Mexican Military Arrests Dangerous Border City Cartel Boss

Mexican authorities have arrested a top leader of the Los Zetas faction of the Cartel del Noreste, a crime organization that they say has been linked to a number of disappearances and mass murders with considerable impunity.

Alberto Monsivais Trevino, known in the underworld as “La Bola,” was one of the current highest-ranking members of the CDN Los Zetas until his arrest. Under his command, the crime organization was responsible for numerous kidnappings and ransoms committed by cartel gunmen, as well as numerous attacks on military units on the streets of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. As Breitbart Texas reported, CDN Los Zetas operated an armed unit called the Hell's Troops, which patrolled the city in a convoy of armored vehicles.

The arrest was made this week during a raid by Mexican National Guard troops in the upscale Praderas neighborhood of the border city of Nuevo Laredo. The Mexican federal government has not released any statements or official information about the raid and arrest, but a search of a detention center in Mexico confirmed that the suspect is being held in federal custody on a federal organized crime warrant.

Monsivais Trevino is the nephew of CDN-Los Zetas top leaders Miguel Ángel and Omar Trevino Morales (also known as Z-40 and Z-42). The Zetas leaders are currently incarcerated in Mexico and are fighting extradition to the United States on drug charges. Despite their incarceration, the Trevino Morales brothers continue to control the cartel.

Power has historically been fluid within the Trevino family, so it is unclear what impact the arrests will have on the crime organization.