The Mexican Navy captured one of the Zetas drug cartels’ top leaders. Late Wednesday, the Navy captured Zeta-50, a leader of a recently divided Zeta faction. The leader was captured in San Luis Potosi. The man’s name is Ivan Velazquez Caballero and he is also known as “El Taliban” or “The Taliban.”
The capture deals a huge blow to the recently fractious Zetas groups. It will raise more doubts about the criminal power dynamic of the group in the violent region in northeast Mexico.
Velasquez was to be transported on Thursday to a high security facility in Mexico City. Over the past few months, Velazquez split with Miguel Trevino Morales also known as Zeta-40 – a division that forms a part of the Zetas cartel that has caused more violence in the region, including the dumping in August of 14 bodies on one of the roads leading into San Luis Potosi.
The split between factions of the original Zeta cartel has increased the levels of violence in the area, which previously had been a very peaceful state within Mexico. Trevino Morales has been accused, as well as Jose Trevino Morales, his brother of laundering huge sums of money earned through drug trafficking via horse breeding in the southwestern part of the U.S.
Over the past couple of weeks, the navy in Mexico has captured the top leaders of a former employer and chief rival of the Zetas, causing huge blows to the organization’s structure.
