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Gulf Cartel goes public on break-up with former allies Los Zetas - Monsters and Critics
Many discussion about illicit developments assert that various groups, e.g. FARC and al Qaeda, are "linked," in some coordinated, directed, coherent movement.
However, as the above article detailing the breakup of the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas illustrates, illicit groups can have divergent goals and purposes, that they can delink, diverge, and even fight one another.
So the next time that you hear that, say, the 'Ndrangheta may be doing business with the Burmese, take the report with a grain of salt and recognize that this probably does not mean that they are therefore subsidiaries of some larger Moriarity/Fu Manchu type conspiracy.
The Long Night is Coming
5 years ago
First, thank you, Duncan, for the blog--you're doing a great job aggregating vital news.
ReplyDeleteThe article only skims the surface. The appearance of the narcomantas in Matamoros was not the first public announcement of the break between a faction of Cartel de Golfo and Los Zetas--it was advertised two weeks ago with the narcomantas signed by Carteles Unidos Contra Los Zetas--the actual break date back further. The break went public a day after Osiel Cardenas, head of the Gulf Cartel and recruiter of Los Zetas, was sentenced in Houston on Feb 25 after making a plea deal with US DOJ. The fissure within Cartel de Golfo opened when Osiel was arrested and extradited to the US in 2007: Eduardo Costilla Sanchez, El Coss and Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen took charge of the CDG and the paramilitary arm of the cartel-- Los Zetas-- answered to Heriberto Lazcano and Miguel Treviño Morales.
The division widened when the Zetas formed an alliance with the Beltran Leyva org that was negotiated by Hector Beltran prior to the killing of his brother Arturo by Mexican marines in Cuernavaca last December. By that time intelligence agents were seeing a clear split between the two orgs. DEA intel sources pinpoint the final break to January 18 2010--the day a team of sicarios killed the Zetas financial officer, Eduardo Costilla Peña Victor Mendoza, Concord 3 and Treviño Morales.
As for the Ndrangheta and its partnerships, while I agree that it would be inaccurate--if not silly-- to subscribe to some overarching "Moriarty/Fu Manchu conspiracy", evidence of Ndrangheta global trafficking partnerships are considerably heavier than "a grain of salt."