Today is Saturday, October 10, 2020. On this day in 2003, the Associated Press first reported

on a dangerous Mexican drug cartel known as the Zaitas.

Welcome to today in True Crime, a podcast original. Today we're discussing the Zaitas,

a vicious Mexican cartel that got its start when several members of an elite Mexican military force

defected. Let's go back to the early morning hours of October 10, 2003.

Soon enough, the article was popping up all over the web. The Associated Press had sent the

story out over its wires, referencing a Mexican cartel known as the Zaitas. The article told of

an elite cartel who were engaged in a brutal turf war in the northern Mexico border town of Nuevo

Laredo. While the writer treated this story as if it was breaking news for those living in the

small town, that was far from the truth. They'd been living in the middle of a war zone for at least

the past year. Between 2002 and the article's publication in fall 2003, over 87 people in Nuevo

Laredo had been killed due to drug violence. The main gang in town was the Gulf cartel,

led by Ociel Cardenas Guillén, who is often referred to as Cardenas. Cardenas saw Nuevo Laredo

as a crucial outpost for getting marijuana, cocaine and heroin over the border to the United

States. But with soaring profits came increased interest from both the Mexican government and rival

gangs, and Cardenas knew he needed to hire elite protection to keep his operation running smoothly.

So in 1997, six years before the AP posted their story, Cardenas persuaded 21-year-old Arturo

Guzman Desena to join him in Nuevo Laredo. Desena was a member of an elite military unit called

Grupo Idomovil de Fuerzas Especiales, or GAFE. These paratroopers were trained in

counterinsurgency and urban warfare. GAFE members were even taught strategies from the U.S.

Special Forces and the Israeli military. Desena, who'd grown up in abject poverty,

made his family proud by joining GAFE. He rose through the ranks and was seen as one of the most

...