German Torres, 29, was arrested in Mexico City on Friday. He is believed to be a founding member of the feared "Zetas"

German Torres, 29, was arrested in Mexico City on Friday. He is believed to be a founding member of the feared "Zetas" wing of the powerful Gulf cartel that dominates drug smuggling from northeastern Mexico into Texas.The public security ministry said Torres was also thought to be involved in the kidnapping of Batista, a Cuban-American credited with negotiating past releases of hostages held by Colombian rebels, in the northern city of Saltillo on December 10.Investigators ran DNA tests in February on charred bodies found in the surrounding state of Coahuila but have yet to confirm whether Batista was among them.The Coahuila state attorney general's office declined to comment on its investigation into Batista, who disappeared after he apparently stepped outside a restaurant alone after answering a cell phone call.Separately in Coahuila, suspected drug hitmen killed the police chief of Piedras Negras, a town on the Texas border, after less than three weeks in the job, local media reported.Arturo Navarro, a former army colonel, was shot in his vehicle in the early hours of Saturday, Zocalo and El Norte newspaper websites said. Police declined to comment.

Los Zetas, the enforcer of Mexico´s infamous Gulf Cartel, is reinforcing its ranks and stockpiling weapons in safe houses in the U.S

Los Zetas, the enforcer of Mexico´s infamous Gulf Cartel, is reinforcing its ranks and stockpiling weapons in safe houses in the U.S. in response to recent crackdowns in the U.S. and Mexico against drug traffickers, said the FBI San Antonio Field Office's Joint Assessment Bulletin. The bulletin was dated Oct. 17 and was sent to law enforcement officials in the Texas region. The bulletin said the cartel's regional leader, Jaime Gonzalez, has ordered the reinforcements to a tactical operational territory, or "plaza," in the area around the southern Texas towns of McAllen and Mission, about 235 miles south of San Antonio and less than five miles from the border with Mexico. "In direct response to recent United States law enforcement activities against Los Zetas members of the McAllen-Mission, Texas Plaza, Jaime Gonzalez, AKA 'HUMMER,' has ordered additional personnel to the Plaza to regain control and engage law enforcement officers if confronted," states the bulletin, which was produced by the FBI's McAllen Intelligence Center. "These replacements are believed to be armed with assault rifles, bullet proof vests, and grenades, and are occupying safe houses throughout the McAllen Texas area," the bulletin states. Richard Kolko, a spokesman for the FBI in Washington, confirmed the authenticity of the report. "The FBI, with our gang task force members are well aware of Los Zetas and their violent nature. A bulletin not intended for the media was provided to law enforcement throughout Texas to alert them of potential new tactics," he said. Los Zetas is thought to be composed of former members of Mexico´s special forces who deserted or retired to work for the Gulf Cartel, a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) official familiar with the group told The Times. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of ongoing operations in the area, said that Los Zetas is thought to have taken control of the Gulf Cartel's operations. Its home base in Nuevo Laredo, a Mexican border town about 160 miles southwest of San Antonio, has been brutalized by ongoing cartel wars and witnessed a surge of violence in recent years. Recent arrests by the FBI of several members associated with the McAllen-Mission plaza led to the information on the drug cartel's intentions and on Mr. Gonzalez. Mr. Gonzalez, who operates out of Reynosa, Mexico, about 10 miles south of McAllen and Mission, instructed his cells to "engage law enforcement with a full tactical response should law enforcement attempt to intervene in their operations" and also is "believed to have established loose relationships with street and prison gangs to facilitate their movement and operations within the United States," according to the bulletin. An FBI search warrant on a rural location in Mission resulted in the seizure of multiple weapons including assault rifles, tactical vests, and an assortment of paintball weapons, which the Zetas have used for "regular paint ball training for tactical raids and car stops," the bulletin states. According to the bulletin, the "main responsibility of these cells" stationed in the United States "is to seek out people owing the Cartel money for lost, stolen, seized drug loads or profits." Those people are forced to "either pay their debt or are kidnapped. In addition, the plaza cells are proactively seeking out and eliminating rival drug and alien smuggling groups," the bulletin states. Since the summer, drug wars have escalated along the more than 2,000-mile U.S. border with Mexico, with thousands killed. Los Zetas, continues to control the drug routes in the south Texas area, which includes access to Interstate 35 and Highways 59, 359 and 83. The interstates run from south Texas to as far north as Canada and provide the drug cartels access to major U.S. cities, where they distribute billions of dollars in narcotics annually. The FBI McAllen Resident Agency, a division of the bureau's San Antonio Field Office, recently received the information that the Zetas have segregated the Rio Grande Valley area into tactical operational territories, or plazas, and "currently have standing orders to confront U.S. law enforcement agencies to zealously protect their criminal interests," the bulletin states. Each territory or "plaza" has a designated leader to oversee all enforcement operations conducted on behalf of the cartel. Increased pressure by U.S. and Mexican law enforcement has pushed the cartels "into a defensive mode," the DEA official said. "These particular types of activities by the cartels show their increased strength and the serious threat they pose to the national security in the U.S.," the official said. "It's not getting better but worse along the border. Unfortunately, the drug wars we've seen in Mexico are now spilling significantly into the United States."

Zetas equipped with automatic weapons, 50 Cal machine guns, M-60’s, infrared technology body armor, Humvee’s and state-of-the-art communications

The men are known as the Zetas, former members of the Mexican army who defected to Mexico's so-called Gulf drug cartel in the late 1990s. "These guys operate like a military well trained and with precision," said Arturo A. Fontes, an FBI special investigator for border violence based in Laredo, in south Texas. "They have their hands in everything and they have eyes and ears everywhere. I've seen how they work, and they're good at what they do. They're an impressive bunch of ruthless criminals."
Los Zetas are Ex- Army Special forces, regular troopers, police agents and common criminals who work for Osiel Cardenas in the drug trafficking business. Some have received special-forces training under the U.S. Army at the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia . The members with military backgrounds can be considered mercenaries working for Mexican drug cartels. The name Zeta comes from a radio code used by the Mexican federal police to locate high-ranking battalion commanders.
Investigators say the feared bands of ex-military elite forces are operating in Texas and other parts of the United States unchecked. A team of rogue Mexican commandos blamed for hundreds of killings and kidnappings along the U.S.-Mexico border has carried out at least five drug-related slayings as far north as Dallas, a sign that the group is extending its deadly operations into U.S. cities, U.S. law enforcement officials say.Dallas and federal officials said that since late 2003 eight to 10 members of the Zetas have been operating in north Texas, maintaining a "shadowy existence" and sometimes hiring Texas criminal gangs, including the Mexican Mafia, M-13 and Texas Syndicate, for contract killings according to the Dallas police dept.. The Texas Syndicate is a prison gang that authorities blame for several murders nationwide.It is also believed by some officials at the CIA that they may have Al-Qaeda and other terrorist connections and maybe helping them breach our borders.The U.S.-Mexico border is becoming like a war zone states Texas sheriff's from El Paso, McAllen, Laredo.The feds in El Paso alerted law enforcement throughout the country, warning them that Mexican commandos are now working for drug cartels.Most Americans are shocked to learn where the commandos were trained.A memo from the Justice Department warns that Mexican commandos were trained by U.S. forces, but switched sides. They are now using their deadly skills to work for the drug cartels often with the Mexican regular army.A recent Intelligence Bulletin from ICE we obtained says the Zetas are responsible for hundreds of violent drug-related murders. It says they've executed journalists, murdered people in Dallas, El Paso, McAllen, Laredo, Tijuana and Juarez. They even detained two DEA agents and recently they've shot at Border Patrol agents, County sheriffs and the US National Guard. At the Texas and Arizona borders with Mexico agents are already seeing a major increase in murder and other violence.Perfecting their commando training, Los Zetas are known to be extremely violent killers and have been blamed for an outbreak of violence along the Mexican border for several years now, with no real resistance from the US Government.Federal agents stationed at the El Paso Criminal Intelligence Center told local law enforcement, "that Not only did they receive some early military training but they developed their own internal training as well increasing their violence far beyond their own original capabilities."
The normally busy streets and busy stores in El Paso, Nogales, Sonora and Laredo on both sides of the river have been less busy due to all the violence and threats. It’s reported that many shop keepers in all of those broader cities and others are scared. Many claim their business has really fallen off since the Los Zetas showed up. Most shop owners like Seth (does not want to use his last name) who fear retaliation say “it’s a direct result of drug wars and random shootings.” Seth says,” the tourists are simply afraid to come to our cities to shop.
U.S. Customs agents, US Boarder Patrol and county Sheriff’s all along the boarder from California to east Texas have been involved in shootouts with an enemy they had not seen before. According to one Texas sheriff’s deputy “ these guys are equipped with automatic weapons, 50 Cal machine guns, M-60’s, infrared technology body armor, Humvee’s and state-of-the-art communications, he said ,” it is a combination of Los Zetas and Mexican military.”As the drug wars heat up and expand between the Gulf Cartel to the east and the Tijuana Cartel to the west, a Justice Department bulletin warns:“The violence will spill over the Mexican border into the United States and law enforcement agencies in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and Southern California can expect to encounter Los Zetas in the coming months and years.”
The violence plaguing the border towns has led to dire warnings issued by the State Department saying that narco- traffickers are on the hunt for US citizens.The military training comes in handy with the arms the Zetas carry, including 9mm weapons and infrared technology - all parts of an armory equivalent to an American SWAT team. Drug money pays for it all. The Zeta arsenal could make the group attractive to other groups, like al-Qaeda or the Mara Salvatruchas.
According to one of there own jailed members during an interview with law enforcement said, “there are some of the Maras and al-Qaeda inside the organization”. The phenomenon of the Maras, is a violent Central American gang that originated in Los Angeles and has become a nightmare in the region.While the Zetas are a problem for Mexican police, they also claim to work with drug dealers in the United States. Their work includes cold-blooded killings. They told us they knew of a hit on two men outside a Rio Grande City restaurant, and the murder of two men watching a fight in Starr County according to a TV report aired in Arizona.Law enforcement including Sheriff’s, Police Chiefs and regular concerned citizens along the Mexican American border say the US Government is doing very little to support and protect our hundreds of miles of borders. And say the Zetas are operating with immunity and doing what ever they like without and repercussions. They want something done and right now it is already completely out of hand and is dangerous for there kids and everyone else. Business owners on both sides of the border and even law enforcement are reluctant to talk about the problem fearing retaliation from these thugs.So what are we doing in our country to keep an eye on these people.