5 towns have the worst dispute for control in Tamaulipas

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Milenio article with additional picture from the Borderland Beat archive.

Subject Matter: Cartel del Golfo, Los Zetas
Recommendation: See link to article by BB reporter DD on recent events in Tamaulipas

Reporter: Ruben Mosso and Ignacio Alzaga
After the blows given by the Federal Forces to the Cartel del Golfo and to Los Zetas, the violence has not ceased in Tamaulipas, because ten criminal cells of different organizations are disputing for control of the State, a war that is concentrated on five towns.

The disputes are centred on Nuevo Laredo, Tampico, Ciudad Reynosa, Matamoros and Ciudad Victoria.

At the end of the 90's decade, the ex leader of the Cartel del Golfo, Osiel Cardenas Guillen, El mata Amigos, or the friend killer, gave birth to a structure that impacted the nation, because the new armed wing he created, Los Zetas, changed the panorama of organized crime.




As well as drug trafficking, which is its principal business, the cartel diversified and started to kidnap businessmen, steal fuel, charge quotas to businesses, counterfeit and kill migrants, crimes that until that time when the two organization sought control, had not been seen, Cardenas Guillen had "Colombianized" Mexico.

Statistics

According to information from the Secretary of National System of Public Security, from the PGR and recorded by Milenio, from 2007 to date in Tamaulipas 2757 people have been killed. (Otis: to put this into perspective, the war between the IRA and the UK, in 30 years only 3600 people were killed).

As well as 200 bodies being discovered in 48 clandestine graves and 1284 kidnappings, and 1459 extortion's. ( Otis: these are the ones that have been reported).

In the last ten years, the PGR has documented 2985 illegal fuel pipe tapping's, and the Ministry said 1959 vehicles had been stolen.

In an equal manner, it is the State where most Army lives have been lost, from the 1st of December of 2006 to the 1st of January of this year, there have been 118 soldiers killed of the 492 that have been killed since the war on narco trafficking was declared, that represents 23.7 percent of the victims.

The towns and places where the soldiers were killed are: Aldama, Ciudad Reynosa, Miguel Aleman, Ciudad Victoria, Los Comales, Ciudad Mier, Nuevo Laredo, San Fernando, Altamira, Matamoros, Rio Bravo, Tampico, Abasolo, Villagran, Santander Jimenez, Hidalgo, Valle Hermoso, Guemez, Ciudad Guerrero and Camargo.

The actions

During the last year, the reinforcement of the Army and Marines to Tamaulipas has permitted the dis-articulation of 15 cells of Cartel del Golfo and Los Zetas.

In May of 2016, information from Seido and Cenapi gave account of the existence of the following criminal cells;

Cartel del Golfo
Metros, Rojos, Grupo Lacoste, Grupo Dragones, Grupo Bravo, Grupo Pumas, Grupo de Apoyo Ceros, M3, Los Fresitas, Los Sierra, Los Pantera, Ciclones and Los Pelones.

Los Zetas
Sangre Zeta, Grupo Operativo Zeta, Comando Zetas, El Circulo, El Extranjero, Unidad Zeta, Nectar Lima, Grupo Delta Zeta, Fuerzas Especiales Zeta and Cartel del Noreste, cells that had presence in Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Guanajuato, Tabasco and Quintana Roo.

However the most recent information from Seido and Cenapi, to the 30th of March of 2017, indicate that there are 15 cells were disputing and only the following were operational:

Cartel del Golfo
Metros, zone of operation of Reynosa; Rojos in Matamoros, Grupo Dragones in Tampico, Los Fresitas that operate in all of the State, Los Ciclones also in all of the State; Los Pelones and Talibanes, who all operate in Quintana Roo.

So the armed forces have dis-articulated the following seven cells, Grupo Lacoste, Grupo Bravo, Grup Pumas, Grupo de Apoyo Ceros, M3, Los Sierra and Los Pantera.

Meanwhile Los Zetas operate in all Tamaulipeco territory with only three cells; Grupo Operativo Los Zetas, Grupo Operativo Zetas and Fuerzas Especiales Zetas.

The Federal forces have finished off eight groups linked to Los Zetas: Sangre Zetas, El Circulo, El Extranjero, Unidad Zeta, Nectar Lima, Grupo Delta Zeta and Cartel del Noreste.

Comandante Toro

This past Saturday, Federal Forces in a confrontation took down in Tamaulipas, two leaders of those Cartels; Julian Manuel Loisa Salinas, El Comandante Toro, leader of the Cartel del Golfo in Reynosa, and Francisco Javier Carreon Olvera, Pancho Carreon, Jefe of Old School Zetas.

These events gave rise to 32 narco blockades, as well as dozens of incendiary incidents, a situation that led to the total paralysis of Reynosa.

Around 5 am in the morning of Saturday, the Municipal Government launched a red alert in the social networks to inform the population of the situation of risk, and asked that people take precautions.

The death of Comandante Toro, could lead to the leadership of the Golfos to fall to the regional leaders Victor Manuel Perez Rico, Pantera 16, and Hector Crescencio de Leon Fonseca, R3, who was set free in February of 2016.

One of the visible leaders of Los Zetas is Juan Gerardo Trevino Chavez, El Huevo Junior, of whom it is said is the nephew of Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, El Z-40.

Resurgence

when the General Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo was named head of the National Institute for Combating Drugs, in 1996, various soldiers were sent to Intercept bases, these soldiers had received training in the USA and Israel.

In 1999 it was reported that in the Army, personnel had started to be corrupted by the leader of the Cartel del Golfo, Cardenas Guillen, who started the Sicario group Los Zetas, led by Arturo Guzman Decenas, El Z-1.

The FBI alerted that the armed wing of the Cartel del Golfo controlled members of the criminal organizations of the Mexican Mafia or La Eme, Texas Syndicate, MS-13, and Hermanos Pistoleros Latinos, in United States Territory. Los Zetas were catalogued by the United States as para-military group.

Leadership

Osiel Cardenas was captured during an operation of the Army in March of 2003, after his detention, the ex commander of the Ministerial Police of Tamaulipas, Jorge Eduardo Costilla, El Coss, took control of the Cartel and displaced Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen, Tony Tormenta, brother of Osiel, and Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, El Lazca, or the executioner, the leader of Los Zetas.

El Coss

In the File PGR/SEIDO/UIEDCS/122/2006, Mateo Diaz Lopez, El Comandante Mateo, or El Z-10, detained in Cunduacan, Tabasco, on the 15th of July of 2006, declared before the Federal Public Ministry that El Coss had the following cell leaders:

Tony Cardenas, Tony Tormenta, who was in charge of the Matamoros Plaza; Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano El Lazca, with the key Z-3 who was in charge of the group of Los Zetas, Gregorio Saucedo, Goyo or Caramuela, who was in charge of the Reynosa Plaza.

Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, El Z-40 was found to be in charge of the Nuevo Laredo Plaza and that he reported directly to El Z-3, and that he was well trusted.

Mateo signalled that following 1997, when elements of GAFE were commissioned to the PGR, were later sent out to subsections of this Federal Agency:

"I was commissioned to carry out intelligence activities in relation to certain subjects, if it was money, car theft, in order to establish if they were involved in something bad, during this work I met in the City of Miguel Aleman, Arturo Guzman Decenas, Z-1, who served in this place, as well as his commander by the name of, Victor Nazario Castrejon Pena.

Castrejon Pena

He found out about my constant visits and asked me if I had been tasked to spy on him, I admitted that I  had and he told me what he wanted, he understood and I began to make friends with them.

In 2010, Los Zetas confronted the Cartel del Golfo, after Osiel Cardenas was extradited to the United States and negotiated wit the Mexican Authorities in exchange for information about the Cartel del Golfo and Los Zetas, sparking a war that has kept going until this day.

Leaders fall

In November of 2010, the special forces of the Naval Secretariat killed Ezequiel Cardenas, who headed a Cartel del Golfo faction and disputed the leadership with El Coss, Osiels brother had problems with drugs, which made it difficult for him to make decisions.

On the 12th of September of 2012, El Coss was captured by the Marines Special Forces during an operation in Tampico, in our country there was a bounty of 30 million pesos for the Capo, meanwhile in the United States there was a bounty of 5 million dollars on his head.

With the fall of El Coss, there started an internal dispute between various factions of the Cartel that is still raging until today for control of the cartel.

Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano

In October of 2012, the Marines took down the overall leader of Los Zetas, Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano during a confrontation with naval personnel on the Sabinas highway, on the way to Progreso, Coahuila.

The leadership was assumed by Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, El Z-40, who was captured on the 15th of July of 2013, by the Marines, near the town of Anahuac, Nuevo Leon.

On the 4th of March of 2015, the same happened to Omar Trevino Morales, El Z-42, who had the leadership of the Cartel. Since his fall, Los Zetas have had internal disputes.

Crimes

Los Zetas have killed military, they were also behind the arson at the Casino Royale, in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, where 52 persons lost their lives in 2011. They were also responsible for the deaths of 72 migrants in the town of San Fernando, in 2010; and of the deaths of 193 persons found in clandestine graves in the municipality of Tamaulipas, and the massacre of 49 people in Cadereyta, Neuvo Leon. (Otis: also the massacre of hundred of families at Allende, Coahuila).

Original article in Spanish at Milenio