They were at one point Mexico's largest and most expansive drug cartel in terms of geographical presence, overtaking their rivals, the Sinaloa Cartel , in physical territory. United States President Donald Trump had also expressed interest in designating cartels as terrorist organizations.
Special Forces. The Zetas' membership ranges from corrupt federal, state, and local police officers, and former U. Army personnel, [ 53 ] [ 54 ] [ 55 ] to ex- Kaibiles , the special forces of the Guatemalan military. Los Zetas was partially responsible for a qualitative increase in the brutality of the violence seen during the Modern Mexican Drug Wars.
Unlike other cartels, the Zetas did not buy alliances so much as terrorize their enemies. Because the cartel was quite new at the time, it competed with more established cartels by using extreme violence and cruelty as a form of psychological warfare. They tortured victims, strung up bodies, and slaughtered indiscriminately. They preferred to take military-style control of territory, holding it through sheer force and exploiting its criminal opportunities.
Although their military training was diluted over time, their brutality was not. Rival cartels struggling against the Zetas began to adopt some of their tactics, further ramping up violence in the country. Some of these newer tortures and hyper-violent execution styles included practices such as flaying and castration as well as public displays of the victims.
Reports vary as to who triggered the formal split and why. When the hostilities began, the Cartel joined forces with its former rivals, the Sinaloa Cartel and La Familia Michoacana , aiming to take out Los Zetas. Los Zetas have also carried out multiple massacres and attacks on civilians and rival cartels, such as:. By , only 10 of the original 34 Zetas remained fugitives, [ 90 ] and to this day most of them have either been killed or captured by the Mexican law enforcement and military forces.
