 people injured in
Acapulco, Guerrero. In addition, a whole shopping center was burned down by the gunmen, and a dozen of stores were left in ruins.
April 26 - 2011 Tamaulipas massacre: In San Fernando, Tamaulipas, after exhuming more than 40 mass graves, the final body count reached 193 corpses. Although not confirmed, some newspapers mention that the body count surpassed 500, but that the state government of Tamaulipas supposedly censored and prevented such publications.
May 1 - MEXICO CITY - The drug-war death toll for Mexico in April was 1,400, the highest of any month since the Mexican government began its war on illicit drug trade four years ago. The previous high was 1,322 in August 2010.
May 9 - The Mexican government, along with Sedena, disarm all police forces in the state of Tamaulipas, beginning with the cities of Matamoros and Reynosa.
May 14 - 2011 Durango massacres: In the state of Durango, 249 bodies were exhumed from numerous clandestine mass graves. Some sources, however, indicate that the actual body count reached 308 corpses.
May 16 – In Guatemala, 27 farmers were killed by Los Zetas; the majority of the victims presented signs of torture and decapitation.
May 20 - In Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, directly across the border from Laredo, Texas, 31 people were killed in a 24-hour span. In addition, more than 40 people were injured, and 196 drug cartel gunmen were detained.
May 27 - In Ruiz, Nayarit, a convoy from Los Zetas ambushed a group of gunmen of the Sinaloa Cartel; 29 gunmen were killed, 3 were found injured.
A confrontation between the Federal Police forces and La Familia Michoacana in a ranch at Jilotlán de los Dolores, in western Jalisco, left 11 La Familia gunmen killed and 36 arrested. More than 70 assault rifles were confiscated, along with 14 handguns, 3 grenades, 578 cartridges, 20,000 rounds of ammunition, and 40 bullet-proof vests. It was later discovered that La Familia Michoacana was planning a raid against the Knights Templar.
June 3 - In the state of Coahuila, 38 bodies were exhumed from clandestine mass graves.
June 9 - The United States government arrested 127 U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents who were collaborating with the Mexican drug cartels.
June 15 - A total of 34 people were killed in Monterrey, Nuevo León in a 24-hour span.
June 21 - José de Jesús Méndez Vargas 'El Chango', leader of La Familia Michoacana, was captured in Aguascalientes.
July 1 – In Fresnillo, Zacatecas, during a confrontation between Los Zetas and the Mexican forces, 15 Zeta gunmen were killed, and 17 were arrested; SEMAR notified that 6 marines were wounded.
Zacateca's Attorney General, Arturo Nahle García, confirmed that in Fresnillo, more than 250 Los Zetas gunmen confronted elements of the Mexican Navy throughout the whole city.
July 4 - Federal Police agents arrest Jesús Enrique Rejón Aguilar, one of the leaders and co-founders of the Los Zetas drug cartel.
July 8 - In the city of Monterrey, Nuevo León, a group of gunmen shot and killed 27 people, injured 7, and kidnapped 8 in 'Bar Sabino Gordo.' Presumably, this massacre was from the Gulf Cartel to their rival group Los Zetas.
July 9 - Fighting among Los Zetas and other drug cartels led to the deaths of more than 40 people whose bodies were found in three Mexican cities over a 24-hour span.
July 11 - Armando Villarreal Heredia, a U.S-born drug lieutenant of the Arellano-Felix drug cartel, is arrested by the Federal Police.
July 12 - In Ciudad Juarez, 21 people were killed in different parts of the city by gunmen. This marked the deadliest day for Ciudad Juarez in 2011.
July 14 - The Mexican Army discovers the largest marijuana plantation ever found in the country, 320 km (200 mi) south of San Diego, CA., in the Mexican state of Baja California; consisting of 120 hectares (300 acres) that would have yielded about 120 tons, and was worth about USD $160 million.
July 15 - In Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, 66 inmates escaped a federal prison during a massive brawl, where 7 other inmates were found dead.
July 23 – The president of Mexico, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, and peace and human rights activists, which included the poet Javier Sicilia, gathered in Chapultepec Castle to initiate a national aired discussion on Mexico's drug war violence and on the country's military-led strategy against the drug cartels.
Due to anonymous calls by civilians, the Mexican Army carried out an operation to crackdown operatives from Los Zetas in Pánuco, Veracruz; when the Mexican forces arrived at the place, the gunmen received them with shots, but the Army repelled the aggression and killed 10 Zetas.
July 24 - An unidentified group of gunmen disarmed 21 policemen in Michoacán. According to the information given, the gunmen carried out personal inspections to each police officer, disarming them one by one. The cops refused to defend themselves because the gunmen expressed high levels of anxiousness, and they were scared of being executed.
July 25 - Inside a prison in Ciudad Juárez, 17 inmates were shot and killed during a brawl between rival drug groups.
July 28 - Fortino Cortés Sandoval, the mayor of Florencia de Benito Juárez, Zacatecas, is found dead after a group of gunmen abducted him from his office.
July 31 - The Federal Police forces of Mexico captured José Antonio Acosta Hernández, nicknamed "El Diego," supreme leader of La Linea, the armed wing of the Juárez Cartel. According to government sources, "El Diego" had ordered more than 1,500 executions, some of them including government officials.
August 4 - The Secretariat of National Defense announced that after the initiation of the 'Operation Lince Norte', an operation focused primarily on destroying the financial and logistic sectors of Los Zetas, more than 500,000 pesos have been confiscated, and more than 30 'Zeta' gumnen killed.
August 12 - Óscar García Montoya, alias ‘El Compayito’, supreme leader of the criminal group La Mano con Ojos, was captured. He confessed to have killed over 300 people by himself, and ordered the execution of 300 more.
August 20 - In Torreon, Coahuila, a shooting was registered during a Mexican soccer match between Santos Laguna and Monarcas Morelia.
The mayor of Zacualpan, Mexico State, Jesús Eduviges Nava, was found dead after being kidnapped by gunmen who interrupted a meeting he was holding in his municipality.
August 25 - 2011 Monterrey casino attack: a well-armed group of gunmen massacred 52 people, and injured over a dozen, at Casino Royale. Although not confirmed, some sources mention that 61 were killed in the attack. This attack was the most violent and bloodiest in the history of Monterrey and of the whole state of Nuevo Leon. According to eyewitnesses, the gunmen quietly stormed the casino and immediately opened fire at the civilians, and then doused the casino entrances with gasoline and started a fire that trapped the people inside.
August 30 - In Acapulco, Guerrero, 140 elementary schools closed and over 600 teachers quit their jobs due to the money threats they have been receiving from the drug cartels. Over 75,000 kids are not attending school. One teacher confessed to have seen on a regular basis men in cars with assault rifles sticking out the windows, just outside school grounds.
September 14 - In the small town of Juchipila in the state of Zacatecas, over 80 gunmen—presumably from the Gulf Cartel—took control of the town, its jail, and its city hall for o
ver five hours. They mentioned that their goal was to wipe out any presence of Los Zetas in the area.
September 17 - Moisés Villanueva de la Luz, a Mexican congressman, is found dead in Guerrero after being kidnapped for thirteen days.
September 20 - Two trucks containing 35 dead bodies are found in Boca del Río, Veracruz. Sources mention that all victims were linked to Los Zetas, and that the executions were performed by the Sinaloa Cartel's armed wing, Gente Nueva. Nevertheless, the criminal group Los Mata Zetas claimed responsibility for this massacre. In addition, 14 more bodies were found around Veracruz two days after this incident, summing up to 49 bodies found in public highways in the last forty-eight hours.
October 4 - The Mexican federal government launches the military-led project called Operación Veracruz Seguro to ensure tranquility in Veracruz. Reports mention that Los Zetas, the Gulf Cartel, and the Sinaloa Cartel are present in that state.
October 5 - In Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexican authorities captured Noel Salgueiro Nevárez, the supreme leader of the Sinaloa Cartel's armed wing, Gente Nueva. In addition, they also captured Martín Rosales Magaña, one of the founders of La Familia Michoacana.
October 6 - In Boca del Río, Veracruz, a total of 36 bodies were found by Mexican authorities in three houses. Eight alleged perpetrators of the recent killings in Veracruz have been caught, including the leader of the group Los Mata Zetas. In addition, the Attorney General of Veracruz resigned from his position due to the increasing violence. A day after this incident, another 10 bodies were found across the state of Veracruz. The wave of violence has caused over 100 deaths in the past two weeks in Veracruz.
October 14 - Carlos Oliva Castillo alias "La Rana," third-in-command in Los Zetas organization and the mastermind of the 2011 Monterrey casino attack where 52 were killed, was captured in northern city of Saltillo, Coahuila.
November 11 – Francisco Blake Mora, Secretary of the Interior in the cabinet of Felipe Calderón, dies in a helicopter accident in foggy weather. Some sources speculate that his death was an assassination, though no concrete evidence suggests this.
November 23 – A total of 23 bodies—16 of them burned to death—were located in several abandoned vehicles in Sinaloa.
November 24 – Three trucks containing 26 bodies were found in an avenue at Guadalajara, Jalisco. All of them were male corpses. Reports mention that Los Zetas and the Milenio Cartel are responsible for the massacre of these twenty-six alleged Sinaloa Cartel members.
December 14 – A convoy of U.S. military members was seen crossing the U.S-Mexico border from Brownsville, Texas into Matamoros, Tamaulipas. The U.S. soldiers were greeted by Mexican military officials at the international bridge, and were escorted to their meeting location south of Matamoros. Reports mention that the meeting between the two military units was to discuss “mutual security” concerns.
December 25 – The Mexican army announced that it had captured Guzmán's head of security. The arrest took place in Culiacan, the Sinaloa state capital.
2012
January 4 – In a prison brawl in Altamira, Tamaulipas, 31 inmates were killed. According to the witnesses, the brawl was between Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas.
January 7 – Mexican police in the northern city of Torreon found the severed heads of five people killed in a suspected outbreak of drug gang violence. Officials were still searching for the bodies. The heads were found in black bags in various parts of the city late on Friday, a spokesman for the ministry of public security in the state of Coahuila said on Saturday. Threatening messages were left with the severed heads – a common feature of killings by drug cartels in Mexico – that suggested the slayings were the result of feuding between local gangs, the spokesman said.
February 2 – Two U.S. missionaries from a Baptist Church were killed in Santiago, Nuevo León by drug cartel members.
February 19 – In Apodaca, Nuevo Leon, 44 inmates were killed in a prison riot, presumably caused by a brawl between the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas.
March 19 – While conducting an investigation on the beheadings of ten other people, 12 policemen were ambushed and killed by gunmen in Teloloapan, Guerrero. Eleven other police officers were wounded.
March 23 – Thirteen people were killed in a wave of drug violence that swept Mexico a day before the Pope's visit. Seven men were found shot on the side of the road in Angostura, Sinaloa at a spot where locals often purchased contraband gasoline from the cartels. Four decapitated heads were found in an abandoned car in Acapulco. The body of a minor and a cab driver were also found in the town.
March 27 – Ten people were reported killed in a shootout in Temosachi in the Mexican border state of Chihuahua, where the Sinaloa and Juarez cartels have been fighting for control over drug smuggling routes into the U.S.
April 20 – Gunmen kill 16 people in a bar in the capital city of Chihuahua, Chihuahua. Two of those killed were journalists.
May 1 – Armed confrontations between the Mexican military and cartel members in Choix, Sinaloa left 27 people dead.
May 4 – In Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, 23 corpses—14 of them decapitated and 9 of them hanged from a bridge—were found early in the morning.
May 9 – The chopped-up remains of 18 bodies were found inside two trucks near Chapala, Jalisco, just south of the city of Guadalajara.
May 13 – The Cadereyta Jiménez massacre occurred on the Mexican Federal Highway 40. The decapitated and dismembered bodies of 49 people were found in Cadereyta Jiménez. The remains were left along the road in Nuevo León state, between the cities of Monterrey and Reynosa. A message written on a wall nearby appeared to refer to Los Zetas drug cartel.
June 4 - In the Mexican city of Torreón, Coahuila, gunmen killed 11 people at a rehabilitation clinic.
August 12 - A total of 12 decomposing bodies are found inside an abandoned vehicle in Zacatecas.
August 14 - Members of the Gulf Cartel storm a bar in Monterrey and kill 10 people.
October 7 - Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano is killed by the Mexican Navy.
December 19 – A failed prison break and subsequent brawl between inmates leaves at least 23 dead in Gómez Palacio, Durango.
The Original Zetas
1. Arturo Guzman Decena, El Z-1, killed
2. Miguel Angel Soto Parra, El Parra, Arrested.
3. Daniel Perez Rojas, El Cachetes, arrested in Guatemala.
4. Jaime Gonzales Duran, El Hummer, arrested
5. Navor Vargas Garcia, El Debora, Arrested
6. Mateo Diaz Lopez, El Comandante Mateo, Arrested
7. Omar Lormendez Pitalua, El Pita, Z-10, Arrested
8. Eduardo Salvador Lopez Lara, La Chavita, El Z-48, arrested
9. Alfonso Lechuga Licona, el Cañas, Z-27 arrested
10. Isidro Lara Flores, El Colchon, arrested
11. Jose Ramon Davila Lopez, El Cholo, Arrested
12. Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, El Lazca, killed
13. Jorge Lopez, El Chuta
14. Galindo Mellado Cruz, El Mellado Z-9, killed
15. Jesus Enrique Aguilar, El Mamito Z-8, arrested
16. Sergio Enrique Ruiz Tlapanco, El Tlapa, Z-44, arrested
17. Gonzalo Jerezano Escribano, El Cuije, El Z-18, arrested
18. Gustavo González Castro, El Erotico, at large
19. Flavio Mendez Santiago, El Amarillo, arrested
20. Carlos Vera Calva, El Vera Z-7, at large
21. Victor Nazario Castrejon Pena, at large
22. Braulio Arellano Dominguez, El Ganzo El Z-20, killed
23. Rogelio Guerra Ramirez, El Guerra, killed
24. Eduardo Estrada Gonzales, El Piti
25. Ernesto Zatarin Beliz, El Traca, killed
26. Raul Alberto Tejo Benavidez, El Alvin, killed
27. Luis Alberto Guerrero Reyes, El Rex, El Guerrero, Z-12 killed
28. Oscar Guerrero Silva, El Winnie Pooh, killed
29. Efrain Teodoro Torres, La Chispa, El Z-14, killed
30. Eduardo Costilla Sanc
hez, El Coss, arrested
31. Gregorio Saucedo, El Caramuela, arrested.
Known leaders of La Línea
Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Viceroy Arrested 9 October 2014
Juan Pablo LedezmaEl JLarrested
Juan Pablo Guijarro El Mónico Arrested 3 January 3, 2010
Luis Carlos Vázquez Barragán El 20 Arrested 26 July26, 2010
Marco Antonio Guzmán Brad PittArrested 17 June 2011
José Guadalupe Rivas González El Zucaritas Arrested 18 June 2011
José Antonio Acosta Hernández El Diego Arrested 29 July 2011
Jesús Antonio Rincón Chavero El Tarzán Arrested 18 August 2011
Luis Guillermo Castillo Rubio El Pariente Arrested 20 April 2012
The Bounty of Mexican Capos
Beltrán Leyva Arturo Beltrán Leyva El Barbas $30M Killed 2009-12-16
Beltrán Leyva Héctor Beltrán Leyva El General $30M Captured 2014-10-01 died in prison 2018-11-18
Beltrán Leyva Sergio Villarreal Barragán El Grande $30M Captured 2010-09-13
Beltrán Leyva Edgar Valdez Villareal La Barbie $30M Captured 2010-08-31
Beltrán Leyva Francisco Hernández García El 2000 $15M captured 2011-09-14
Beltrán Leyva Alberto Pineda Villa El Borrado $15M Killed 2009-09-12
Beltrán Leyva Marco Antonio Pineda Villa El MP $15M Killed 2009-09-12
Beltrán Leyva Héctor Huerta Ríos La Burra $15M Captured 2009-03-25
La Familia Michoacana Nazario Moreno González El Chayo $30M Killed 2010-12-09
La Familia Michoacana Servando Gómez Martínez El Profe $30M Captured 2015-02-27
La Familia Michoacana José de Jesús Méndez Vargas El Chango $30M Captured 2011-6-21
La Familia Michoacana Dionicio Loya Plancarte El Tío $30M Captured 2009-04-18
Los Zetas Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano El Lazca $30M Killed 2012-10-07
Gulf Cartel Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez El Coss $30M Captured 2012-09-12
Gulf Cartel Ezequiel Cárdenas Guillén Tony Tormenta $30M Killed 2010-11-05
Borderland Beat Page 40
