The Zetas (Z’s) Another U.S. Special Operators Trained Cartel

The Zetas (Z’s) Another U.S. Special Operators Trained Cartel

The Z’s started out as the muscle for another cartel but eventually split off on their own. Much of their early success came from their sheer ruthlessness and some specialized tactics they learned from US special forces. Yes, we again.

To be fair, the US Army Special Forces never intentionally intended to train the future cartel members [but], Mexican tier one commandos were, nonetheless, sent to Fort Bragg for urban combat training. Subsequently, the U.S. military is credited with building Mexico’s premier Special Operations units, and specifically trained them for covert operations.

The 7th Special Forces Group, which by the way, has been recently deployed to Mexico, trained these soldiers in, ironically enough, anti-narcotics enforcement. Their training included essentials like surveillance, asset recruiting, tactical ambushes, encrypted communications, and general special forces skills. 

The Mexican commandos were trained to go back to Mexico and fight the cartels in their own backyard, however, in 1997 the Gulf cartel came under attack from encroaching rival cartels, so what do you do when you’re pocketing $85,000,000 million a week, you recruit talent to help you protect your business. They aggressively recruited from the Mexican military who had been trained in Fort Bragg, offering them salaries twenty times what they could ever earn from the government including bonuses. 

This generous offer was too tempting to resist, and many Mexican soldiers ended up defecting to join the cartel.  Soon,  the commandos launched a fierce campaign against rival cartels so effective, that it pushed other cartels to create their own paramilitary units to counter off the Z’s,  however even the formidable Sinaloa cartel, struggled to compete with gunmen who had received not just training from the U.S. military but training from our elite forces.

Right now the CJNG (Jalisco Cartel New Generation), that I previously mentioned, is the most formidable paramilitary group in Mexico, embodying the nature of such organizations in the country. The CJNG has gone against Mexico’s military tier one units and has defeated them in spectacular battles.

The CJNG has not only the personnel but weapons of war to carry on their mission. Surface to Air missiles (SAMs) that have shot down Mexican military aircraft. Rocket propelled grenades (RPGs), mortars, drones, armored vehicles, encrypted communications and the willingness and expertise to effectively employ them. 

Military contractors have come from all over the world to provide training: U.S. special operators (SF, Seals, Rangers, Marines ForeCon), British SAS, Israeli MOSSAD, Russian Spetsnaz, French Foreign Legion SF etc, making the cartel paramilitaries a force to be reckoned with. 

But why would some of the world’s most elite soldiers contract out to the Mexican cartels? The answer is the same it has always been through human history. Money. 

If after years of service all you have to show is a modest pension that barely keeps you above the poverty level, the allure of making a few million dollars tax free for six months worth of instructing other military personnel is very tempting indeed. After all, where else can you use your skills and experience to make a living when your government has no further use for you?