Monterrey Casino Massacre Leader Captured

Back in August 2011, the world was sicked to hear that fifty two people had been killed in a deadly blaze at the Casino Royale, in Monterrey, Mexico. Apparently, members of the country’s notorious drugs gang known as the Zetas had stormed and set alight to the casino after its owners refused to pay extortion money to Zeta leader, Miguel Angel Treviño Morales.
Now, however, the gangs brutal leader has been taken into custody after Mexican marines captured him during an operation near his hometown of Nuevo Laredo. With Morales’ capture, there is hope that the cartel’s nightmarish reign could soon be at an end, and as security analyst Alejandro Hope, explains:
“Los Zetas is a powerful brand. It is identified with extreme violence. It is identified with a complete absence of scruples..This is probably the beginning of the end of the Zetas as a coherent, cohesive organization.”
Los Zetas was formed back in 1999 when deserters from the Mexican Army’s elite forces went to work for a powerful drug trafficking organization known as the Gulf Cartel, the very same organization they were sent to combat, before later breaking away to form their very own criminal enterprise called Los Zetas. They have since become Mexico’s largest drug cartel in terms of geographical representation, fighting for control of the drug trafficking routes between South America and the USA, worth more than $13 billion each year.
Los Zetas are known for their brutal tactics, and in addition to the 2011 Monterrey Casino Massacre, have been implicated in numerous crimes, including the San Fernando Massacre, August 2010, in which 72 immigrants were killed because they were believed to be potential recruits for a rival drugs gang. The San Fernando Massacre of April 2011, where 193 people were killed on a ranch, was also carried out for the same reason.
So reviled was Los Zetas’ mass murdering leader Miguel Angel Treviño Morales, that in Mexico a $2.3 million bounty was placed on his head, while the U.S. State Department had also offered a $5 million reward for his capture.