Zeta Leader Killed in Matamoros Shootout

Top Zeta leader Lazcano reportedly killed in gun battle Friday in Matamoros
June 17, 2011 5:26 PM
THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
© Copyright The Brownsville Herald 2011

The top leader of the Zeta criminal organization was killed Friday in a Matamoros firefight with rivaling Gulf Cartel, sources close to the newspaper have reported.

Heriberto "El Lazca" Lazcano Lazcano was reportedly killed in a gun battle on the streets of Matamoros Friday afternoon.....
This is the second gun battle between the two cartels in as many days. On Thursday, the Gulf Cartel captured 11 alleged Zeta hit men in the downtown area of Matamoros. Sources said the squad of six men and five women were part of a larger group of up to 60 Zetas who attempted to seize control of the plaza, or drug corridor.

Wednesday, Matamoros residents went to sleep with the sound of automatic weapons fire, grenade explosions, screeching tires and sirens after a large number of Zetas made their way into the city shortly after midnight. Although causalities were reported, an exact number has not been released.

The Herald received information that at least 13 people were killed in the Thursday encounter, with 11 individuals captured. Details were not known.


Mexico arrests Zetas drug cartel co-ordinator
Mexican police detain drug cartel member Edgar Huerta Montiel, accused of co-ordinating the massacre of 72 migrants. AlJazeera

Mexican federal police have arrested a military deserter believed to have joined the Zetas drug cartel and participated in the massacre of 72 migrants in Tamaulipas, near the US border.

Ramon Eduardo Pequeo, chief of the Anti-Drug Division of the Federal Police, said that Edgar Huerta Montiel, alias "El Huache", was the local leader in San Fernando, Tamaulipas, for the Zetas gang and allegedly "coordinated the multiple homicide of migrants" in that municipality.

Edgar Huerta Montiel was detained in the northern state of Zacatecas along with his girlfriend Brenda Acevedo, said Pequeo.

Huerta is suspected of killing at least 10 Central American migrants in August 2010 and orchestrating the kidnapping of two cargo trucks where 60 migrants from Central America were hiding.

Huerta told police victims were taken to safe houses and tortured. Those who died were buried in mass graves.

Pequeno also said it is believed the migrants were kidnapped for ransom.

The bodies of the 72 massacred migrants from Honduras, Salvador, Guatemala and Brazil were discovered on a ranch, bound, blindfolded and slumped against a wall.


All Aboard the Latin American Drug War Gravy Train
Waging the war on drugs in Latin America is a gold mine for contractors, a waste for taxpayers
Mike Riggs | June 10, 2011 Reaon.com - Free Minds Free Markets
Private companies received nearly $2 billion in Latin American drug war contracts between 2005 and 2009, according to a report released Thursday by Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.). That money may as well have been stuffed in garbage bags and dropped randomly from the backs of airplanes.

Best Books and Movies About Drug War

These are some of my favorite books and movies about the War on Drugs:

Down by the River - Drugs, Money, Murder and Family, by Charles Bowden.

Murder City - Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economy's New Killing Fields, also by Charles Bowden

The Wire

Traffic

Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone

Killing Pablo - the Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw, by Mark Bowden

The Power of the Dog, by Don Winslow

Drug Lord - the Life and Death of a Mexican Kingpin, by Terrence Poppa