Zetas

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Virus Kills Feared Gang Leader
Virus Kills Feared Gang Leader

Virus Kills Feared Gang Leader

Scores of other cases reported in same prison

(Newser) - Mexican gang leader Moises Escamiilla May—also known as "Fat May"—has died from COVID-19 in a maximum security prison. The 45-year-old kingpin of the "Old School Zetas" group, part of the Los Zetas cartel, was 12 years into a 37-year sentence for crimes including his role...

Attack on Mexico Bar Kills 23, Injures 13

Fire ripped through Coatzacoalcos bar

(Newser) - An attack on a bar in Mexico's Gulf coast city of Coatzacoalcos killed 23 people and injured 13 late Tuesday. The attackers started a fire that ripped through the bar, killing eight women and 15 men, the AP reports. There was no immediate information on the condition of the...

Vultures Help Uncover Mass Grave in Mexico

31 bodies, some decapitated, found in Veracruz

(Newser) - Some 31 bodies have been found in a mass grave in Veracruz, Mexico, thanks in part to some hungry vultures. A local newspaper notes, per the AP , the grave was uncovered Monday on a ranch outside Tres Valles after marines spotted vultures on a dirt road. The BBC reports an...

Mexico Nabs Zetas Kingpin
 Sadistic Zetas Kingpin Nabbed 

Sadistic Zetas Kingpin Nabbed

Cartel boss captured without a fight in Mexico

(Newser) - Mexican security forces have scored a massive victory with the capture of a cartel leader blamed for many of the drug war's worst atrocities. Miguel Angel Trevino, the Zetas boss also known as "40" and "Death," was captured when Mexican marines intercepted his pickup truck with...

Mexico: Calderon Drug War Spawned 60 New Cartels

New AG says just 10 big ones existed when Calderon took office

(Newser) - The bloody war President Felipe Calderon launched in 2006 to squash Mexico's big drug cartels instead created scores of smaller ones, the country's new attorney general says. "I would calculate there are between 60 and 80 (new cartels), both medium-sized and small," Jesus Murillo told Mexican...

Mexico Nabs Cartel Leader: Officials

Alleged local Zetas boss said to have ties with cartel's top commander

(Newser) - Mexico has arrested an alleged local leader of the violent Zetas drug cartel, which has taken control of much of Coahuila state, the country's navy says. Said Omar Juarez was captured in the state's capital, Saltillo, with weapons and what appeared to be cocaine and marijuana, the navy'...

To Prove Zetas Boss Is Dead: Dig Up His Parents?

Lazcano body was whisked away, so cops need parents' DNA for ID

(Newser) - Mexican officials are considering exhuming the remains of the parents of killed Los Zetas cartel boss Heriberto Lazcano. Mexico announced earlier this month that Lazcano had been shot down by Marines. But his body was spirited out of a funeral where it was being held, reports the BBC . Now officials...

Mexico Cops: Gunmen Stole Corpse of Cartel Leader

Lazcano may be dead, but his body is gone

(Newser) - Mexico's military says it killed one of the most notorious cartel leaders in the country. It might have a problem convincing everyone, though, because gunmen broke into a funeral home this morning and stole the body, reports the AP . But prior to that brazen raid, authorities said the corpse'...

Mexico: Zetas Boss Killed in Firefight

'Executioner' Lazcano blamed for hundreds of killings

(Newser) - The leader of the bloodthirsty Zetas drug cartel has apparently been killed in a firefight with marines in the northern border state of Coahuila, the Mexican navy said yesterday. The navy said there was strong evidence the body of one of two men killed in the shootout was Heriberto Lazcano,...

Mexico Captures 'El Taliban' Cartel Boss

Zetas arrest could end surge in massacres

(Newser) - Mexico appears to have struck a major blow against one faction of the hyper-violent Zetas cartel. The country's navy says it has captured one of the country's most-wanted drug traffickers, Ivan Velazquez Caballero, known as "El Taliban." The drug lord has been fighting a bloody internal...

Escaped Mexican Inmates Used ... Front Door

128 still missing after Piedras Negras mass escape

(Newser) - One of the biggest jailbreaks in Mexican history happened earlier this week , but it turns out the inmates didn't need to break anything, CNN reports. Authorities say that instead of going through a tunnel and a fence as earlier reported, most of the 131 escapees simply walked out the...

Feds Bust Cartel Boss' Horse Racing Team

'New York Times' blows lid off Zeta operation

(Newser) - Hundreds of federal agents descended on the stables of a New Mexico horse racing company today, busting up what appears to have been a staggeringly transparent drug money laundering operation. Tremor Enterprises was officially owned by brick mason/trucker José Treviño Morales, but was funded by his brother Miguel Á...

18 Headless Bodies Dumped Near Mexico Tourist Spot

Zetas cartel blamed for killings near Guadalajara lake

(Newser) - There's no end in sight to the horrific tit-for-tat Mexican drug cartel murders. In the latest atrocity, some 18 decapitated and dismembered corpses were found dumped in two cars near a lake in Guadalajara popular with tourists and retired Americans, reports ABC . The bodies, which were so badly mutilated...

Photojournalists Murdered in Mexico

Dismembered bodies found on World Press Freedom Day

(Newser) - Somebody in Mexico's Veracruz state has declared war on news photographers. The dismembered bodies of three photojournalists from different news organizations were found in plastic bags in a canal yesterday—World Press Freedom Day—along with the body of one photographer's girlfriend, AP reports. All the bodies bore...

Mexico: 30 Zetas Escaped in Prison Riot

And all those killed were rival gang members

(Newser) - Yesterday's riot at a prison in northern Mexico not only killed 44 inmates, but also covered up the escape of 30 members of the infamous Zeta drug cartel, Mexican officials say. "Without a doubt there was premeditation," says the governor of Nuevo Leon, Rodrigo Medina. "This...

Mexico's Bloody Toll in 2011: 12K

Country sees increasing torture, beheadings, violence against women

(Newser) - The sixth year of Mexico's murderous war against drug cartels claimed a staggering 12,000 lives, according to bleak tallies being reported in the Mexican press that show upticks in beheadings, torture, and violence against women and children. There is no official number from Felipe Calderon's government, which...

Zetas' New Tool in Mexico: National Radio Network

Military has seized huge amounts of equipment

(Newser) - The Zeta cartel has secret weapons hidden in Mexican bushes and rooftops everywhere: radio antennas. Current and former US law enforcement officials tell the AP that the infamous cartel has a sophisticated, nationwide radio network that helps them coordinate their movements and keep tabs on law enforcement. “They're...

Mexico Disbands Corrupt Veracruz Police Force

Navy takes over law enforcement after corrupt cops sent packing

(Newser) - Mexican authorities have stamped out corruption in the Veracruz police force by stamping out the Veracruz police force. The port city's police department has been disbanded, and all 800 officers and 300 administrative staff have been fired, the BBC reports. The Mexican navy is taking responsibility for law enforcement...

26 Bodies Dumped in Guadalajara

Mass killing believed to be revenge for Veracruz attack

(Newser) - Citizens of Mexico's second-largest city have been shaken by the country's second mass killing in the space of a few days. The bodies of 26 young men were found stuffed into three vehicles left in the center of Guadalajara yesterday. Most of them had died of asphyxia and...

Mexican Cartel Kills 4th Blogger

Nuevo Laredo website moderator was tortured, decapitated

(Newser) - In Nuevo Laredo, what you say on the Internet can cost you your life. A man who helped moderate a website that posted news of shootouts and other Zetas cartel activities—something local newspapers have largely stopped doing—was found dead at an intersection in the Mexican border city, the...

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