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No one is more vexed than Mexican President Vicente Fox, who is under pressure from the Bush Administration to crack down on the flow of drugs and illegal migrants across the Mexican border, amid fears that terrorists might exploit the lawlessness to sneak into the U.S. Mexico was infuriated by a recent U.S. alert about security dangers on the Mexican border and by a State Department report last month claiming that 90% of the cocaine hitting U.S. streets comes via Mexico, much higher than prior estimates of less than 75%. Mexico disputes the report, especially since it has made strides in breaking up the large cartels. "Nobody has given us credit," Fox complained at a press conference before a meeting with Bush last month.
It's harder for Fox to trumpet his accomplishments when criminals like El Verdugo are on the loose. According to Mexican officials, Lazcano was a clean-cut Mexican army recruit from the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz when he was picked a decade ago to be part of the highly trained Airborne Special Forces Group. The unit was sent to the eastern border to battle drug trafficking. But in the late 1990s, Lazcano and more than 30 other members of the special forces began working for drug lord Osiel Cárdenas, head of the Matamoros-based Gulf cartel, which at the time controlled almost one-third of the Mexican drug trade. As Cárdenas' enforcers, protecting drug shipments and rubbing out foes, the gang members--who dubbed themselves Zetas after the radio call name of their original leader, who was killed in 2002--were paid as much as $15,000 a month, compared with their $700 army salary. Zeta bosses like Lazcano wore Rolex watches and ostrich-skin boots and imitated other famous drug lords by raising exotic animals on their ranches.
Michael Shelby, the U.S. Attorney in Houston, says the Zetas' military discipline, arsenal and wiretap capability make them more dangerous than other drug groups. Adds José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, Mexico's deputy attorney general for organized crime: "You had soldiers from an élite force transferring all the heavy military mystique--the honor, valor, loyalty--to a drug trafficker." After the government captured Cárdenas in 2003, the Zetas had to strike out more on their own. They launched a lethal campaign against Mexican authorities and rival traffickers gunning for control over Cárdenas' former trafficking routes. Mexican officials insist that half the original Zetas have been arrested or killed, but because of intense recruitment and training of hundreds of Zetitas (Little Zetas), the gang has cells scattered around Mexico. They engage in ransom kidnappings and the extortion of businesses, from convenience stores to car dealerships. "The Zetas now victimize the general population," says Art Fontes, an FBI agent in Laredo. "Honest businesspeople are coming here from Nuevo Laredo out of fear."
Fox recently sent more than 700 soldiers and federal agents to patrol Nuevo Laredo's streets. Still, a local journalist was shot nine times last week (she lived), as she reported on an attorney's slaying--and the Zetas are top suspects in both cases.