The story
Founded by Osiel Cárdenas Guillén in 1997.1
Etymology
Los Zetas was named after its first commander, Arturo Guzmán Decena, whose Federal Judicial Police radio code was "Z1", a code given to high-ranking officers.
Foundation
After Osiel Cárdenas Guillén took control of the Gulf Cartel in 1997, he found himself in a violent turf war. Decena deserted in 1997 and began working for Cárdenas in 1999 to protect from rival drug cartels and the Mexican Army. Decena lured more than thirty deserters from the elite Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales (GAFE) to become his personal bodyguards, and later, as his mercenary wing. Some of these former GAFE members reportedly received training in commando and urban warfare from the Israeli and U.S. Special Forces.
Once Guillén consolidated his power, he expanded the responsibilities of Los Zetas, which began to organize kidnappings, protection rackets, extortion, securing cocaine supply and trafficking routes known as plazas (zones) and executing its foes, often with extreme violence. However, in November 2002, Decena was killed in a military action at a restaurant in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, allowing Heriberto Lazcano ("Z3") to take control of the group. In response to the rising power of the Gulf Cartel, the rival Sinaloa Cartel established Los Negros, an enforcer group similar to Los Zetas but not as complex or successful. Upon the arrest of Guillén in March 2003 and his extradition in 2007, the Zetas took a more active leadership role within the Gulf Cartel and their influence grew within the organization.
The Zetas' membership ranged from corrupt federal, state, and local police officers, and former U.S. Army personnel, to ex-Kaibiles, the special forces of the Guatemalan military. Over time, many of the Zetas' original thirty-one members were killed or arrested; a number of younger men filled the vacuum, but that left the group far from the efficiency of their paramilitary origins.
Los Zetas was partially responsible for a qualitative increase in the brutality of the violence seen during the modern Mexican drug wars. Unlike other cartels, the Zetas did not buy alliances so much as terrorize their enemies. Because the cartel was quite new at the time, it competed with more established cartels by using extreme violence and cruelty as a form of psychological warfare. They tortured victims, strung up bodies, and slaughtered indiscriminately. They preferred to take military-style control of territory, holding it through sheer force and exploiting its criminal opportunities. Although their military training was diluted over time, their brutality was not. Rival cartels struggling against the Zetas began to adopt some of their tactics, further ramping up violence in the country. As other organized crime groups subsequently copied the Zetas' brutal and extreme methods to ensure their survival, this escalated the violence in Mexico to new heights. Some of these new torture methods and hyper-violent executions included practices such as flaying and castration.
Split from the Gulf Cartel
Following the capture and extradition of Cárdenas, Los Zetas became so powerful that they outnumbered and outclassed the Gulf Cartel in revenue, membership, and influence by 2010. As a result of this imbalance, the Cartel tried to curtail their own enforcers' influence and ended up instigating a civil war. In addition, the Gulf Cartel, through its narco-banners in Matamoros and Reynosa, accused Los Zetas of expanding their operations to murder, theft, extortion, kidnapping – actions that the Gulf Cartel allegedly disagreed with. Los Zetas countered by posting their own banners throughout Tamaulipas, noting that they had carried out executions and kidnappings under orders of the Gulf Cartel and they were originally created for that sole purpose. In addition, Los Zetas charged that the Gulf Cartel was scapegoating them for the murders of innocent civilians.
Reports vary as to who triggered the formal split and why. Some sources claim that Guillén, brother of Cárdenas and one of the successors of the Gulf Cartel, was addicted to gambling, sex, and drugs, leading Los Zetas to perceive his leadership as a threat to the organization. Other reports mention, however, that the divide occurred due to a disagreement on who would take on the leadership of the cartel after the extradition of Cárdenas. The candidates from the Cartel were Guillén and Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez, while Los Zetas wanted to hand the leadership to their own head, Lazcano. The Cartel also reportedly began looking to form a truce with the rival Sinaloa Cartel, which Los Zetas did not want to recognize, allegedly preferring an alliance with the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel.
Samuel Flores Borrego, a lieutenant of the Cartel, killed Zetas lieutenant Sergio Peña Mendoza alias "Comandante Concord", due to a disagreement over the drug corridor of Reynosa, whom both protected. Los Zetas demanded that the Cartel hand over the killer, but they refused.This refusal marked the beginning of the split between the two organizations: within months, Los Zetas moved to seize territory and drug routes previously controlled by their former Gulf Cartel allies, igniting the broader Los Zetas–Gulf Cartel conflict that dominated organized crime in northeastern Mexico through 2010 and beyond.
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When the hostilities began, the Cartel joined forces with its former rivals, the Sinaloa Cartel and La Familia Michoacana, aiming to take out Los Zetas. Consequently, Los Zetas allied with the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, the Juárez Cartel, and the Tijuana Cartel.
Los Zetas infighting
In early 2010, Miguel Treviño Morales, the former second-in-command of Los Zetas, had reportedly taken the leadership of the Zetas and displaced Lazcano. Lazcano was initially content to have Morales in his ranks, but reportedly gave Morales too much power and underestimated his violent nature. Morales' active leadership gained him the loyalty and respect of many in Los Zetas, leading many to eventually stop paying their tributes to Lazcano. Los Zetas were inherently an unstable organized crime group with a long history of brutal violence. Another splinter group was formed also named Sangre Nueva Zeta (New Blood Zeta), allying themselves with the Jalisco Cartel as an armed wing. In March 2019, Texas Republican congressman Chip Roy introduced a bill that would list the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas, Jalisco New Generation Cartel and Gulf Cartel as foreign terrorist organizations. Those plans were halted at the request of Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, but in February 2025, State Department designated the Cártel del Noreste, one of the main splinter groups remaining from the Zetas, as a foreign terrorist organization.
Attacks
Los Zetas have also carried out multiple massacres and attacks on civilians and rival cartels, such as:
the 2010 San Fernando massacre (24 August), where 72 migrants were found dead;
the 2011 San Fernando massacre (6 April – 7 June), where 193 people were killed;
the massacre of 27 farmers in Guatemala (discovered on 15 May 2011);
the 2011 Monterrey casino attack (25 August), where 52 people were killed;
the Altamira prison brawl (4 January 2012), where 31 Gulf cartel inmates were killed;
the Apodaca prison riot (19 February 2012), where 44 Gulf cartel inmates were killed and 37 Zetas escaped from prison;
In addition, sources reveal that Los Zetas may also be responsible for:
the 2010 Puebla oil pipeline explosion, which killed 28 people, injured 52, and damaged over 115 homes.
the 2011 massacre at Allende, Coahuila where an estimated 300–500 civilians were killed after the Zetas accused two local men of betraying the organization.
The BPM Festival shootings (16 January 2017), which killed five people (two Mexicans, one American, one Canadian, and one Italian) and injured 15 at the Blue Parrot nightclub in Playa del Carmen. A large hand-painted sign was hung in the town which contained specific references to BPM and its co-founder and was signed by "El Fayo Z".
Current status
By 2011, only 10 of the original 34 Zetas remained fugitives, and to this day most of them have either been killed or captured by the Mexican law enforcement and military forces.
As of 2012, Los Zetas had control over 11 states in Mexico, making it the drug cartel with the largest territory in the country. Their rivals, the Sinaloa Cartel, had lost some territories to Los Zetas, and went down from 23 states in dominion to 16.
By the beginning of 2012, Mexico's government escalated its offensive against the Zetas with the announcement that five new military bases will be installed in the group's primary areas of operation.
On 9 October 2012, the Mexican Navy confirmed that Los Zetas leader Heriberto Lazcano had been killed in a firefight with Mexican marines in Coahuila.
In a May 2013 interview with the International Crisis Group, researcher Daniel Haering stated, "The old networks were disrupted by the Zetas, and now the Zetas have disintegrated into Zetillas. They are splinter groups ('grupúsculos'), not big operators."
On 14 July 2013, it was reported that the Mexican Marine Corps captured the Zetas leader Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales, also known as "Z-40" in Anáhuac, Nuevo León, near the border of Tamaulipas state. The authorities allege that he was succeeded by Omar Treviño Morales (alias Z-42), his brother.
On 12 October 2013, Mexican authorities captured alleged top Zetas operative Gerardo Jaramillo, alias "El Yanqui". His arrest ultimately resulted in the discovery and seizure of a large Zetas weapons cache and supply stash, including "assault rifles, several grenade launchers, magazines, 2,000 rounds of ammunition of various calibres, bullet-proof vests and balaclavas".
On 9 May 2014, one of the founding members, Galindo Mellado Cruz, and four other armed men were killed in a shootout after Mexican security forces raided Cruz's hideout in the city of Reynosa.
On 3 March 2015, Mexican security forces arrested the last known leader of the remaining Zetas structure, Omar Treviño Morales (alias "Z-42") in a suburb in Monterrey, Nuevo León.
On 23 March 2015, Ramiro Pérez Moreno (alias "El Rana"), a potential successor of "Z-42" was captured, along with 4 other men, carrying 6 kilos of cocaine and marijuana, rifles and one hand grenade.
On 9 February 2018, Mexican authorities arrested the new leader José María Guízar Valencia alias "Z-43" in Mexico City in Roma neighbourhood. U.S. offered $5m reward for his capture, he is responsible for importing thousands of kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine to the U.S. every year and murdered an untold number of Guatemalan civilians during the systematic takeover of the Guatemalan border region.
On 9 April 2019, José Roberto Stolberg Becerra, also known as "La Barbie", was arrested in Jalisco. He was reported to have been the leader of the cartel's Los Zetas la Vieja Escuela (Old School Zetas) faction.
On 26 May 2019, an operative for Los Zetas in the Veracruz municipalities of Las Choapas and Agua Dulce was arrested by the Mexican Navy.
In early July 2019, Los Zetas leaders Jorge Antonio "El Yorch" Gloria Palacios, the second-in-command of the Cartel Del Noreste (CDN) faction of Los Zetas, and Hugo "El Ganso" Sanchez Garcia, who served as head of Los Zetas in San Fernando, were detained by Mexican authorities.
In January 2020, Los Zetas regional leader José Carmen N., also known as "El Comandante Reyes", was arrested in Oaxaca. He was believed to be in charge of the gang's operations in 12 municipalities in Veracruz, including Acayucan, Minatitlán and Coatzacoalcos, known as the state's most violent towns. The same month, Verónica Hernández Giadáns, the Attorney General of Veracruz, admitted that her cousin Guadalupe "La Jefa" Hernández Hervis was in fact chief of operations for Los Zetas and also a close association of former Los Zetas leader Hernán "El Comandante H" Martínez Zavaleta, who was arrested in 2017.
In March 2020, senior Los Zetas operative Hugo Alejandro Salcido Cisneros, also known as "El Porras" or "Comandante Pinpon", was killed in a gun battle with police in Nuevo Laredo. Salcido Cisneros was the leader of the "Tropa del Infierno", a group of hitmen under the direction of the Cartel Del Noreste (CDN) faction of Los Zetas. Several other Tropa del Infierno gunmen were injured in the clashes as well.
In May 2020, Moisés Escamilla, a leader of the "Old School Zetas", died in prison due to COVID-19.
From Wikipedia’s article on Los Zetas, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4