Head of Zetas Captured

KingLeonidas

Longterm Registered User
This is BIG news ... and very good news. Trevino has been captured by the Mexican Govt. There's got to be a lot more to the story than the few details posted here. But it's a big break against the cartels. Trevino was a real bast**d - responsible for more pain and suffering than anyone else. The people of Mexico can sleep just a little bit better tonight.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/16/us-mexico-drugs-idUSBRE96F04G20130716

KL
 
Will this create a vacuum and subsequent struggle for control, or will it settle things somewhat in the country???
 
TMAC - what seems to be clear is that the US is working with Mexico to try to knock off the leaders of various cartels. The strategy seems to be to decapitate the leadership and so take away the "power" of the cartels. It did work in Colombia - to some extent. But it certainly didn't eliminate cartels from Colombia, and probably won't from Mexico. Instead of having a few "big snakes" you wind up with a "lot of smaller snakes".

Right now skeptical observers have noted that all of the takedowns in Mexico of big cartel players have not hurt the major cartel (Sinaloa Cartel) belonging to Guzman. That is largely true. Hence there has been a suspicion that somehow Guzman's cartel is feeding these moves by the Mexican Government. In order to disprove this suspicion - the burden will be on Mexico to take down Guzman himself. We'll see if it can be done - he's a slippery character and he's got sources/bribes throughout the Mexican Gov't and military structure.

All this being said - no-one sheds any tears for Trevino and the Zetas. These guys were (and still are) the absolute worst in terms of violence, retaliation, and acts of terror against their opponents. The operation against Trevino appears to have had real smoothness to it - he was captured without a shot being fired. There seems to have been a lot of careful planning and execution involved ... possibly with inside information as well.

KL
 
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undoubtedly. something's going on ... in a major way. they are finding these
guys quite regularly now - so they've got some trick up their sleeves. that's
for sure. you have to believe that the cartels have got top-notch intel on their
own country. and that especially applies to the Zetas. so whatever the USA and
Mexico are doing - it's pretty cunning.

the Zetas have the reputation of hiring the rough thugs in the neighborhoods. Violence
and intimidation are their game. So they attract those people. On the other hand, the
Sinaloa Cartel has the reputation for hiring the smarter criminals, and they've got a
fair share with good educations and good connections. it's interesting that Sinaloa is
"winning" for the time being, and if the Zetas collapse then Sinaloa could become the
dominant cartel for sure. It's possible that the Mexican Gov't even has this as their
hidden agenda, since Guzman has less of a tendency to make public spectacles of
retaliation (there are exceptions).

KL
 
updating this story with the following revelation ... based on reporting on Borderland Beat
apparently the USA knew the location of Trevino for at least 3 years - but held the info "close to the vest".
there could be a lot of reasons why this was done.
read the whole article at Borderland Beat on July 20, 2013
KL
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partial re-print

For at least three years, United States agencies knew the movements of Miguel Angel Trevino Morales and other members of the Los Zetas, but elected not to report it to Mexico, until just a few weeks ago.

At least since 2011, the DEA knew of the operations and movements of Miguel Angel Trevino Morales. DEA even got their agents to acquire information about Treviño's enemies and rivals in other cartels and within the Zetas, but this information was not handed over to Mexican authorities, federal government sources revealed.

Top-level [Mexican] officials consulted by 24 Horas, admitted to being annoyed because the U.S. drug enforcement agency maintains its own agenda, and that because of operations that they were allowed to perform during the last administration they obtained much information that was not shared with Mexico. This resulted in allowing a drug trafficker such as Z-40 to operate without being detained, “because he was useful to them".

"This relationship with the United States must change, now the information must be shared and not administered by them, that is what we are working on,” said one of the sources.

After analyzing the information provided in the past three years by the DEA to the Federal Police, Navy and Army about Los Zetas, the researchers found a pattern and details by which they were able to establish that the DEA has informants within the structure of this paramilitary group.

But the details that caught the attention of Mexican officials the most is the information shows that for several years they had known about Z-40’s movements; some his safe houses in Tamaulipas, Veracruz and Coahuila, as well as his contacts in Mexico and the United States, and about some of the shootings of which he was responsible in Tamaulipas, for example.
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