A U.S. indictment unsealed Wednesday in the District of Columbia has leveled serious accusations against Miguel Angel Treviño Morales, alias “Zeta 40,” a founder and former leader of the notorious Zetas cartel. The document alleges that Treviño Morales, despite being incarcerated in a Mexican prison since 2013, continued to exert control over the Northeast Cartel, a violent offshoot of the Zetas.
The indictment outlines how Treviño Morales and his brother Omar, who was arrested in 2015, allegedly created and ran the Northeast Cartel as a successor organization to the Zetas. The brothers are accused of installing family members to manage day-to-day operations of the new gang, effectively maintaining their influence despite their imprisonment.
This revelation casts a stark light on the security lapses within Mexican prisons, where inmates often have ample opportunities for unsupervised meetings with lawyers and relatives, facilitating the transmission of messages and orders to the outside world. The ability of incarcerated drug lords to continue running their operations from behind bars has long been a concern for both Mexican and U.S. authorities.
The charges against the Treviño Morales brothers include drug trafficking, conspiracy, money laundering, and operating a criminal enterprise, offenses that could result in life sentences if convicted. While the U.S. has filed for Miguel Angel Treviño Morales’s extradition, the process has been stalled for nearly a decade due to ongoing court appeals.
The Northeast Cartel, known locally as “Cartel Del Noreste” or CDN, has established a stronghold in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, opposite Laredo, Texas. The gang has gained notoriety for its extreme violence, frequently engaging in armed confrontations with Mexican military forces. Just last week, a soldier was killed in a shootout in Nuevo Laredo, underscoring the ongoing violence in the region.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum recently highlighted the severity of the situation, stating that Nuevo Laredo is where criminal groups have carried out the most attacks on the army and the National Guard. The persistent violence in this border region demonstrates the challenges faced by Mexican authorities in combating well-organized and heavily armed criminal organizations.
U.S. Attorney Jaime Esparza of the Western District of Texas emphasized the severity of the crimes attributed to the Treviño Morales brothers, describing them as having committed “horrible atrocities” against people in both Mexico and the United States over decades.
The indictment also mentions the 2022 capture and deportation of Juan Gerardo Treviño, known as “El Huevo” or “The Egg,” a relative who allegedly ran the day-to-day operations of the CDN cartel. His U.S. citizenship allowed for a swift deportation, bypassing the typically lengthy extradition process.
