The birth and rise of Los Zetas

In 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement, also known as NAFTA until 2019 when a new deal was negotiated and renamed, was signed between Canada, the United States, and Mexico. This free trade agreement was an economic boon for all three countries. We can see the results of this trade as Canada is the United States' second biggest trade partner, right behind Mexico, and has been since 2009. But where economic growth is, organized crime is not far behind, hence it's no surprise that Mexican organized crime also saw a massive increase in wealth and power as a result of NAFTA, one group in particular benefited the most, the Gulf cartel. The Gulf cartel is the oldest of the criminal groups in Mexico, existing since the 1920s, starting off smuggling cigarettes and alcohol, and they would over the years continue to grow. By the 1990s, the main groups were the Sinaloa cartel, the Arellano Felix brothers who controlled the border of Tijuana and San Diego, the Juárez cartel led by Armado Carrillo Fuentes, also known as the lord of the skies, because he used Boeing Passenger planes to smuggle cocaine into the United States and the Gulf cartel lead by Osiel Cardenas who controlled the most lucrative route in the state of Tamaulipas on the eastern part of Mexico and the border with Texas. Why is this important is because with NAFTA in effect, Osiel now had the most profitable drug route into the United States, with hundreds of trucks passing through the border into his territory a day, he and his organization had plenty of ways and room to smuggle their drugs north of the border, resulting in a doubling of their profits.

Osiel was smart enough to realize he needed to protect his routes from his rivals, so he turned to Arturo Guzman Decana, a young officer with the Mexican special forces. Osiel is quoted as saying  I want the best to which Arturo responded You only find them in the army. This would lead to members of Mexican special forces defecting and creating the most influential cartel within the Mexican drug war, a name that would put the fear of god into the ordinary citizens of Mexico for years to come. Nobody knew how this one decision would usher in the paramilitarization of Mexico and create a legacy of terror in Mexico, but everyone was about to find out, and anyone who opposed them or messed with their money would be killed. Los Zetas had been born. Los Zetas would go on to be a major force going forward from the late 1990s until the mid-2010s, when, due to several high-profile arrests and a coalition of other cartels fighting against Los Zetas, they splintered into the old school Zetas and the New school Zetas, known as Cartel de Norste. The legacy and terror they created through the 90s, 2000’s and 2010s are still felt today, and their blueprint of success has been used by another group in Mexico, CJNG, to rise to the top of the Mexican Underworld. The book The Executioner’s Men by George W. Grayson and Samuel Logan does a much better job than I could ever do of talking about the history of Los Zetas. From the birth of Los Zetas, their battles in Michoacan, to their presence in both Central America and the US. The book came out in 2017, so the book shouldn’t be used as a guide to the modern version of the splinter groups due to the Zetas’ splintering. What it can be used for is a guide to understanding the effect they had on Mexico's drug war and how they transformed Mexico's criminal groups into paramilitary Fortune 500 companies that battle each other for enormous sums of money. As someone who was naturally curious about all things related to Mexico's drug war, I can not recommend this book enough. The amount of information in this book is amazing and very informative, and it is a must-read for anyone interested in the study of organized crime. Remember to subscribe for more reviews!