Los Zetas History

Did you know that the Los Zetas is a Mexican gang that is based in America? The gang name translates to “The Z’s”. The Los Zetas gang was founded in 1999, with 31 members from the Mexican Army’s elite airborne Special Forces Group. The members were originally working for the Gulf Cartel as an enforcer gang. Then, they came to form a new gang called the Los Zetas. Their founders and leaders were Osiel Cardenas Guillen and Arturo Guzmán Decena, and the new members began working as drug runners, hired assassins, and bodyguards. The Los Zetas are now considered “the most technologically advanced, sophisticated, efficient, violent, ruthless and dangerous cartel operating in Mexico" (Wikipedia 1) by the U.S. government. The Los Zetas was named after its first commander, Arturo Guzmán Decena whos radio code for the Federal Justice police was “Z1.” A radio code is only given to high ranking officers. The code “Y” is for the commanding federal judicial police officers in Mexico. They were nicknamed the Yankees. For the officer in charge of a city …show more content…
Osiel was born May 18, 1967 in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Before working for the gang called the Los Zetas, he was a mechanic for his home city of Matamoros. He is now currently known to be both a drug lord and a murderer. The other founder of Los Zetas, Arturo, was born January 13, 1976 in Puebla, Mexico and then later died at the age of 26 on November 21, 2002 at Matamoros, Tamaulipas. Arturo was known for growing up in a poor family in the city of Puebla and joining the Mexican Military to escape poverty. While serving he got to be in the special forces by the mid 1990’s. But then he decided to work for a Mexican criminal organization called the Gulf Cartel, while he was still currently serving in the Mexican military. Then in 1997, he decided to work for full time for