Mexican Drug Cartels Series: Part 2—Enforcer Gangs

The crime spree that is continuing to occur in Mexico is being fueled by enforcer gangs at the behest of the Mexican Drug Cartels. Historically the Drug Cartels employed their own people to handle internal matters or problem with distributors, law enforcement officers and political figures. But that model has changed in the last several years, resulting in a major increase in deaths, some of which are horrific in nature being perpetrated.


Because of the various Mexican Drug Cartels have subcontracted their enforcement activities, the actual Cartels have turned to criminal street gangs, former military and corrupt law enforcement officers. In Spanish to enforcers are known as sicarios, and they are part of organizations like Los Zetas, Los Negros, La Familia Michocoan, MS-13, Los Pelones and Kaibiles.

Some of these organizations are connected to street gangs active here in the United States, including MS-13, Surenos, 18th Street (Calle-18), Mara 18 as well as prison organizations such as the Mexican Mafia.

Each one of the enforcer gangs are tied to a specific Drug Cartel, the battles by these groups to rest control of the lucrative drug trafficking trade is what has fueled the murder wave that is racing across Mexico and may lead to destabilizing the country further.

So who are these organizations, what do they do?

Los Zetas
Los Zetas was initially the criminal mercenary army for the Gulf Cartel. Los Zetas started our as a special forces unit with the Mexican Military.

Los Zetas were started recruited to work for the Gulf Cartel, they were initially known as GAFE, which stood for the elite Grupo Aeromovil-de-Fuerzas-Especiales. They were trained in counter-insurgency and locating and apprehending drug cartel members. They were originally trained in the United States at the military school, School of the Americas, as well as by France and Israel. Some of the skills they learned was rapid deployment, aerial assaults, marksmanship, ambushes, small-group tactics, intelligence collection, prisoner rescues, counter-surveillance and the use of sophisticated communications.

In the late 1990s, the Gulf Cartel leader Osiel Cardenas Guillen wanted to track down and kill rival cartel members as a from of protection. He recruited members of GAFE to do just that. The group started out with a Lieutenant Arturo-Guzman-Decena, who brought an initial 30 deserters to the Gulf Cartel.

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000’s the groups conducted numerous raids, murders and kidnappings in the name of the Gulf Cartel to attempt to control the trafficking corridors. By 2003, the group had begun transporting their own drug shipments through former Gulf Cartel routes and made a collaboration with the Beltran-lyva-brothers gang to head the Cartel.

Current estimates put Los Zetas at around 4000 members. According to estimates made by the Congressional Research Service, Los Zetas has substantial stakes in both the Gulf Cartel as well as the Sinaloa Cartel.

Los Negros

Originally formed to counter the Los Zetas from the Gulf Cartel. They are also known as the Beltran Leyva Cartel. During their activities Los Negros utilized such gangs as the Mexican Mafia and MS-13 to carry out murder and other illegal activities. Los Negros was known for recruiting members from Los Zetas.


Los Negros is lead by Edgar Valdez Villarreal. Los Negros and Los Zetas have had brutal feuds over the Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas region. That battle was over the regions important drug trafficking corridor as 40% of all Mexican exports, pass through this region via trucks en-route to the United States.

In the recent past the Cartels have utilized the enforcer gangs to assassinate local journalists who were critical of the drug trafficking groups. This was an attempt by the cartels to intimidate the media.

The drug war spread to the tourist region of Acapulco. Five members of Los Zetas were caught while trying to kidnap Sinaloa Cartel members, they were taken to a safe house, beaten, videotaped and murdered in 2006.



Kaibiles



Kaibiles originally were a special operations force of the Military of Guatemala. The specialized in jungle warfare and counter insurgency operations.

Kaibiles derived their name from the name of their training center Kaibel Special Operations Training Center (Centro de Adiestramiento y Operaciones Especiales Kaibil) The name “Kaibil” was derived from Kayb’il B’alam (Kaibil Balam), a Mam indigenous leader who evaded capture by the Spanish conquistadors under Pedro de Alvarado.

In 1996 the President of Guatemala in an attempt to redirect their Kaibiles during peacetime operations, put them into the battle against Drugs. The actions of Kaibiles in the period from 1996 through April 1998 led the Roman Catholic Church to urge that the unit be disbanded because of numerous human rights violations.

Most recently some former members of the Kaibiles in cooperation with MS-13 have formed a relationship with Los Zetas and now have close ties to the Gulf Cartel.

Los Zetas has international ties to Italian Organized crime group NDrangheta. This organization is known for its trafficking of cocaine. This surely elevates the level of the Los Zetas to a narco-trafficking organization instead of solely an enforcer gang.

Coming 11/8/2010 Part 3: The Failing of a State?