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Zetas drug cartel leader Miguel Angel Trevino Morales Christian Palma/AP/Press Association Images

Mexico captures boss of vicious Zetas drug cartel

Miguel Angel Trevino has been described as a brutal killer who liked to “stew” his enemies by plunging them in containers of oil and fuel that he would then set alight.

MEXICAN MARINES CAPTURED the head of the country’s ultraviolent Zetas drug cartel on Monday, giving the new government its biggest catch as it seeks to rein in violence.

Miguel Angel Trevino, alias “Z-40″, was detained in Nuevo Laredo, the northeastern Tamaulipas state city bordering Texas, along with two other people.

“They carried out an important arrest, of Miguel Angel Trevino, in the early hours of Monday,” an official from the federal attorney general’s office said on condition of anonymity. An interior ministry official confirmed the arrest.

The Zetas are considered one of the most powerful and feared organised crime groups in Mexico, founded by former elite soldiers and known for their brutality. Trevino is an ex-police officer.

Brutal turf wars

Originally, the Zetas acted as the armed enforcers of the Gulf Cartel, but the two groups split in 2010, sparking brutal turf wars in the north of the country.

The Zetas are also engaged in a fight for lucrative drug routes to the United States against the Sinaloa cartel, led by the most wanted man in Mexico, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

Officials have described Trevino — born in Nuevo Laredo but who spent part of his life in Dallas, Texas — as a brutal killer who liked to “stew” his enemies by plunging them in containers of oil and fuel that he would set on fire.

His capture comes eight months after Mexican troops killed his predecessor, Heriberto Lazcano, in a gunfight in the northern state of Coahuila, only to lose his corpse hours later.

After Lazcano was killed, gunmen burst into a funeral home and stole his body, which has never been recovered.

US government offered $5 million for Trevino

Trevino is the highest-profile drug kingpin detained since President Enrique Pena Nieto took office in December. The US government offered $5 million for information leading to Trevino’s capture, while Mexico had pledged a $2.3 million bounty.

Pena Nieto has promised to implement a new strategy against violence, launching a crime prevention program and planning to create a militarized police force.

His predecessor, Felipe Calderon, deployed thousands of troops across the country after he took office in 2006 to crack down on drug trafficking.

While authorities captured or killed two dozen of the 37 most wanted drug capos during his term, Calderon’s time in office was marked by a staggering more than 70,000 drug-related murders between 2006-2012.

Stratfor, a Texas-based security consultancy, warned that Nuevo Laredo, which is a Zetas stronghold, could see increased violence in response to Trevino’s capture. Analysts say the capture of drug capos often leads to killings because rivals battle to fill the power vacuum.

The Zetas are linked with some of the most gruesome crimes in Mexico’s drug war.

In August 2010, police found the bodies of 72 migrants from Central and South America at a remote ranch — all murdered by the Zetas cartel.

The gang is also suspected of being responsible for the arson attack on a casino in the northern industrial city of Monterrey that left 52 people dead in August 2011.

High profile murders

In another high profile case, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata was killed when suspected Zetas cartel members shot at his car in the central state of San Luis Potosi in February 2011.

And in September 2010, cartel gunmen fatally shot David Hartley, 37, as he jet-skied with his wife, Tiffany, on a lake straddling the Texas-Tamaulipas border.

The gang has also undertaken other activities, including extortion, stealing fuel from pipelines and trafficking migrants. And it has a presence in Central America, with authorities in Guatemala saying it is the main cartel in that country.

However the Zetas appeared to be fracturing last year, with a high-ranking military officer declaring in August that the cartel’s leaders were feuding, fueling violence in the north.

The fight for control was apparently settled by Lazcano’s death, which allowed Trevino to fill the void.

Column: “They put a gun to my head and told me to shut up or they would blow it off”
Mexico: 49 dismembered bodies found strewn on highway still not identified
Read: Mexican drug lord’s body stolen from funeral parlour

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31 Comments
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    Mute mcgoo
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    Jul 16th 2013, 9:13 AM

    So when you smoke snort or inject your chosen poison remember the nice guys that work so hard in the background to supply it. S.c.u.m.

    190
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    Mute Keith Maguire
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    Jul 16th 2013, 9:30 AM

    Be prepared for the inevitable counter argument “The government is to blame for making it illegal”. People who buy drugs like to throw this out there to reduce their guilt. But the basic fact remains, when you hand cash over to a dealer, this is what you support. That’s a choice you make freely.

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    Mute Gav Wilde
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    Jul 16th 2013, 9:56 AM

    The counter argument is the poverty that these people have to live with is a disgrace and the terrible wages they receive makes it easy for drug gangs to influence the relevant authorities or recruit ex soldiers and military men in2 their ranks. Sort the problem at the real source, poverty. Long live Chapo

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    Mute Roz
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    Jul 16th 2013, 12:14 PM

    I don’t know about you but I certainly couldn’t afford drugs even if I wanted them. So how can the poor?? If people weak enough to let other people influence them, to ruin their life and have a knock on affect of destroying others..well I hope it’s a short life they have:/

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    Mute Liam Breen
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    Jul 16th 2013, 12:28 PM

    I think there’s real opportunity to exploit a gap in the market here, most smokers I know condemn violence but turn a blind eye to all the nefarious activity across the supply chain.
    Advocate Fair trade cannabis – sustainable, regulated production that rewards the growers and the resellers equally.

    Of course the federal policy will have to match the emerging State policy in the USA first.

    No idea what to do with coke users not sure they care so much.

    13
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    Mute Omar johnson
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    Jul 16th 2013, 12:32 PM

    @Keith. Under that logic every time you switch on a light switch or everytime you fill your car with petrol you are supporting war criminals.

    17
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    Mute John M
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    Jul 16th 2013, 12:50 PM

    You’re on a laptop or phone I take it? Look into the mining of the minerals and the manufacturing process of those before you rush to judgement on an easy target like drugs. I don’t think you’re going to give up all your gadgets on ethical grounds so why should someone quit smoking stuff because of where it comes from? The argument is the same.

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    Mute John M
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    Jul 16th 2013, 12:51 PM

    That was @Keith by the way. Why do journal comments not reply in line?

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    Mute John M
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    Jul 16th 2013, 12:53 PM

    @mcgoo, The Garda would know better but I’m fairly sure that most of the drugs in Ireland do not come from Mexico.

    7
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    Mute joe dangermouse
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    Jul 16th 2013, 9:10 AM

    70,000 murders in 6 years.bloody hell.

    128
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    Mute Mark O'Malley
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    Jul 16th 2013, 9:39 AM

    Sending the mother in law there on holidays next week !!

    174
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    Mute Eoin Byrne
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    Jul 16th 2013, 11:14 AM

    Yup, the figures are appalling. And now, this guy will be replaced by one of his thousands of underlings (probably after a bloody internal feud). The war on drugs is being won…. by drugs.

    34
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    Mute ptriley
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    Jul 16th 2013, 9:23 AM

    Stew him and see how much he likes it

    55
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    Mute Adam Power
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    Jul 16th 2013, 10:14 AM

    Should of been shot, there should be an unwritten law that these guys are always “mistakenly” killed in conflicts with the authorities…

    33
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    Mute Silent Majority
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    Jul 16th 2013, 4:04 PM

    That makes lots of sense Adam, just kill him and don’t make any attempt to hold him and gather whatever intelligence can be gathered about his organisation, his trading partners both south and north of Mexico, about routes and methods being used to ferry the cocaine from South to North America. No you’re right, just kill him, sure intelligence is over rated anyway.

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    Mute Thomas Hutter
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    Jul 16th 2013, 9:10 AM

    Vicious swine

    44
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    Mute Dexter Gordon
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    Jul 16th 2013, 10:08 AM

    May he rot in hell.

    27
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    Mute sean
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    Jul 16th 2013, 9:28 AM

    dip him in costic soda , just like he and his henchmen have been doing to others ,
    I’d still like to know …which corporation is he working on behalf

    32
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    Mute Stephen Barry
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    Jul 16th 2013, 9:13 AM

    Did a lot of work for charity ,lets not forget

    26
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    Mute onlybuzzinwitcha
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    Jul 16th 2013, 9:34 AM

    Yeah I’m sure he was sound enough once you got to know him.

    72
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    Mute John M
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    Jul 16th 2013, 12:51 PM

    Always a big supporter of Tijuana Gaels GAA

    15
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    Mute MrKnow
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    Jul 16th 2013, 9:58 AM

    These gangs should be labelled as a terrorist group and hunted down by special forces.

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    Mute joe dangermouse
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    Jul 16th 2013, 10:09 AM

    Funny thing is most of the zetas are ex commandos and special forces..that’s why there’re so deadly.

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    Mute big shmoke
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    Jul 16th 2013, 10:04 AM

    They were founded by special forces! That’s not a fight that’s going to happen anytime soon.

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    Mute Getard Lanslanger
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    Jul 16th 2013, 1:24 PM

    Drugs are bad mmmmkay

    8
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    Mute anto Byrne
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    Jul 16th 2013, 9:55 AM

    If they legalised drugs in Mexico they wouldn’t have this problem

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    Mute sean
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    Jul 16th 2013, 10:08 AM

    wrong Anto , all the drugs in mexico make there way to the USA …………….Cocaine use in the USA comes in at around $35bn a year , lurcative business or what.

    37
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    Mute Kevin Smyth
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    Jul 16th 2013, 11:34 AM

    Billions of dollars and high powered weapons —> Mexico.
    Drugs drugs drugs —-> USA

    Prohibition fuels gangs/ cartels. Simples.

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    Mute ginger tomcat
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    Jul 16th 2013, 12:58 PM

    majority of guns come from us also

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    Mute Debi-Nikita Rathbone-Rentzke
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    Jul 16th 2013, 11:22 AM

    They are going to have to send him to another prison out of the country, pref to Siberia and have him totally isolated for the test of his life.

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    Mute Becky Eaton
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    Jul 16th 2013, 8:34 PM

    He is sick.

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