Kidnapping case sheds light on roots of current Gulf-Zeta tensions

McALLEN — Imurias Machado Treviño allegedly ran with a crew that kidnapped, beat and in at least one case killed drug dealers operating in Hidalgo County.

Taking their orders from a top Zeta lieutenant, the group has been linked to seven abductions between August and October 2008, a stockpile of weapons found in Mission and a broad-daylight shootout in a San Juan medical plaza — all part of a campaign to expand the drug trafficking organization’s reach into South Texas.

And while federal agents have arrested Machado and several purported accomplices, their ongoing case sheds light on a pattern of Zeta behavior that has drawn the ire of rival Mexican cartels and authorities on both sides of the border.

Investigators believe the paramilitary group’s expansion into new territories and new criminal rackets is at least partly to blame for the violence that has plagued Mexican cities across the border from the Rio Grande Valley during the last month.

“They’ve been more problematic and violent and gotten into every possible business,” said one U.S. agent familiar with the ongoing turf battle between the Zetas and their former bosses, the Gulf Cartel. “Extortion, kidnapping, shaking down local businesses. Everyone’s gotten sick of them.”

ABDUCTION

Machado, a 28-year-old known within the Hidalgo County kidnapping ring as “Comandante Tomate,” was detained Feb. 23, making him the 11th suspected member of the group to face federal charges in McAllen. A U.S. magistrate judge only unsealed the case against him last week.

Prosecutors allege he aided in the September 2008 abduction of a McAllen used car salesman and drug smuggler in an attempt to pressure the man into working with the Zetas.

His captors took him to a safe house in Mission, injected with a sedative and then drove him across the border to Reynosa, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in Machado’s case. Once there, Machado allegedly ushered the man to a separate house in Reynosa, bound him, blindfolded him and demanded a $20,000 ransom.

“(The victim) observed approximately 20 persons that were in the building who were also blindfolded and tied up,” the affidavit states.

The auto dealer eventually agreed to work with the Zetas and gave them three cars from his lot in lieu of the ransom payment, but was released only after enduring a severe beating at the hands of his abductors, according to a 2008 indictment handed down against eight others involved in the plot.

A similar pattern played out in at least six other abductions during the months surrounding the auto dealer’s disappearance, the indictment says. Each was part of a plan hatched by the former Zeta lieutenant in charge of operations in Reynosa — Jaime “El Hummer” González Durán — to establish an active presence for his organization north of the border through coercing U.S. drug traffickers.

VIOLENT TACTICS

But González’s violent tactics drew a new level of attention from law enforcement on both sides of the border.

Responding to the kidnappings, the FBI warned local authorities in October 2008 of his increasingly aggressive tactics, including orders to operatives to protect their turf at all costs — even if that meant firing back at U.S. law enforcement.

Within weeks, Mexican authorities had arrested “El Hummer” in Reynosa and spirited him away to Mexico City. Since then, five members of his abduction ring have been convicted on kidnapping or conspiracy charges in U.S. federal court.

The Hidalgo County kidnapping ring and the law enforcement crackdown it generated demonstrates the frustrations between the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel that have recently led to violence between the groups, authorities said.

In an industry that had previously left innocents alone, the Zetas have dabbled in new criminal enterprises like shaking down legitimate businesses and kidnapping outsiders for ransom since becoming more independent of their creators over the past two years.

Prior to González’s 2008 campaign in the Valley, Mexican drug traffickers also largely shied away from active operations in the United States, reasoning that employing too heavy a hand north of the border was likely to draw too much attention from U.S. authorities.

This tension over tactics is at least partly responsible for the violent split between the groups that has erupted south of the border during the last month.

“The Gulf Cartel is separating from the Zetas,” read a series of banners posted across Reynosa this week. “In our ranks we don’t want kidnappers, terrorist, bank robbers, rapists, child-killers and traitors. Signed CDG.”

CDG are the initials by which the Cartel del Golfo, or Gulf Cartel, sometimes identifies itself.

Machado, the latest member of the kidnapping ring to face charges in the United States, remains in federal custody pending trial. Three other alleged members of the group remain at large. Federal prosecutors have filed charges against at least one other person involved in the kidnappings, but records in that case remained under seal as of Friday.

If convicted, Machado could face up to life in prison and $250,000 in fines.

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Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 587-9377.