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Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, also known as "Z-3," is one of Mexico's most wanted men and U.S. authorities have offered a reward of up to $5 million for his capture. Only Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, boss of the Sinaloa Cartel, would represent a bigger prize to the government.
Updated at 11:51 a.m. ET: An armed group stole the body of the slain leader of Mexico's brutal Zetas drug cartel from a funeral home in northern Mexico, just hours after he was killed in a gun battle with Mexican marines, a state prosecutor said on Tuesday.
Mexican marines say initial forensic tests including fingerprints confirmed they had killed Zetas boss Heriberto Lazcano, 37, one of Mexico's most wanted men.
Lazcano, alias "The Executioner,'' is the most powerful drug kingpin to fall in President Felipe Calderon's military offensive against the gangs. He was killed along with another suspected Zeta member in Sunday's clash.
The Mexican Navy had said in a statement late on Monday there was "strong evidence" Lazcano had been killed in the exchange. Two Zetas gang members who attacked the marines with grenades from a moving car were killed in the gunfight and initial forensic tests suggested one of the bodies was the former soldier Lazcano, the Navy said in the initial statement.
The Zetas, considered one of the two most powerful drug gangs in Mexico, have perpetrated some of the most sickening acts seen in the country's drug war that has killed about 60,000 people during Calderon's term.
Mexico nabs high-ranking Zetas drug gang member 'El Taliban'
A video "mockumentary" that shows children as kidnappers, corrupt cops and drug traffickers sparked a fierce debate in violence-torn Mexico. Msnbc.com's Dara Brown reports.
Lazcano, or "Z-3" was one of Mexico's most wanted men and U.S. authorities had offered a reward of up to $5 million for his capture. Only Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, boss of the Sinaloa Cartel, would represent a bigger prize to the government.
Alberto Islas, a security expert at consultancy Risk Evaluation, earlier said that if Lazcano's death was confirmed, it would prompt a bloody struggle for control of areas dominated by the Zetas, such as the northern industrial city of Monterrey.
The army had stepped up patrols in Coahuila after the killing last week of the son of the former chairman of the country's most powerful political party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.
Mexico's drug war is also part of a drug culture with roots in music, movies and even religion.
132 inmates tunnel out of Mexico prison near US border
Investigators said the murder of Jose Eduardo Moreira, who was also the nephew of the Coahuila state governor, may have been a revenge attack by the Zetas against the family for losses the gang suffered in a recent clash with security forces.
Moreira's death caused a political outcry and demands for his killers to be brought to justice.
Army deserters
The Zetas were formed by a band of army deserters who acted as enforcers for the Gulf Cartel before breaking away in 2010 to fight a bloody turf war with their former bosses and other drug gangs, including Guzman's powerful Sinaloa Cartel.
Under Lazcano's leadership, the Zetas grew into a gang of more than 10,000 gunmen with operations stretching from the Rio Grande, on the border with Texas, to deep into Central America.
President: Mexico gang-related deaths fall by 15 percent in 2012
Their rapid expansion has displaced Mexico's older cartels in many areas, giving them a dominant position in the multi-billion-dollar cross-border drug trade, as well as extortion, kidnapping and other criminal businesses.
The Zetas gang had recently appeared to be rupturing due to disputes among leading gang members. A longstanding rivalry between Lazcano and his deputy Miguel Trevino, alias "Z-40," exploded into violence in recent months.
While Mexico's government and rival gangs may welcome the death of Lazcano, a battle for control of the Zetas could become a major headache for President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto of the PRI, who takes office on Dec. 1.
Debate rages over Mexico 'spillover violence' in US
Since 2009, government troops have caught or killed more than 20 major drug lords. Senior Zetas boss Ivan Velazquez, also known as "El Taliban" or "Z-50," and Gulf Cartel head Jorge Costilla, alias "El Coss," were both captured last month.
Mexican officials arrested on Saturday the alleged Zetas leader in Tamaulipas state, who is believed to be responsible for the murders in 2010 of dozens of migrants and an American who was killed as he jet skied on a lake on the Texas-Mexico border.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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The Zetas was trained by the US. Our men trained them in a military combat. After a couple figured there was a lot of money on the other side they broke off and became the Zetas. So the US has always has a special interest in seeing them ( lets say leave). But I would bet after this many years their discipline has broken down somewhat, but probably not their resolve to violence. Expect to see more of this soon.
Does this count as a Capture - who gets the $5 mil?
Dog the Bounty Hunter would have gotten him eventually.
This is what happens when a country turns into a caste system of very rich and extremely poor like Mexico. The stark reality of it hits you once your plane lands in Alcapulco or mexico city and on you way from the airport and you see th tar paper shacks the poor live in right next to the expensive gated millionaires homes. Soon we will be facing the same thing here in America and some of the porr will be trying to get to Canada for jobs.
Obama will take credit for this one too.
The property taxes can't be high in the neighborhood if people can build a tarpaper shack next to a million dollar hiome....I kid of course. Been to a few places in Mexico...Outside of Cozumel, (an island and isolated from the mainland) anywhere else we went was pretty much a $hithole. We took a bus to go see Myan ruins and had military check points and soldiers everywhere on the road. I guess to guard the road against these peeps. Bad place to be right now. I hope they can take these people out of biz. The population has enough problems.
I'd have gotten him two years ago, if they'd have met my price. Sure, I charge a lot, but I always get my mark, and those who witness my handiwork - let's just say they don't want to see me again.
This is great and bad news. Great because we killed an evil criminal boss. Bad, because now all his underlings will fight for power and more people will be killed.
And dont worry Giantego. Once we vote Obama out of the White House, you wont have to worry about us all becoming poor.
His body was buried at sea so other Zetas wouldn't turn his grave into a shrine....
Giantego- Yes if we keep letting illegals in this country with their goofy ideologies, we will end up like Mexihole. This is what the libbies here want. They want the working man to let the other blood suckers feed off their hard earned money. I think the mexicans should start accounting for their own bad behavior. They need to band together in their own country, like they do here, and start flying their own flag upside down and burn it to show their disapproval of the way their leaders and countrymen act. Don't come here looking for free handouts. We have enough people here looking for that already
If Americans would stop buying illegal drugs this problem would go away.
Or, if drugs were legal, the problem would go away. Just think of the tax revenue that legalization would generate.
Stole the body? More likely some guy walked into the morgue and said, "The Zeta's want their buddy back to give him a proper burial. Hand over the body. Here's 100 pesos. You tell anyone and you and your family die. On second thought, give me the pesos back and just worry about your family. You already know too much."
Was he really killed? Anyway, if he was really killed the Mexicans are crowing about killing one of the top criminals when there's an endless succession of criminals waiting for their turn at the top. This is an exercise in futility and there will be no end to the bloodshed and murders until the profit motive is removed from the equation.
Yes, I said it; the time has come for the legalization of marijuana.
^Was wondering the same thing, wet.
Why would a senior leader of a multibillion dollar organization attack the police from his own vehicle?
The guy was an elite military man with extensive training and sound, if evil military leadership capabilities, it just doesn't compute.
Maybe he got into a cycle of heavy drinking and blow dependance, which is not unheard of in his line of work, and it's entirely possible he could've been paranoid and his judgement was shot to h3ll?
Still, really curious as to what actually happened.
That is simply not true. There could certainly be a few that trained with the US military years ago, but to suggest that the "Zetas" were all, or even a large number, trained by the USA is wrong.
_
OBAMA: Missing, but still counts as deported.
The only problem I have is that they arrested 2 guys they said were in the shoot out with the border patrol that later was decided to be FF. Now I ask why would someone steal this scumbags body, after last week I really have to ask "Is he dead". I smell something fishy here and it ain't the taco's.
But he'll be a guest on PBS Maria Hnojosa's "Mexicans Are People Too!" Coming this fall!
OBAMA: You can trust the word of Mexicans.
If Mexicans would stop pushing drugs on the American people the problem would go away. But Mexico would go broke.
As long as the animal scumbag is truly dead, who cares what happened to his miserable POS corpse!
Giantego, you make it sound so dreary. Some of the shacks I saw on the outskirts of Mazatlan, were colorfully shingled with flattened soda pop cans.
Unfortunately, I have to agree with you on more violence to come.
Take out the main cog of a well oiled killing organization, see the rest of the cogs break apart and start killing everything.
Couldn't happen to a better piece of scum! Maybe the rest will all kill each other and few others. We can at least hope...
Calderon's policies are slowly, but surely, beginning to have an impact. Too bad his replacement won by suggesting a softer approach to the drug gangs. It will backfire in a big way, since it will allow the gangs to entrench themselves and get stronger. The country will suffer, but the gangs and the corrupt politicians will become even wealthier.
The gangs down there are as entrenched now as they have eve been and killing this guy will mean nothing as just as many of calderon's people are as corrupt as ever. Once in a while a lord will give up a rival for more protection of his gang so the leadership will look good thats all.
I just find it hard to believe that, one of the top guys in Zetas would involve himself in a drive by, especially involving gov troops.. It would be great if they got him though..
Calderon, is what is the ROOT of the Cause of this whole War on Drugs Bull@!$%#... Nonsense.
Calderon, Killed his own FBI Chief in Mexico City soon after he was elected.
Calderon, Arrested four Legislators Soon after he was elected that were on to Calderon's plan of starting a Drug War to put into place his own Drug People for a Kickback, Like Mafia Does on the take for Drugs..
Problem anywhere, In USA too, when the Mafia got involved in the Drug Trade , it took them down ...
Reason; Too much Liability... Too much violence and instability, and risk.
Calderon, had too many people killed as much or if not more than the Cartel in Mexico.
No matter what , the Bad guy doesnt get the good press, the Govt always controls what is said when it comes to who's truth will be told.
Fact of the Matter is, Crime rate of Guns going into Mexico, Car theft rings, and Drug Trafficking went through the roof, once Calderon became President.
Vicente Fox, was the only President who cared for the People of Mexico in Decades.
Calderon , Pulled a Bush Sr and use Bush Jr Tactics to rob from its people and kill the people..to put into place his own drug cartel.
These Zetas are not the people responsible for the Death of the American Jet Skier... nor are they responsible for other things in this article... in fact the people love these people like they do the Mafia in other parts, of the world because the Mafia has protected them from such criminals as well, and help the people with investing back into their local economy, and not just with drugs as the media would have it.
Oil is a Shortage in America, and soon any Nation will seem like its either a terrorist or a drug problem to escalate or make appear 1000 times worse than actually is.
Believe that. this is Global Economics 101 of real Neo Conservative Corporatism, everything is on the table when it comes to profiteering for kickbacks.
Zetas were never trained by the US Military nor govt. all nonsense... the only thing close was the GOVT war on drugs when the US CIA plane went down full of Cocaine coming from Columbia.
Since, America has been at war with Afghanistan. the Use of Heroin has gone through the roof in America, and kids have been dying left and right.
With the Growing number of World Population and the lack of Food and people starving everywhere the demand of food has outgrown the supply of food .
What will become of nations as they spend all their profits on Building their Nuclear arsenal , such as China that is closing the gap on Russia, and is Communist, or North Korea and Iran which intends to destroy American Allies, and will start a war, with America just as easily.
Problem is, we are not into debt with China. that is a mere excuse to keep ongoing free reign corporate Marketing going on to arm their communist nation , which is a volatile time bomb ticking and an aftermath waiting to happen. just like when Ronald Reagan built the Nuke Facility for Iran, and was caught in the Iran Contra Scandal and had conditional fall guy appointments such as Ollie North and John Poindexter.
People need to stop listening to this War Propaganda to pave the way to steal oil and kill people, and allow people to spark wars to create the means of war.
Reminds one of school ground gossip to start fights and create dislike for someone who cannot defend themselves or someone more popular.
Wake up people. Demand accountability and be a responsible Voter.
newsbreak,
You may have some good individual points but you failed to form an overall cognitive statement. If you are expecting voter apathy to improve, it will not.
Newsbreak, you do know that Calderon chose to stand up to the drug Cartels right?
The 100+ year rule of the other corrupt party, made the Cartels feel comfortable since they had already bought those candidates.
Calderon came in and is clearing this mess that the rule of a 100 years of corrupted officials has created.
Sorry, no body, no cigar. IMO, Z-3 has quietly slipped into retirement on some Greek island.
chowchig, you know Calderon effectively killed 60,000 of his own people in his "drug war", right? Policy is just that, but in WAR people actually die. We should take notes on how effective these POLITICIANS are. Note the similarities in each of these words... Police, Policy, Politician. I'm not saying, I'm just saying. I agree with newsbreak... WAKE UP! The violent take it by force Mathew 11:12. These countries are just following the footsteps of the U.S.
DR. Noo -
Greek islands are a glut on the market right now. A good financial move. BLSH
That is one good looking criminal! <3
was
Yeah, look at that head of hair!
If we wanted to stop these cartels for real, we would send all illegal aliens home, close the border, use the full might of our military for air strikes on smugglers an well as ground and sea troops. Smuggling, and assisting anyone smuggling into the United States would carry an automatic death sentence.
What we also need are automatic gun turrets, sharp-shooters, and tunnel detection advancements. When tunnels are located, they should be rapidly gassed.
The final step would be to send all drug addicts to Mexico; Screw them !
If we really wanted to stop the drug cartels, we would stop using illegal drugs! The vast majority of their market is in the US.
Oh, look - more bubble people. It's only the Southern States who smoke Mexican weed, there hasn't been Mexican weed in States like Washington and Oregon in 30 years.
They seem to be killing off their own quite well - let them self destruct.
You going to sent all boozers some place too - they make up the majority of drug addicts in the U S.
No, no, can't send the boozers anywhere. They're the ones making the laws. And running the corporations. And Wall Street.
J_P
It's not weed... That's the least of the problems, It is coke, meth, heroin and a very long et cetera that goes through Mexico to the US and Canada (some of it even to Europe). The war is to control the supply routes.
The reason they need the supply routes they fight for control of, is for difficult and bulky tons of pot. Smuggling a backpack with 80 pounds of coke is comparatively easy. For an equal value of pot, you need a hundred backpacks, or a couple of good sized trucks. Legalize weed and the violence will drop off drastically.
Or the US could just make drugs legal and the drug violence would stop. Those who get so addicted that they kill themselves, so be it.
"Lento y constante gana la carrera." Slow and steady wins the race.
"Doritos, salsa and cheese." Nachos
Meanwhile in the "slow" part of that, over 60,000 ppl have lost their lives. You want an end to the cartels? Legalize all drugs. But since that's not in the interest of the United States, ain't gonna happen. The US doesn't care how high the body count climbs in Mexico, as long as it isn't on our soil, and we can keep up this fiasco called the War on Drugs, we're good.
Griz -
Thanks for the laugh!
At some point, the Mexican government will recognize these drug gangs to be a domestic invasion". They will revoke their citizenship en mass, and after they kill 60,000 of them, the war to save their country will be over.
Of course, the other 60,000 of them will flee to the United States and we will welcome them as community organizers in our sanctuary cities. That is when the fun begins.
Can you please capitalize Marines?? It doesn't matter if its the US Marines or the Mexican Marines but Marines should be capitalized.
Actually, Melissa, if you check on dictionary.com, marine with a small m is "a member of a marine corps or similar body" or "one of a class of naval troops", etc. So marine with a small m is like the word sailor.....you really only capitalize that word when it is part of an official name.
President James K. Polk should have given the order to take the whole of Mexico when he had the chance.
But then we would be an official bilingual country and our kids would have to take Spanish in school!
No, we should have left the Southwest to Mexico and given them back Texas; and we should have taken over Canada west of Quebec (too bad our invasions during the war of 1812 flopped, eh?). No more imported oil problems for us! Quebec could be its own French-speaking country. Leave the Maritime provinces for those English-speaking Canucks who sensibly want free, quality medical care, and as a sanctuary for unhappy Yanks to run to.
If tomorrow there were no more crime, it would be an economic disaster. The unemployment offices would be overwhelmed for years.
It depends on how you define it. If you decriminalized vices it technically isn't a crime anymore, and the people involved would simply carry on as they always have. Supply/demand and production/consumption would remain the same. Only the puritanical label would change. If you mean brute Force used to eliminate it, then there would be. Just like every other action the government takes to prevent peaceful and productive people from doing what they please out of puritanical paternalism that curtails production/services. A clue to all this is the government doesn't create jobs, at best they just shift one job for another, and at worst they Force people to not produce.
60.000 killed. If that happened here, we would be in a uproar as well. I do agree that we could shut it down if we used our military for the borders.
Actually, I do not think that we would have an uproar. If you add the homicides of the US in the last five years, or from 2006-2010 the US has had 80,000 homicides () total and no one seems to care that much. My guess is that most of them are in the inner cities and and are drug related.
Shut the borders down ? Put the U.S. military there ? All that would do is just screw up the cash flow of all the crooked politicians & police that are complicit in this drug war...
He is replaced already. Simple as that.
another one bites the dust
Our new President will launch an all new campaign to stop the drugs and thugs from flowing in! That you can bet on!- - - Sorry, I am a little too drunk right now to make that statement !
Well, killing him is OK, but there'll be a short skirmish to "select" the next godfather, then it'll be business as usual.
Mexico is a shiitehole. There is nothing of value there and the culture is bankrupt. Why do you think they all flee to come to the US. I've worked and visited there. I just finished reading the book: Killing Fields: a harvest of women" about the mass murders of young women in Chihuahua centered on Ciudad Juarez. The book is not so much about the murders, but about he pervasive corruption of the Mexican government from the top to the bottom. NO ONE is clean. Presidente Fox was corrupt as were his predessessors and undoubtably the current figurehead. Think of their system as a cesspool. You can't rise to the top of it without getting covered with filth. You have to crawl to the top of the dung heap to be Presidente. By the time you get there you are as dirty as the people on the bottom and the cartels own you. The war is a sham, it is just one cartel having the government killing off another so they can take power. In the book, it is alleged that a meeting took place years ago and a former presidente and other movers and shakers met to announce that the state of Chihuahua had been essentially sold to the cartels, since it was the primary conduit of drugs into the US. Certain families were declared off limits by all police. They were give carte blanc. The resulting kidnaping, rape, sexual mutilation and murder of hundreds of women were a result of the "Juniors" the young sons, cousins and cartel members running amok knowing they would be protected at the highest levels. Some allege that they were also a form of initiation and entertainment recorded on film. New members of the crime families would essentially have to "make their bones" by raping, mutilating and killing a young girl. Ages ranged from 14 to early twenties and they all fit a "type" and similar "look". They were not all prostitutes or druggies as the authorities maintain, but workers at the maquiladora factories: collateral damage in the drug wars. Nothing will clean Mexico except another revolution. They need to purge the monied aristocracy and start over, but it will never happen because their power and influence has bought them access to the highest levels of US government as well. Some of the Mexicans involved have homes in El Paso.
Yes of course, the politicians were get a free pass with the cartels? You do know that many politicians have been killed throughout this?
Also, you do realize that this corrupt government is the direct result of the rule of the corrupt rule of the PRI.
No one can undo the years or corruption under PRI, in so little time.
Yeah, say this war is a sham, because from what I've seen all the cartels have been hit by the war. So how are the helping one cartel if they're all getting hit?
You base your whole argument on a few events.
I could say the U.S. is a sh!t hole of a country, because pedophiles have molested a number of children. Would that justify my argument? No.
chowchig, You have to admit things are out of control and i do agree with you on how we handle things in this country. Both my government and yours are corrupt. One day the common everyday folks will rise against them. P.S for the record Mexico is a beautiful place and hopefully one day you will have no killings.
American druggies lost another hero.
Was wondering where you've been AZ. Does "American druggies" include 1) Prescription drugs 2) The companies who peddle those drugs for gaudy profits and no concern for their side effects 3) Cigarette smokers and their manufacturers? I know you'd answer yes to alcohol and those mfrs. Drugs are good and bad like almost everything else AZ. You need to define that term "druggies". If you were drawing your last breath, and a drug gave you a little more time, you'd be a "druggie" also. All depends on definition and perspective.
And I'm a druggie AZ, w/ my views on cannabis. But this man is certainly not MY hero. People who speak the truth, common sense and don't pidgeonhole others, are more my heroes.
Yes, yes, and yes.
I don't taks drugs. Even those that come from American drug cartels, (pharm cos).
The war next door, coming soon to a neighborhood near you!!!!
Mexico is part of the Americas... hence "Mexican-Americans"... leaves me wondering if Mexico is so great and Mexican-Americans are so proud if it, why the ones in the U.S. don't move there!?!?!?!?!?
The cartels, they tell us, are running a billion dollar industry in Mexico and can't be stopped? Like a well oiled corporate business that everybody knows and many Mexicans work for. With a band of corporate international ringleaders with a security force to a production line and logistics. Packaging, transportation, warehouse and distribution and some form of banking to exchange and hide funds. Yet once they hit the border nobody knows who what or where the most seemingly productive and biggest industry of Mexico goes?
Certainly little crackhead Johnny scratching his arse on the corner and his supplier aren't calling the zetas when they need a dime bag. And a handful of smuggled immigrants with backpacks, more like decoys and sacrificial lambs, full of product. Certainly aren't hauling enough product in a year to add up to the weekly profit these many cartels are taking in 24-7. So tell me whose fooling who with this war on drugs.
Nobody in the cartel is going to just trust millions of dollars of product to some corner dealer or his supplier. So as big as the industry is in Mexico it's even bigger here in the US. Yet when is the last time you heard of anyone bigger than some poor local schmuck being arrested for drug possession or some tourist, out to make a quick buck, grabbed at the border for smuggling. The casualties of this war on drugs just don't seem to add up to the cost associated with maintaining the opposition force of this never ending battle. Unless you concider the ever changing battle of top puppet dog in control as winning?
planes and bombs and blow up and kill all those drugy wet backs and be done with it
I doubt it is the big dog that they killed. I can't imagine this guy driving around in a car throwing grenades at Marines. If he truly is a top echelon player he has plenty of grunts to do the dirty work like that. But then again who knows. Some people think they are immortal. I just doubt it was who they are thinking or hoping it is.
Obama will take credit for this..........he needs any points he can get (even though we know he had nothing to do with it).