Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales, sadistic leader of one of the most feared criminal organizations, stood over the middle-aged woman in her bedroom and injected a lethal dose of Botox into her armpit.
Death came quickly. The victim was not a cartel rival but his own mother-in-law.
For Treviño Morales, then head of the Zetas drug cartel in Mexico, it was another crude experiment in his quest to learn new killing methods. That was the testimony of a top lieutenant, given during a recent sentencing hearing in a Plano federal courtroom.
The hearing, after which an ex-Zeta was sentenced to life in prison, provided a rare look into the violent cartel responsible for much of the border violence and cocaine that flowed into North Texas between 2010 and 2015.
Several former top Zetas leaders testified over two days under deals cut with prosecutors in exchange for lighter sentences. The men, some now living quiet lives in the U.S., described what they’d seen on the front lines — men like Jose Maria Guizar Valencia, who said he saw Treviño Morales personally kill many. Their presence required heavy security inside and outside of the small federal courthouse on Preston Road.
Guizar Valencia, 41, said he was there when Treviño Morales killed his own mother-in-law. The overdose brought on a massive heart attack, he said, which Treviño Morales expected a coroner to cite as the cause of death. Treviño Morales later convinced his distraught wife that her mother’s death was the work of Mexican federal police, Guizar Valencia said.
Treviño Morales, who once lived in Dallas, has yet to face justice in court despite being one of Mexico’s most notorious killers. In addition to mass murder, he is responsible for criminal racketeering, drug trafficking and the corrupting of Mexican authorities, law enforcement officials say. As head of the Zetas, one of the largest cartels to operate in Mexico, he controlled drug networks extending from Central America to cities throughout the U.S., the Justice Department has said.
The Zetas were probably the most hated cartel in Mexico, said Howard Campbell, a border anthropologist and drug expert at the University of Texas at El Paso. Known for their theatrical, over-the-top acts of violence, the cartel killed innocent civilians in very public massacres to instill fear in the populace. They also gunned down Americans, including a federal agent, and made other powerful enemies within Mexico’s top echelons of power.
“Their methods were ultimately self-destructive because it attracted too much attention to them and hatred of them,” Campbell said. “It showed other cartels this is not the way to go. Because it might work for a while, but it’s not going to last.”
The August sentencing hearing concerned a former top Zetas leader named Hugo Cesar Roman Chavarria, 49, known as “El Vecino,” who was sentenced to life in prison last month. His involvement, as described by former colleagues, spanned the entirety of the Zetas’ reign over northeast Mexico.
And one of the worst atrocities the cartel committed in Mexico turned out, for Chavarria, to be an exceptional opportunity, witnesses said.
Beginnings
Treviño Morales moved to North Texas with his family as a young man. Although little is known about this part of his life, it was here that he first encountered the confines of a jail cell.
In 1993 the then-19-year-old was charged with evading arrest after running from police in a red and pink Cadillac. He paid a small fine and was released, but in Dallas he developed a cynical outlook on power, money and the demand for illegal drugs, experts have said.
After returning to Mexico, his descent into the criminal underworld quickened, first with odd jobs for street gangs, and then as a foot soldier helping cartels smuggle drugs before ultimately becoming a Zeta.
The Zetas were mostly former Mexican military commandos who formed as an elite paramilitary security force for the Gulf Cartel that controlled the Dallas smuggling routes. They split violently from the Gulf Cartel in 2010 and went on to become a formidable and ultra-violent drug organization, controlling a wide swath of Mexico from Guatemala to the U.S. border.
The use of well-trained former soldiers as enforcers was an innovation the Zetas used to good effect as they broke out on their own, Campbell said. This “private army,” he said, was equipped to outgun Mexican police and military forces.
Traditional cartels typically negotiated with top Mexican government and police officials using bribes and other inducements, he said. The Zetas, although they also paid bribes, acted more like a regional private army, resembling “warlords in Afghanistan,” Campbell said.
“They didn’t play by the old rules,” Campbell said. “They took everything to the extreme.”
The Zetas’ tactics included beheadings, hangings, torture, kidnappings “and even boiling or burning people alive in order to intimidate and demoralize enemies and innocent civilians,” the Justice Department said in a news release about the Plano sentencing.
Investigation
Richard Clough, a veteran DEA agent, testified that raids of North Texas drug houses in 2010 had begun turning up cocaine that originated in Colombian jungle labs with distinctive packaging and labeling linked to the Zetas.
Clough described how multiton shipments of cocaine were smuggled — in trucks as well as “go-fast” boats sent up the Panamanian coast. Police found the drug in dump trucks, hidden beneath loads of sand; inside truck wheel wells; under dung-lined cattle trucks; and in reserve gas tanks.
Daniel Padilla, a Homeland Security Investigations agent, said in his testimony that millions of dollars in drug money was intercepted on Texas roads in 2010, including over $200,000 found in a clothes dryer strapped to the bed of a pickup truck.
Josh Troquille, a Mesquite police sergeant, detailed the case of a minivan stopped in early 2011 that was outfitted with an ingenious hydraulic false roof that could be opened and closed from inside to carry drug bundles.
The makeshift “semi-submersibles,” or small submarines undetectable by radar, could carry up to 5 tons of cocaine at a time. Prosecutors played a short video of the U.S. Coast Guard capturing one. It was a rare find, Clough said, because crews were given strict orders to sink the vessels by pulling a plug should they be discovered.
Couriers were sent back to Mexico in vehicles with millions of dollars in drug proceeds. Women and the elderly were chosen to drive to try to throw off suspicious police, according to testimony.
Treviño Morales ordered his smugglers to return not only with drug proceeds but also stacks of AR-15 and AK-47 assault rifles — bought in the U.S. — for use in battles against government forces and the rival Gulf and Sinaloa cartels, according to testimony.
The bundles of cash arriving weekly in Mexico were also used to bribe politicians, police chiefs, military commanders and judges, witnesses said at the hearing.
The Zetas were bold enough to target Americans, too — something cartels avoid because of the trouble it brings.
In September 2010, David Hartley was shot and killed by Zetas as he rode a water scooter with his wife on Falcon Lake near the Mexican border. Police believe the Texas couple got too close to a drug deal.
And the Zetas in February 2011 ambushed an SUV with diplomatic plates driven by two Homeland Security agents on a busy highway in Mexico, spraying it with gunfire. One of the agents, Jaime Zapata, 32, was killed and the other was wounded.
That was just the beginning of a particularly bloody year.
Betrayal and bloodbath
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ernest Gonzalez told U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan in Plano that Chavarria and his former associate, Mario Alfonso Cuéllar, were the Zetas’ top cocaine distributors in the U.S., and Dallas in particular.
Cuéllar, known as “Poncho,” was based in Piedras Negras, across the Rio Grande river from Eagle Pass. Cuéllar said during testimony that he reported directly to Treviño Morales and also helped his boss launder drug money through his horse-racing enterprise in Texas, Oklahoma and California.
When U.S. law enforcement came for him, Cuéllar in 2011 agreed to cooperate.
Two of his Dallas-based distributors followed suit after investigators caught up with them. Those men gave DEA agents codes to track the cellphones of Treviño Morales and his brother, Omar — key information that was passed to the DEA in Mexico City, according to testimony. An agent then inexplicably shared it with a Mexican law enforcement official who promptly reported it to Miguel Treviño-Morales.
The response was swift. The brothers ordered that anyone associated with Cuéllar be hunted down and “wiped out,” according to Padilla’s testimony.
Hundreds of people were rounded up in Allende, a ranching town southwest of Piedras Negras, and surrounding areas, including Cuéllar’s relatives and friends. Even his children’s school friends and owners of businesses the family frequented were targeted in the revenge killings, Padilla said.
By the end, the Zetas had tortured and killed as many as 300 people — men, women and children — most of whom were completely innocent, according to the agents and former Zetas who testified. The Treviños not only ordered the reprisals, they personally took part in the slaughter, Padilla said.
Guizar Valencia, former right-hand man to Miguel Treviño Morales who is currently in federal custody, testified that he saw a long line of blindfolded detainees being interrogated about Cuéllar — before Treviño Morales gave the order to gun them down. Exactly how many were killed in the violence remains unknown.
Chavarria’s fortunes rose as a result of the massacre, prosecutors said. He drove around town, pointing out Cuéllar’s ranches and other real estate properties for the Treviños to loot and demolish, according to testimony.
Witnesses described how Chavarria also pointed out for Zetas gunmen the homes of Cuéllar’s relatives and associates, “effectively marking these people and their families for death,” prosecutors said.
While families continued searching for the dead, often in vain, Chavarria was made a Zeta “plaza boss,” a sort of municipal police chief, witnesses said. As such, he ran the day-to-day operations of a particular area of Mexico, collecting taxes, accounting for profits and meting out discipline.
Chavarria’s attorney, Micah Belden, disputed the government’s portrayal of his client, arguing that he was a “very low-level border operator,” unlike many of the government’s witnesses.
Cuéllar, now a free man after serving about five years in prison, said he still lives in constant fear about what might happen to him.
“I know that they might kill me,” he said.
Cuéllar testified that it was typical for the Zetas to murder the relatives of anyone perceived to be treacherous or disloyal.
“In Mexico, there was no government,” he said. “They [Zetas] were the government.”
‘Psychopath’
Guizar Valencia said Miguel Treviño Morales had a favorite method of disposing of his victims. Known as “el guiso,” meaning the stew or cookout, it entailed dumping bodies into large oil drums and dousing them with a mixture of gasoline and diesel fuel. That combination was found to burn quicker, he said.
“Every city under the cartel’s control had their own kitchen,” Guizar Valencia said, “to cook their own detainees.”
Guizar Valencia said in his testimony that Treviño Morales paid $24 million in bribes to the campaign of a future Guatemalan president and was consequently allowed to operate — and kill — with impunity in that country when the man was elected in 2008. Treviño Morales showed no emotion or empathy, he said.
“He was a psychopath,” Guizar Valencia said. “He was sick.”
Guizar Valencia said Treviño Morales would order trucks to repeatedly run over any of his horses that failed to perform to his standards on the track. He also used that technique against human enemies, he said, as well as guns, baseball bats and knives.
And Treviño Morales ordered doctors on his payroll to perform medical experiments on unsuspecting victims — some unlucky enough to have been arrested for drunkenness outside nightclubs, he said. He would tell his plaza bosses to bring him the ones they “disliked the most,” Guizar Valencia said.
“He loved killing people,” Guizar Valencia said. “He liked to see people suffer.”
So fragile was Treviño Morales’ ego, underlings had to be careful not to outshine him in even the most mundane way, such as clothing choice for a night out on the town, he said. Upstaging the boss ran the serious risk of being killed on a whim, Guizar Valencia said.
Ivan Velasquez Caballero, another former top Zetas leader known as “El Taliban,” said Treviño Morales told him he stopped counting the number of his murder victims when it reached 500.
Velasquez Caballero also said his former colleagues once killed about 50 innocent people so they could dump the mutilated bodies along a highway in a rival cartel’s territory. The gruesome spectacle was intended to saddle the Gulf Cartel with Mexican police investigations, he said.
Captured rivals were also put to use — as live bodies for target practice at Zeta training camps, according to Velasquez Caballero’s plea documents.
Velasquez Caballero acknowledged in court that he himself killed almost 30 people. He said he eventually soured on the business and reached out to the DEA with an offer to help in 2012. His reason: The Treviño brothers “were killing a lot of innocent people.”
Clough said Velasquez Caballero provided real-time updates on the Treviño brothers’ locations. The ex-Zeta eventually pleaded guilty to federal drug crimes in Laredo and was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2017.
During cross-examination, Velasquez Caballero acknowledged that he hoped his testimony would lead to a sentence reduction.
End and beginning
Miguel Treviño Morales, 50, has been in custody since his capture in 2013 in Mexico. Omar Treviño Morales, 47, was arrested two years later, spelling the beginning of the Zetas’ gradual disintegration.
Remaining members who did not end up dead or in prison joined with other factions to form the Cartel Del Noreste, which was run by Miguel Treviño Morales’ nephew, agents said during the hearing.
Cartels still use violence to send a message when needed, Campbell said, but they are not “openly defying the authorities in an extremely public way” like the Zetas.
Chavarria, who had pleaded guilty to a drug charge, was one of 18 defendants charged in an Eastern District of Texas indictment, which in turn is part of one of the largest international drug trafficking prosecutions in U.S. history, authorities say.
The case spans a decade and has implicated more than 175 participants from at least four countries — including Colombians who grew the cocaine and couriers who secreted it into Dallas stash houses.
Despite his lengthy catalogue of crimes, Miguel Treviño Morales remains out of reach of U.S. authorities, even as his lieutenants continue to be prosecuted here and sentenced to prison. He and his brother sit in a Mexican prison where they continue to run their drug operation, Padilla said.
The reason for the extradition delay is not known. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on the case.
Both men were indicted in federal court in Laredo in 2008 on numerous charges, including drug trafficking, racketeering, money laundering, kidnapping, use of firearms in crimes and the solicitation of violence. The brothers are also wanted in federal courts in New York and Washington, D.C.
Campbell said the delay indicates the brothers still have influence in Mexico. Otherwise, that country’s government would be more than happy to be rid of them, he said.
“They possibly bribed people and they know stuff that could be very harmful to the people who are still powerful in Mexico,” he said.
Campbell speculated that Mexico is perhaps using the brothers as political leverage in its dealings with the U.S.
Toward the end of the Plano hearing’s second day, a group of middle-aged former Zetas strode down the courthouse hallway, chatting quietly. They had spent a handful of years behind bars for their cooperation, and were granted permission to remain in the U.S. with their families — likely under some form of government protection.
The men, who had enjoyed prestige and riches while overseeing the shipment of untold quantities of cocaine into Texas and other states, then walked into the midday Plano sun, smiles all around.
They hopped into waiting vehicles that turned onto Preston Road, taking them seamlessly back to lives of quiet anonymity.
Who they are
Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales, 50:
Former leader of the Zetas drug cartel in Mexico who spent time in Dallas as a young man in the 1990s. He assumed control in 2008 of the Zetas while it was still serving as an elite security force for the Gulf Cartel. Associates have told authorities that Treviño Morales, known as “Z-40,” enjoyed killing people using different methods. He has been in custody in Mexico since his capture there in 2013. He and his brother, Omar, were indicted in federal court in Laredo in 2008 on numerous charges, including drug trafficking, racketeering, money laundering and kidnapping. The brothers are also wanted in federal courts in New York and Washington, D.C.
Omar Treviño Morales, 47:
Former leader of the Zetas and brother of Miguel. Known as “Z-42,” he has been in custody in Mexico since his arrest there in 2015. Authorities say Omar is responsible like his brother for multiple murders in Mexico.
Jose Maria Guizar Valencia, 41:
A former high-ranking Zeta leader who served as Miguel Treviño Morales’ right-hand man for several years. Guizar Valencia, known as “Z-43,” assumed command and control of his own faction of the cartel after the Treviño brothers’ capture. He was arrested in 2018 in Mexico and later extradited to Texas. Guizar Valencia is currently in federal custody in North Texas.
Ivan Velasquez Caballero, 51:
Former high-ranking Zetas leader known as “El Taliban.” He was sentenced in 2017 to 30 years in federal prison in Laredo. Velasquez Caballero was a plaza boss for Nuevo Laredo in 2004 under the Gulf Cartel and a top leader of the Zetas from 2005 until his arrest by Mexican authorities in August 2012. He was extradited to Laredo the following year and pleaded guilty to drug charges in 2014.
Mario Alfonso Cuéllar: Former leader of the Zetas’ North Texas drug trafficking operation who also coordinated Miguel Treviño Morales’ U.S.-based horse racing business. His decision in 2011 to cooperate with U.S. authorities triggered a massacre — ordered by the Treviño brothers — of as many as 300 civilians in the Mexican ranching town of Allende and nearby areas. Cuéllar, known as “Poncho,” was convicted in the U.S. of drug charges after pleading guilty and served about five years in prison.
Hugo Cesar Roman Chavarria, 49:
Former high-ranking leader of the Zetas who coordinated the cartel’s North Texas operations with Cuéllar. Known as “El Vecino,” he oversaw the shipment of “enormous quantities of cocaine” to the U.S. from Piedras Negras, Mexico, from 2007 to 2011, authorities say. Chavarria and 17 others were indicted in 2011 on drug trafficking and money laundering charges. He has been in federal custody since being extradited to Texas from Mexico in 2018. Chavarria pleaded guilty in 2019 to a drug conspiracy charge and was sentenced in September to life in prison following a three-day hearing in Plano.
