Zetas Preparing for Assault on Reynosa

Reynosa’s across from McAllen, Texas, isn’t it? I get all those border towns mixed up.

Colonel, USAFR

The Zetas were originally members of the Mexican Army’s elite Airborne Special Forces Group (GAFE), trained in locating and apprehending drug cartel members. It is believed that they were originally trained at the military School of the Americas in the United States. Also, they were trained by foreign specialists, including Americans, French, and Israelis, in rapid deployment, aerial assaults, marksmanship, ambushes, small-group tactics, intelligence collection, counter-surveillance techniques, prisoner rescues and sophisticated communications.

In the late 1990s, the drug Gulf Cartel leader Osiel Cardenas Guillen, began to recruit GAFE members to provide protection and perform other vital functions. His top recruit, Lieutenant Arturo Guzmán Decena, brought with him approximately 30 other deserters enticed by salaries substantially higher than those paid by the Mexican government.

Zeta training locations have been identified as containing the same items and setup as GAFE training facilities, it is also further believed the group employs the same internal organizational structure. Current estimates place Los Zetas around 200 members strong, which includes several rogue Kaibil Guatemalan forces. The name “Zeta” comes from the Federal Preventive Police radio code for high-ranking officers.

Some of the original members are: Arturo Guzmán Decena, Rogelio González Pizaña, Heriberto Lazcano, Jaime González Durán, Efraín Teodoro Torres, Raúl Hernandez Barrón, Óscar Guerrero Silva, Luís Alberto Guerrero Reyes, Jesús Enrique Rejón, Mateo Díaz López, Jorge López, Daniel Peréz Rojas, Sergio Enrique Ruiz Tlapanco, Nabor Vargas García, Ernesto Zatarín Beliz, Eduardo Estrada González, Flavio Méndez Santiago, Prisciliano Ibarra Yepis, Rogelio Guerra Ramírez, Miguel Ángel Soto Parra, Galindo Mellado Cruz, Gonzalo Ceresano Escribano and Daniel Enrique Márquez Aguilar.

After the military killed Guzmán Decenas on November 2002 and captured his second-in-command, Rogelio González Pizaña, on October 2004, ex-GAFE Heriberto “The Executioner” Lazcano ascended to the leadership of the paramilitaries.

Gulf Cartel
The Gulf Cartel ex-leader Osiel Cardenas Guillen, recruited Los Zetas in the 1990s and employed them to track down and kill rival cartel members. Once Guillen consolidated his position, he expanded the role of Los Zetas to collecting debts, securing cocaine supply and trafficking routes known as plazas and executing its foes, often with grotesque savagery. Los Zetas are primarily based in the border region of Nuevo Laredo where it is believed they have carved the city into territories, placing lookouts at arrival destinations such as airports, bus stations and main roads.

The Zetas have now become completely entrenched in Nuevo Laredo and have grown to more than five hundred with hundreds more in a support network throughout Mexico. In an example of the Zeta’s capabilities, a shootout on September 22, 2006 in Nuevo Laredo between the Zetas and an assassination target lasted approximately 40 minutes. The shootout included grenade launchers and hand grenades.

In response to such aggressive efforts on the part of the Zetas to defend and control its smuggling corridors to the U. S., the rival Sinaloa Cartel established its own heavily-armed enforcer gang, Los Negros. The group operates in a similar fashion to the Zetas but with less complexity. Los Negros, attempting to wrest control from the Zetas in Nuevo Laredo are believed to be responsible for the recent rise in violence there.

Upon the arrest of Gulf Cartel boss, Guillen in 2003, it is believed Los Zetas began transporting their own drug shipments through former Gulf Cartel routes and made a collaboration pact with the Beltran Leyva brothers gang to head the cartel.

Tactics
Los Zetas have set up camps in which to train recruits as well as ex-federal, state, and local police officers. In addition, they have invited into their ranks ex-troops from Guatemala known as Kaibiles.

The group is extremely well armed, they wear body armor and some wear Kevlar ballistic helmets; their arsenal includes AR-15 and AK-47 assault rifles, MP5 submachine guns, 50 cal. machine guns, grenade launchers, ground-to-air missiles, dynamite and helicopters. They are known to operate with modern wiretapping equipment and purchase the cellular phone codes of their intended targets directly from the phone companies and providers.

Los Zetas is known to operate with a higher tactical degree than the local authorities. During one shootout against law enforcement the group employed grenade launchers and 50 cal. machine guns. The group has been linked to monitoring and kidnapping of journalists, and the murder of rival cartel members and their families. Los Zetas gang has been known to hire local gangs such as the Texas Syndicate, MS-13 and Hermanos Pistoleros Latinos to carry out contract killings.

Often, Los Zetas operate while uniformed as Federal Preventive Police and driving similarly labeled vehicles. In addition to conducting activities along the border, they are visible throughout the Gulf Coast region, in the Southern states of Tabasco, Yucatan, Quintana Roo, and Chiapas, and in the Pacific Coast states of Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Michoacán, as well as in Mexico City. Evidence also indicates that they may be active in Texas and, possibly, other U.S. states.

There are several other Los Zetas groups in addition to commandos. Los Halcones (The Hawks) keep watch over distribution zones and use 2 meter radio band. Las Ventanas (The Windows) comprise bike-riding youngsters in their mid-teens who whistle to warn of the presence of police and other suspicious individuals near small stores that sell drugs. Los Mañosos (The Cunning Ones) acquire arms; Los Leopardos (Leopards) are prostitutes who slyly extract information from their clients; and Dirección (Command) are approximately 20 communications experts who intercept phone calls, follow and identify suspicious automobiles, and even accomplish kidnappings and executions.

Los Zetas are involved in myriad criminal activities. They have branched out into kidnappings, murder-for-hire, extortion, money-laundering and human smuggling. For security purposes, Los Zetas have adopted a cell-like structure to limit the information that any one member of the organization knows about his associates.

Law enforcement raids
Following a joint investigation, titled Operation Black Jack, by the ATF, DEA, ICE and the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through the FBI, two Zeta safe houses were identified and raided, recovering over 40 kidnapped individuals.

On October 26, 2008, the Washington Times reported of an FBI warning that the Zetas’ cell in Texas are to engage law enforcement with a full tactical response should law enforcement attempt to intervene in their operations; their cell leader has been identified as Jaime González Durán (The Hummer), who was arrested on November 7, 2008 in the border city Reynosa, Tamaulipas. In this operation, three safehouses in Reynosa were raided by elements of the Mexican Federal Police and Mexican Army, yielding the largest weapon seizure in the history of Mexico; it consisted in 540 assault rifles, 287 grenades, 2 M72 LAW rocket launchers, 500,000 rounds of ammunition, 67 ballistic vests and 14 sticks of TNT.

Cartel alliances
While in prison, the head of the Tijuana Cartel, Arellano Felix and Gulf Cartel leader Osiel Cardenas, forged an alliance against the Sinaloa Cartel and its ally the Juarez Cartel. As a result, the cartels are now largely aligned into two blocks, some which support the Gulf Cartel and others which support the Sinaloa Cartel. It is these two blocks that are involved in the massive and violent turf wars which are currently being carried out in northern Mexico.

The Sinaloa Cartel
The Sinaloa Cartel began to contest the Gulf Cartel’s domination of the coveted southwest Texas corridor following the arrest of Gulf Cartel leader Osiel Cardenas in March 2003. The Federation is the result of a 2006 accord between several smaller drug cartels; it is led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, Mexico’s most-wanted drug trafficker.

The Juarez Cartel
Vicente Carrillo Fuentes heads the Juarez Cartel. The cartel had become factionalized between groups loyal to the Carrillo family and groups loyal to Guzman Loera’s Sinaloa Federation.

The Tijuana Cartel
The cartel of the Arrellano-Felix family, the Tijuana Cartel was once among Mexico’s most powerful but has fallen on hard times, thanks to the arrests of several top capos. The cartel entered into a brief partnership with the Gulf Cartel. It has been the frequent target of Mexican military confrontations and might be breaking into smaller groups.

The Gulf Cartel
The Gulf Cartel, based in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, has been one of Mexico’s two dominant cartels in recent years. It is strengthened by its armed wing Los Zetas. The cartel leader Osiel Cardenas, was extradited to the U.S. in 2007 and is currently awaiting trial in Houston.

I live in Mission.

I live in Mission.

My parents do as well. My wife and I are in Kerrville now. What i really miss about Mission is Ferrell's BBQ - and their grapefruit pie. Mmmmmmmmmmm.

The Sinola cartel owns the Mexico side of the AZ border, so it is unlikely we will see any Zetas here. Unless the Sinolas collapse. Then all bets are off.

Probably the word “WAR”.

April of 09, the same zetas took on the Mexican army in Reynosa during the day. It was a full on battle. It ended in a draw. There were pictures in the McAllen newspaper showing Mexican army trucks blocking the southern end of the border bridge and border county sheriffs near the northern end. Except our border sheriffs aren’t issued the same hardware that the zetas carry. If the day comes when the zetas think that it is safe to carry it north, it will be up to local law enforcement and private citizens to stop them. Given the attitude of the current feds, I don’t think they would do a damn thing even if San Antonio was threatened.

Someone bought out Ferrell’s. They did have great pies! Haven’t been there since the new owners took over. But they still have a crowd.

“Cry havoc & let slip the rednecks”.

Problem solved.

LOL!!!

I used to live in McAllen with my parents, they live in Harlingen now. Do you live in Mission?

“Who” are the Zetas?? When I was young, the Zetas were Sorority Girls,, not always ‘nice’, but certainly not of the calliber that we needed to be warned by Public Safety about them..

These Zetas are somewhat less charming:

Is SHTF coming to South Texas?

"We have Nicaragua, soon we will have El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Mexico. One day, tomorrow or five years or fifteen years from now, we're going to take 5 to 10 million Mexicans and they are going into Dallas, into El Paso, into Houston, into New Mexico, into San Diego, and each one will have embedded in his mind the idea of killing ten Americans."

--Thomas Borge, Nicaragua Interior Minister as quoted in the Washington Times, March 27, 1985

Ten years ago or so, my in-laws wintered in the Mission/McAllen area. They had an RV site that bordered the Rio Grande. They literally watched Mexicans wade/swim across the river. At night, anything easily carried that was left outside was liable to be stolen. Anyone know if this has changed over the past few years?

They literally watched Mexicans wade/swim across the river. At night, anything easily carried that was left outside was liable to be stolen. Anyone know if this has changed over the past few years?

Changed? lol- That hasn't changed in the last 100 years...and probably not in the foreseeable future.

That’s what I was afraid of.

Ha! I knew there would be a “Zeta” photo in this thread-and after only five posts. That’s quick!!!;)

There are some folks at my church that have family living in Reynosa. Things are very bad there.

Here in Rochester Minnesota last yr. 4 mexicans went through this appt comlex they were looking for someone they were wearing armor and carrying ar type rifles..with sidearms..
they were fast and well organized...unidentified...no L.E. affiliations ..the police say they have no idea who they were.

Here in Minnesota..

I know some of the gangs in Phoenix were getting more organized years ago, an indication they were getting some serious training. Now Phoenix is the “kidnap” capital.

That recalls the story of Sam Houston talking to farmers in Salado, Texas about the coming Texas Revolution. One farmer said, “Hell, General Sam, we can whup them Mexicans with cornstalks.”
To which Houston replied, “True enough, sir, but they won’t be coming after us with cornstalks.”
So I agree with some of what you say, but ... Remember the Alamo, and Goliad.