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A building housing the funeral parlor, from which local media reported the dead body of the leader of the brutal Zetas drug gang Heriberto Lazcano had been snatched by armed men, is seen in Sabinas, Oct. 9, 2012. Mexico says it has killed Lazcano, the most powerful kingpin to fall in a six-year battle against cartels, but in a surreal twist his body was snatched from a funeral home by armed men.
MEXICO CITY - Heriberto Lazcano, the slain boss of the Zetas drug cartel, was once an elite special forces soldier before switching sides to join the criminals he was charged to fight, eventually becoming one of Mexico's most feared and brutal kingpins.
Known as "The Executioner" and "Z-3," Lazcano was killed on Sunday in a gun battle with Marines in northern Coahuila state, Mexico's Navy said. If confirmed, it would be the biggest coup yet for outgoing President Felipe Calderon in his war on drug cartels.
In a bizarre twist, however, Lazcano's body was snatched by armed men from a funeral home just hours later, shrouding the incident in mystery. While Calderon said "all available evidence" indicated the cartel chief had been killed, including finger prints, he did not say he knew for sure that Lazcano was dead.
Lazcano was mistakenly reported killed in 2007 after a clash with the military.
The Zetas boss 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.
Lazcano deserted a Mexican army unit formed to combat the drug gangs in 1998 and joined the Gulf Cartel's vicious enforcement wing, the Zetas, where he quickly won power thanks to his merciless slaying of rivals.
The Mexican Attorney General's office has said Lazcano was believed to own a ranch with a pit containing lions and tigers, into which he used to hurl his victims.
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The Zetas, named after a military call sign, split from the Gulf Cartel in 2010, and have continued to expand even as rival cartels joined forces against them.
Under Lazcano's leadership, the Zetas grew into a feared organization of more than 10,000 gunmen with operations stretching from the Rio Grande, on the border with Texas, to deep into Central America.
SEMAR via EPA
A handout picture provided on Oct. 9, 2012 by the Mexican Secretary Office of the Navy shows the alleged body of leader of Zetas Heriberto Lazcano, who was killed on Oct. 7 during a confrontation in the town of Progreso, in the Mexican state of Coahuila.
Armed with a huge arsenal of automatic weapons, dynamite, grenades and even rocket launchers, the Zetas have waged a gruesome battle for supremacy with a coalition of rival drug gangs from Mexico's Pacific state of Sinaloa since 2004.
The gang's expansion has pushed out 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.
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They were blamed for the brutal massacre of 72 foreign migrant workers headed to the United States and the burning of a casino in the affluent city of Monterrey, which claimed 52 lives.
Hundreds of bodies found in mass graves may have been their kidnapping victims.
Rivals, snatched from safe houses and off the streets, were tortured and mutilated by the Zetas, who are believed to have pioneered decapitating rivals, now a grim hallmark of Mexican organized crime.
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.
In May, the Zetas were blamed for killing 49 people and dumping their headless and limbless bodies on a highway near Monterrey.
Lazcano's recruitment drive extended to former elite Guatemalan soldiers known as Kaibiles, who committed human rights atrocities during that country's long civil war, Mexican officials say.
President: Mexico gang-related deaths fall by 15 percent in 2012
But little else was known about the kingpin, who turned his back on opulent displays of wealth and power common among other Mexican drug lords, and kept a low profile.
"He is the most secretive of the bosses because he's trained in intelligence," George Grayson, a U.S.-based Mexico expert at the College of William and Mary said of Lazcano at the height of his power.
"He's not out there throwing birthday parties or getting musicians to compose songs for him, he's out there to make money," he said, referring to the more flamboyant habits of other drug traffickers.
Under Lazcano's command, the Zetas were organized in a cellular structure and low-ranking members know little about overall operations.
Army deserters targeted
The group became a key target of Calderon, who made crushing the Gulf Cartel and its former enforcers one of his main goals in a military-led offensive involving tens of thousands of troops launched after he took office in 2006.
Mexico's drug war is also part of a drug culture with roots in music, movies and even religion
About 60,000 people have been killed in drugs violence since then.
Despite the government assault, Lazcano appeared undaunted, openly advertising for soldiers to desert and join the Zetas.
Debate rages over Mexico 'spillover violence' in US
The group strung banners from bridges over main roads in the towns of Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo on the U.S. border offering attractive pay to recruit other deserters like Lazcano, who receive measly salaries in the army.
In the working class neighborhood in Pachuca, in central Mexico, where Lazcano grew up, he built a vast Roman Catholic brick chapel in 2009.
Fronted by a towering cross in light steel, a plaque says openly, "Donated by Heriberto Lazcano. Lord, hear my prayer, attend my petitions, you that are faithful and just." In anticipation of his own death, the kingpin had also built a brick mausoleum nearby, police said.
In recent months, the Zetas appeared to be rupturing, with a longstanding rivalry between Lazcano and his deputy Miguel Trevino, alias "Z-40," exploding into violence.
Analysts said Lazcano's death could trigger further blood letting as cartel lieutenants battle to fill a power vacuum within his faction of the cartel.
"As they don't have a strong leader ... second- or third-tier leaders could take over the organization... It could lead to greater violence," said Vicente Sanchez, a researcher with the Colegio de la Frontera Norte.
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There will be another to take his place.
These monsters are entering the US at a high rate.
The cartels pay better than the army, and you can have all the adrenalin rushes you want.
Why would Mexico want to stop poisoning Americans with chemical made in their country?
They are not all members of a cartel. If you read close it said they also ran "kidnapping" rings and that a mass grave was to believe to be the victims of this kidnapping activity. They've been known to kill reporters, police or anyone else that got in their way or said something negative about them in public.
He has already been replaced, Shorty (Guzman) couldn't kill him so the government did it for him. The Mexican govt. wants just one cartel to run things and keep a lid on violence. Must be the same purpose of the US govt also as this administration has busted more medical marijuana facilities in 3 years than any other administration. I guess Holder must be Shorty's pool boy, bust the competition and give them guns. It won't solve all of the problem in Mexico but it would help there and here, a sane drug policy including legalization and decriminalization. I am 55 don't do drugs but since 73 the "war on drugs". Only stupid dumb a$$es want to continue as is or they have a financial interest in continuing as is.
Man, and all I've done since leaving the Army is work at a factory and take some business courses. Guess I've got some work to do...
It seems to me that the Mexican government should be fighting for the same thing that the cartels are fighting each other for. The government fights the cartels and gains little ground. The cartels fight each other for a reason. Find out what that purpose is and exploit it. If the government controlled what they are fighting for then the fight will be brought to the front instead of another guerrilla war. Call me simplistic but if the trade routes are blocked then they will start to squirm and expose themselves to risks.
maybe the government should set up their own secret super brutal cartel and kill all the other guys pretending to be bad themselves. After all the bad guys are dead or too stupid to run things then they can just shut it down themselves.Fight fire with fire.
OOOOOOOOOOOh K.
The cartels were made powerful by the USA. We shut down the Colombians in Florida so they started coming through Mexico until the Colombians are nothing more than wholesale distributors for the Mexican Cartels. It is like squeezing a balloon, it just comes out in another direction. The drug war strategy conceived in 1973 does not work and we are going to pay big time for our stupidity. The DEA says the cartels are in more than 500 US cities, large and small. Doing the same thing again and again and each time hoping for a different outcome is insanity and that is what the drug war is as currently being fought. Think of the complex of interests that depend on it continuing, prisons, DEA, police etc etc. The foreign aid we give other countries, they and so much of our govt has a vested interest in continuing these failed policies.
Life is cheap as hell with these guys,they live fast and die the same way why is this even a news story? For the purpose of providing a scumbag martyr for the other scumbags to idolize?
Any real evidence it was actually Lazcano? Frame a look-a-like, steal the body before it can be tested, everybody wins.
Heriberto Lazcano L. made a mistake by not altering his nose, his nostrils are unusual. I suspect the body was stolen to make him a legend and pin bad deeds on a dead man. His family probably fled by now to another country under another name so finding them won't be so easy. It's said he was suffering from a terminal disease, probably cancer of the spinal column so any way his death was inminent.
WOW!!! Mexico has a navy !!
I dunno about deceased people very much, but if the guy in the photo were dead, would he have been holding his hand up like that? His lips and ears look pretty pink for a dead guy as well- to me anyway- and his face and arm and hands have natural-looking skin, not pale, gray or blue either.