Formation of Los Zetas

Gulf Cartel boss Osiel Cárdenas Guillén recruited GAFE Lieutenant Arturo Guzmán Decena (Z-1), who in turn recruited approximately 30 other members of Mexico’s elite special forces to form Los Zetas as the cartel’s enforcement arm. The original “Group of 14” were identified by Z-codes.

These GAFE deserters had been trained by the US 7th Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia, and in some cases by Israeli Defense Forces. They brought military discipline, advanced weapons training, intelligence-gathering, and counter-surveillance capabilities into the drug trade. No previous cartel had possessed anything like it.