Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, 40, was captured by Mexican Marines before dawn on Monday. Marines intercepted a pickup truck with $2 million in cash on a dirt road in the countryside outside the border of Nuevo Laredo. Trevino Morales is the leader of the notoriously ruthless Zetas drug cartel. The truck was halted by a Marine helicopter, taken into custody along with Morales was an accountant, a bodyguard and eight guns.
Morales, alias “Z-40,” began his career as a teenage gofer for the Los Tejas gang, which controlled majority of the crime in his hometown across the border from Laredo, Texas. He graduated from washing cars and running errands to running drugs across the border, and was recruited into the Matamoros-based Gulf cartel.
Morales joined the Zetas, Mexican special forces deserters who defected to work as hit men and bodyguards for the Gulf cartel in the late 1990s.The Zetas split from their former bosses in early 2010, pursuing an aggressive drive to expand their territory, becoming one of the most powerful cartel heads in Mexico. They recruited from Guatemala and Texas; appointing existing gangs to do their dirty work, simultaneously diversifying their criminal enterprises from drugs into, extortion kidnapping and even music piracy.
Known for their brutality the Zetas are blamed for some of the worst carnages in Mexico’s drug war, including the murder of 72 migrants and the burning of a casino that claimed the lives of 52 people. In May, they allegedly dumped the headless and limbless torsos of 49 victims near the city of Monterrey.
One technique Trevino Morales favored was the “guiso,” or stew, in which enemies were placed in 55-gallon drums and burned alive. Others who crossed the commander would be beaten with wooden planks, an official said, who spoke anonymously.
Through their paths, the Zetas authored some of the worst atrocities of Mexico’s drug war, leaving hundreds of bodies beheaded on roadsides or hanging from bridges, earning a reputation as the most terrifying of the country’s numerous ruthless cartels.
With Trevino Morales’ guidance, in the northern town of San Fernando 72 Central and South American migrants were slaughtered by the Zetas in 2010. The following year 193 buried bodies were found by federal officials in San Fernando, most of the bodies belonged to migrants kidnapped off buses and murdered for multiple reasons, including refusing to work as drug mules.
The Zetas have been claimed as the largest cartel and is estimated to have as many as 10,000 members across Mexico, Central America and the United States.
In February 2008, Trevino Morales was sent to Guatemala by Heiberto Lazcano Zetas previous head, whose death left Morales in charge. He ordered to eliminate local competitors and establish Zetas control of smuggling routes. Lazcano then named Trevino Morales national commander of the Zetas across Mexico, which caused resentment among the original ex-military members of the Zetas.
In 2009, Trevino Morales was indicted on drug trafficking and weapon charges in New York and in 2010 in Washington. The U.S government issued a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
Trevino Morales is charged with ordering the kidnapping and killing of the 265 migrants. According to the indictments, Trevino Morales in responsible for coordinating the shipment of hundreds of pound of cocaine and marijuana every week from Mexico into the U.S., and moving bulk shipments of dollar bills into Mexico.
The arrest of the man responsible for massive northbound drug trafficking, as well as the vast amounts of deaths of Mexicans and Central American migrants, will most certainly earn praise from President Pena Nieto, who came into office promising to drive down homicide, extortion and kidnapping.
The downfall of the Zetas has been noted as greatly strengthening the country’s most-wanted man, Joaquin Guzman “El Chapo” who had overseen a vicious turf war with the Zetas. Trevino Morales was promoted to boss of the Nuevo Laredo territory around 2005, and was given responsibility for fighting off the Sinaloa cartel’s attempt to seize control of drug-smuggling routes. Tevino Morales organized a series of killing on the U.S side of the border.
George Grayson, an expert on the Zetas believes this situation will only benefit “El Chapo,” he believes Guzman will be strengthened because he will now have access to the crown jewel or narco-trafficking.
It is expected that Trevino Morales successor will be his brother Omar. This was the first major blow against an organized crime leader by a Mexican administration.
Written by Phylicia Samantha Ashley
SOURCE: Huffington Post
