Small Wars Journal

Los Zetas

Why Mexico's Zetas Expanded Faster than their Rivals

Wed, 04/24/2013 - 3:46pm
"Why Mexico's Zetas Expanded Faster than their Rivals" by Steven Dudley and Viridiana Rios 

Sunday 21 April 2013

The Zetas are not the only extremely violent, military-style criminal organization from Mexico. Yet, they are the only one that operates in 350 Mexican municipalities, as well as numerous others in Guatemala and Central America. Why have they been able to expand faster than their rivals?

Read it here.

The Executioner's Men: Los Zetas

Fri, 04/06/2012 - 3:27pm

El Centro Fellows George Grayson and Samuel Logan have published the new work The Executioner's Men: Los Zetas, Rogue Soldiers, Criminal Entrepreneurs, and the Shadow State They Created

A new generation of ruthless pragmatists carves a parallel state across Mexico and Central America. Most powerful among them is Los Zetas, ruled over by Heriberto Lazcano, known as The Executioner. Lazcano and his men have forced a tectonic shift among drug trafficking organizations in the Americas, forever altering how criminal business is conducted in the Western Hemisphere. This narrative brings an unprecedented level of detail in describing how Los Zetas became Mexico’s most diabolical criminal organization.