The Los Zetas : Mexican Transnational Criminal Organization Specializes

B. Restate thesis/ There has been a large increase in the smuggling of contraband, such as drugs, and firearms, into the U.S, and violence spilling onto our border cities due to the drug wars between the drug cartels in Mexico.

A widely propagated myth would have us believe that Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera and his Sinaloa Federation are less violent than many of their competitors. Statements from journalists and analysts allege that Sinaloa is more businesslike than Los Zetas, whose reputation for brutality is well-documented, and that this business savvy somehow renders the group relatively benign. In turn, this has led many to believe that the Mexican government could broker a deal with the leader of one of Mexico's largest criminal organizations.

Gangsters Without Borders by T.W. Ward is an ethnography about the El Salvadorian gang Mara Salvatrucha. Wards spent years earning the trust of these youth in order to complete his research. Starting out Ward had three broad goals in mind to develop a clear view of gang members and gang life. The second objective of Wards, “To observe how gang members changed over time as they matured into adulthood,” peaked my interest in this ethnography.

Mexican Drug Cartels have been a problem for many years. The cartels are an organized crime organization and they don’t just deal drugs; they commit murders too. The Cartels origins are traced back to the Columbian Cali and Medellin mega-cartels who were responsible for the majority of drug trafficking into the United States. Crime has existed for many years but it surfaced more when Pablo Escobar was popular. Pablo Escobar was one the main transporters for cocaine throughout Mexico and the United States coming straight out of Columbia. Law enforcement tried to stop the drug trade but Escobar formed a relationship with Mexico-based traffickers who smuggled drugs into the United States. Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo also known as “The Godfather” of the cartels. Seeing how he established the Guadalajara Cartel, which is recognized as the first Mexican Cartel, and were the first to link up with Escobar and started the transportation of cocaine

At first, Mexican drug cartels were structured just like family owned businesses. There would be a family member who was the main drug lord and cousins and uncles of the family would be the body guards and drug dealers. After the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) lost their power within the Mexican government the structure of drug cartels became much more complex. A hierarchical diffusion is seen within the drug cartel system because the drugs spread from one important drug lord to another, and we generally see this happening in the urban part of Mexico, more than in the rural areas. A corporate structure began forming as hierarchies began developing under drug lords and more people got involved. Professor Guillermo Trejo of Notre Dame 's Kellogg Institute claims that once the PRI lost their power there was a rapid increase in violence. This is because of Mexico’s former President, Felipe Calderón, who politically associates with the National Action Party (PAN). In 2006 President Calderón declared war on the drug cartels. This milestone triggered a huge change within Mexico’s international relations, government, and culture.

The Gulf Cartel was the first to recruit Mexican Special Forces to act as a military wing to: enforce receipt of payments, protect from other cartels, and carry out well organized assassinations of members from rival gangs or cartels. This Special Forces group was known as the Zetas. The Gulf Cartel's vision to bring a group of highly trained gunmen into the drug game would forever have an impact on the drug cartels in Mexico (Beith, M. (2013, September 24)).

The Sinaloa Cartel is the premier drug trafficking organization in Mexico. The cartel is based out of Sinaloa, Mexico. Unlike many of the Mexican cartels, the Sinaloa Cartel exports large quantities of multiple drugs into the United States. Pablo Escobar is considered one of the most notorious drug lords in history. Escobar’s cartel was only in charge of exporting cocaine into the United States. The Sinaloa Cartel exports cocaine, methamphetamines, and marijuana into the United States. The leader of the Sinaloa Cartel is Joaquin “el chapo” Guzman. While El Chapo is a very well-known international drug kingpin, he has proven that he is almost as good at escaping from prison. El Chapo has multiple prison escapes under his belt. He most recently escaped from the Federal Social Readaptation Center No. 1, which is a maximum security prison in Mexico.

In the novel “Prayers for the Stolen”, it tells us how hard it is for the people of Guerrero, Mexico to leave in that area because the gang and the police are tied up together and there is no one to stop the illegal activities that are happening. What differ a gang and a police are one is out to get the other meaning the police should be stopping the gang not work with them, but that’s not always the case, is it? We don’t often see it, but a lot of illegal activities, in the United States. By reading this essay you can comparing and contrast illegal activities, in the United States and Guerrero, Mexico. Also how money or resources, education and personnel have an effect on illegal activities in both countries.

This is a criminal action that's purposely undertaken with the aim of acquiring influence, power and gain. It involves a few people that organize themselves on various hierarchical basis and they engage in both illegal and legal activities. The various positions might be assigned according to friendship or kinship notably hierarchical or skill. There is extreme readiness to use bribery or violence to maintain discipline and also to achieve targets that are intended. Organized offenses have taken different names determined by the area but ‘Mafia’ is a universal name that relates to numerous organized groups on the planet.

The Mexican Mafia, or “La Eme”, as they refer to themselves, is one of the most powerful and influential organized crime gangs in the United States. The organization has risen through the decades of mass gang wars and violence to become the power it is today. Their control is limitless and they have ventured far beyond the expectations of what was thought that gangs were capable of. They have infiltrated governments and manipulated politics. They have taken over neighborhoods and attempted to ethnically cleanse them. Innocent people have become caught up in the affairs of La Eme throughout its history and many have faced violence and death at their hands. This paper is a continual of the case analysis of the Mexican Mafia and will attempt to provide explanations for some of the crimes committed by this organization. Researching gangs and organized crime is important because of their large influence and control over many aspects of daily life. The significance of attempting to provide causations of their crimes can better provide the criminal justice system a clearer understanding of problems that lead to gang members committing crimes on behalf of the organization. A clearer understanding of problems can help the system to provide solutions to combat situations that inhibit crimes.

Recognized as one of the most fearless and violent cartels in all of Mexico, Los Zetas was brought forth by a need for personal security in the Gulf Cartel. This former hit man/security style operation, active since 1997, has since grown into its own ruthless and violent organization becoming the second most powerful cartel and easily the most feared in all of Mexico. Heavily trained and armed, members of Los Zetas are set apart from other cartels because of the level of brutality they are willing to administer to those who cross them, though they had initially hoped that by being more intimidating they would have to fight less. It is their command of the drug market, their lack of fear in using violent tactics, and the

As a child when my mother would travel to Mexico there was always minimal extortion, “mordidas” from the judiciales when crossing the boarders. The country seemed relatively safe at the time. The mordidas was a common incident for people who would travel from the United States to their home towns. My mother said that it was uncommon to hear about drugs, massacre, and executions. Nowadays, this is the new norm in Mexico .

The United States is part of the Western civilization because of its wealth of economics and abundance in natural resources. Like any civilized society its success comes from the business aspect of supply and demand. The law of supply and demand not only benefits the civilized society of the United States it also benefits the Mexican drug trafficking organization (DTO) known as Los Zetas or Zetas. The United States has a high demand for drugs and contraband that come from Mexico facilitated by the Zetas TCO. The Zetas Transnational Criminal Organization (TCO) has benefitted from money laundering, acquisition of weapons from the United States, facilitation of narcotics, pirated software and movies, and theft of oil and petroleum.

Mass executions and widespread violence has become a common sight across parts of Syria and Iraq with the recent rise of ISIS, causing the United States to take action and intervene once again in the Middle East. However, closer to home, these sightings are even more common. Just across the almost 2,000 miles-long border between the United States and Mexico, the drug cartels are nearly free to spread fear and chaos and remains almost immune to impunity. Who rules Mexico? Is it the government or the Mexican drug cartels? An overview of some of the past presidencies and the major drug cartels may shed some light into the relationship between Mexico government’s leadership and the leaders of the Mexican drug enterprise.

More interestingly, the drug cartels are only paying bribery to a politician. In fact, they are also paying bribery to a policeman. Many policeman in Latin America were reported as accepting bribery from the drug cartels. In fact, Mexican authorities said that the drug trafficking gangs pay around $100 million a month to a police officers nationwide, “Mexican authorities said at a forum that drug trafficking gangs pay around 1.27 billion pesos (some $100 million) a month in bribes to municipal police officers nationwide” (Web 2015).