Image copyright Alamy Image caption Officials confirmed the arrest in a press conference in Mexico City on Friday

A leader of the notorious Zetas drug cartel has been caught in Mexico City, according to Mexican authorities.

José María Guízar Valencia is wanted in the US, which had offered a $5m (£3.6m) reward for his capture.

Known as Z-43, he is a dual US-Mexican citizen and is thought to have run the Zeta's south-eastern operations.

The US state department said he was responsible for "importing thousands of kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine to the US every year".

On its website, it said the Zetas "have murdered an untold number of Guatemalan civilians during the systematic overtake of the Guatemalan border region with Mexico during recent years".

The alleged kingpin was arrested in Mexico City's Roma neighbourhood, which is known for its hip bars and restaurants.

He was captured "without the use of force", said the head of the National Security Commission, Renato Sales, in a press conference on Friday, when the news was confirmed.

He is now likely to face extradition to the US, on drugs smuggling and money-laundering charges.

Image copyright US Department of State Image caption The US state department website describes the California-born drug cartel leader

In 2012, the Zetas was considered the largest drugs gang in Mexico.

However, they have lost ground in recent years, as others, notably the Jalisco New Generation, have expanded to take their east-coast territory.

Arrests of other leaders have also weakened the group, causing internal divisions.

The group, which sprang from the Gulf Cartel, was founded by corrupt members of the military and the police.

Last year was Mexico's most violent year on record, with more than 25,000 murders.

Organised crime is thought to account for nearly three-quarters of those deaths.

Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, a leader of the Sinaloa cartel, was extradited to the US last January, after twice breaking out of Mexican jails.

Earlier this week, a New York judge said jurors would be kept anonymous to protect them from possible retaliations by the extremely violent gang. Guzmán's trial is set to begin in September.

Who are the Zetas?

The Zetas was founded by corrupt members of Mexico's special forces.

More than 30 had been hired by the leader of the Gulf Cartel in the 1990s, but they split to run their own operations in 2010.

The two cartels then clashed violently, particularly in the country's north-east.

The Zetas are known for their brutality, including torturing and decapitating their victims.

Over the years, they have moved beyond drugs to turn their hand at any crime that will bring them money, from cigarette smuggling to human trafficking.

The group uses the letter Z ("zeta" in Spanish) as it is said to correspond with police radio codes.

In 2012, one of the leaders, Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, known as Z-3, was killed in a shootout with the Mexican Navy. The following year, his replacement, Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales, alias Z-40, was captured. His younger brother, Omar Treviño Morales (Z-42), took over but was also caught in 2015.</s>Mexican authorities have arrested the alleged leader of the Zetas drug cartel — long one of the country’s most powerful and notoriously brutal criminal groups.

Jose Maria Guizar Valencia, who is accused of overseeing an organization that traffics thousands of pounds of cocaine and methamphetamine to the United States each year, was nabbed Thursday while entering a hotel in a fashionable neighborhood in Mexico City, authorities said Friday.

Mexican National Security Commissioner Renato Sales said in a statement that Guizar, 38, was captured without force.

In a nation gripped by escalating violence driven by warring criminal groups, Guizar was one of Mexico’s most-wanted men. The United States had offered a $5-million reward for his arrest and had formally requested his extradition. Sales said there are arrest warrants for Guizar in several U.S. states for crimes including arms smuggling, kidnapping and murder.

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His capture was celebrated by public officials from both sides of the border, with U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Roberta Jacobson tweeting that Guizar’s arrest and other law enforcement efforts “make Mexico and the United States safer.”

But others reacted with caution, noting that in the past, Mexico’s “kingpin strategy” of targeting cartel leaders has not reduced violence, and in fact may have increased it.

In the decade since Mexico sent tens of thousands of soldiers into the streets to battle drug trafficking organizations so powerful they were often compared to multinational corporations, dozens of drug lords, including Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, have been taken into custody or killed.

While the kingpin strategy may have stopped Mexico from being completely overtaken by drug cartels, it unleashed a wave of bloodshed as criminals fought for control of lucrative drug trafficking routes and extortion and fuel theft schemes. Mexico’s homicide rate is soaring. Last year it hit a 20-year high.

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“It must be said that as soon as a leader is arrested, another leader often appears,” security expert Ricardo Ravelo said in a radio interview Friday.

In the year since Guzman was extradited to face charges of murder and drug trafficking in the U.S., his Sinaloa cartel has weakened significantly, and is now battling an ascendant group called the Jalisco New Generation cartel in several states.

In other parts of the country, such as the seaside resort of Acapulco, the cartel system has collapsed completely, with historic levels of violence being driven by dozens of warring street gangs.

Authorities say Guizar, known by his Zetas code name “Z 43,” was born in Tulare, Calif. He first appeared on the radar of Mexican law enforcement officials in 1998, when he allegedly began trafficking drugs in the state of Michoacan.

The Zetas cartel he went on to lead evolved from a group of deserters from the Mexican Special Forces. The ex-soldiers were hired to serve as a security force for the Gulf cartel, but in 2010 broke with their former employer to start their own drug trafficking network.

Via street battles and gruesome tactics that included beheadings, videotaped assassinations and the hanging of mutilated bodies from bridges, the Zetas became the most powerful force in several states, including Tamaulipas, on the Texas border. Officials say the group’s reach extends down to Guatemala.

Perhaps the group’s most shocking exploit was the 2010 killing of 72 migrants in the Tamaulipas town of San Fernando. Investigators said the migrants were shot to death after they refused to work for the cartel.

Experts say the group has weakened in recent years, and has begun to splinter into different factions.

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“They are very diminished compared to what they were at their height,” said security expert Alejandro Hope. Still, he said, “it’s an important arrest.”

Guizar’s capture in the country’s capital shocked many who have long viewed Mexico City as a haven from the drug war violence engulfing other parts of nation. But there have been signs that violence may be encroaching, including a large banner hung from one of the city’s main highways this week announcing the arrival of the Jalisco New Generation cartel. Law enforcement officials said they were investigating the banner to see if it is authentic.

Roma, the neighborhood where Guizar was arrested, is known as one of the nation’s trendiest, home to world-famous restaurants, expensive clothing stores and luxurious hotels.

Juan Carlos Silva, chief of the anti-drug division of the federal police, said in a radio interview that Guizar was about to walk into one such hotel Thursday. He was traveling without armed guards, likely in an effort to blend in, Silva said. Because of that, authorities were able to capture Guizar, he said.

kate.linthicum@latimes.com

Twitter: @katelinthicum

Times researcher Scott Wilson and Cecilia Sanchez in The Times’ Mexico City bureau contributed to this report.</s>MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexican authorities said Friday they have arrested Jose Maria Guizar Valencia, the alleged leader of the Zetas drug cartel.

National Security Commissioner Renato Sales identified the suspect only as "Jose Maria," but a federal official who was not authorized to be quoted by name confirmed Guizar Valencia's last name.

Guizar Valencia is a U.S. citizen known by his Zetas code name, "Z 43."

The United States had offered a $5 million reward for his arrest.

Sales said Guizar Valencia was arrested Thursday in Mexico City's trendy Roma neighborhood, which is known for its restaurants and cafes.

The commissioner said the leader was one of the main generators of violence and had directed Zetas' drug trafficking and other activities in southern Mexico.

Under a 'Wanted' page online, the U.S. Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs said Guizar Valencia is "responsible for the importation of thousands of kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine to the United States on a yearly basis" and faces separate U.S. drug trafficking indictments in Texas and Virginia.

It also said he had taken over territory in neighboring Guatemala.

"Los Zetas, under the command of Guizar Valencia, have murdered an untold number of Guatemalan civilians during the systematic overtake of the Guatemalan border region with Mexico during recent years," the bureau said.

It said Guizar Valencia was born in Tulare, California.

The Zetas' leadership has been decimated by the arrest and deaths of main capos in recent years, and the once fearsome cartel has splintered into several factions. Even before that, the bureau said Guizar Valencia was "considered his own entity, working in concert but independently" of the main Zetas faction.

Formed by deserters of an elite military unit, the Zetas are known for indiscriminate brutality, filling anonymous graves and roadsides with piles of victims' bodies.</s>Authorities in Mexico say they have arrested Jose Maria Guizar Valencia, the alleged leader of the Zetas drug cartel.

National Security Commissioner Renato Sales identified him only as "Jose Maria," but a federal official who was not authorized to be quoted by name confirmed Guizar Valencia's last name.

Guizar Valencia is a U.S. citizen known by his Zetas code name, "Z 43."

The United States had offered a $5 million reward for his arrest.

Sales said Guizar Valencia was arrested in Mexico City's trendy Roma neighborhood, which is known for its restaurants and cafes.

The commissioner said the leader was one of the main generators of violence and had directed Zetas' drug trafficking and other activities in southern Mexico.

U.S. authorities said Guizar Valencia was born in Tulare, California.</s>MEXICO CITY: Mexican marines have captured a kingpin in the violent Zetas drug cartel who had a $5-million reward on his head in the United States, authorities said Friday.

Jose Marea Guizar Valencia, alias "Z43," was arrested in the upscale Mexico City neighborhood of La Roma "without the use of force," the head of the National Security Commission, Renato Sales, announced in a press conference.</s>El Z-43 alleged to have smuggled thousands of kilos of drugs into the US every year

The alleged leader of the Zetas drug cartel was apprehended yesterday in the Roma district of Mexico City by Federal Police and marines.

The arrest of José María Guízar Valencia, also known as El Z-43 and El Amo (The Master), was announced today by the National Security Commissioner, who said the detention was carried out without the use of force.

Guizar headed a criminal organization that operates in the southeastern region of Mexico, said Renato Sales Heredia, and has been linked to the smuggling drugs from South America into the United States, triggering violence in the southern Mexico.

Guizar began his criminal activities in 1988 in the state of Michoacán. By 2011, his reach had extended to Tamaulipas and into the United States.

In 2003 he was headquartered in Palenque, Chiapas, where he recruited several criminal cells to secure his grip on the region.

He soon had a presence in the state of Veracruz and by 2007 he had been linked by authorities to trafficking in Colombian cocaine, which he smuggled by land across the Guatemala border.

Guízar’s list of contacts in Central and South America grew, and by 2013 his influence reached central Mexico, focusing on Puebla state. The government of the United States requested his extradition two years later.

There have been several arrest warrants issued for him in the United States and Mexico for organized crime, homicide, kidnapping and others.

The government of the United States had posted a reward of US $5 million for his arrest.

U.S. authorities say Guizar has been responsible for importing thousands of kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine into the United states on a yearly basis.

He is also believed to have taken over territory in Guatemala. “Los Zetas, under the command of Guizar Valencia, have murdered an untold number of Guatemalan civilians during the systematic overtake of the Guatemalan border region with Mexico during recent years,” said the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.

Guízar has both Mexican and United States citizenship, and his family has a strong presence in the United States and in southeastern Mexico.

The Zetas leader was one of the federal government’s 122 key targets for arrest.

The gang itself has declined in strength in recent years due to the arrests and deaths of its leaders and has splintered into several factions.

Stories from our archives that you might enjoy</s>The letter "Z," referring to the Zeta cartel, painted on a hill next to a toll booth on a freeway between Monterrey and Torreon, in the Mexican state of Coahuila March 13, 2010. Reuters/Tomas Bravo
• Mexico took down another regional leader in the Zetas cartel.
• Jose Maria Guizar Valencia was one of 122 high-priority organized crime targets, and his capture comes as the cartel continues to splinter.
• He reportedly oversaw the Zetas' trafficking operations in southern Mexico, but it's not clear what effect his arrest will have on the cartel's operations.

Mexican marines and federal police captured Jose Maria Guizar Valencia, known as "Z43," on Thursday, taking down a high-ranking figure in the Zetas cartel who was considered one of the 122 most wanted people in Mexico.

Mexico's government minister, Alfonso Navarrete, praised Mexico's naval forces for their investigation and coordination with civil intelligence that led to the arrest.

Born in Tulare, California, in November 1979, Guizar eventually joined the Zetas, which was formed in the mid-1990s when members of Mexico's military and special forces joined the Gulf cartel as muscle. The Zetas broke away to form their own organization around 2010.

After the death of Zetas cartel founder Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano in late 2012 and the arrest of his successor, Miguel Angel Treviño, in summer 2013, Guizar assumed control of his own Zetas faction based in southern Mexico, according to the US State Department, which offered up to $5 million for his arrest in 2014.

Guizar's power was concentrated in the states of Veracruz, Tabasco, and Chiapas, and he played a central role in the Zetas' activity in Guatemala, which has long been an arrival and transit point for drugs coming from South America.

"He was one of the top underbosses of the Zetas," Mike Vigil, former chief of international operations for the US Drug Enforcement Administration, told Business Insider.

"This guy steadily rose up the ranks, and he actually started as a hit man for the Zetas ... but he was groomed to handle logistics, to handle drugs that were smuggled into Guatemala and Honduras," and coordinate with other Zetas members to get drugs to the US, said Vigil, who detailed his experiences working undercover in Mexico in "Deal."

"This is a very good hit," Vigil said of the arrest. "It's a good feather in the hat of Mexican justice."

The State Department described Guizar as "his own entity" working with, but independently of, the Zetas faction headed by Alejandro "Omar" Treviño in the northern Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, and Coahuila. Omar Treviño is believed to have taken control of the cartel after the arrest of his brother, Miguel Angel Treviño, before Omar himself was arrested in March 2015.

Omar Treviño Morales, the leader of the Zetas drug cartel known as "Z-42," is escorted by soldiers during a media conference about his arrest in Mexico City, March 4, 2015. Reuters/Edgard Garrido

"Guizar Valencia is responsible for the importation of thousands of kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine to the United States on a yearly basis," the State Department said. He has been indicted on drug-trafficking charges in Texas and Virginia.

Guizar was reportedly on the list of the eight most wanted criminals in the state of Chiapas and based his operations in western Tabasco, where he oversaw drug trafficking between South and Central America and the US. He also ran protection rackets, extortion, and kidnapping in the area.

Sources in the Mexican navy have said Guizar was behind a wave of violence in southeast Mexico, including the Mayan Rivera, which includes Cancun and Playa del Carmen, and the border area between Chiapas and Guatemala.

The Zetas cartel has been present in Guatemala since at least 2007. A Zetas-run training camp stocked with high-powered weapons was found near the Mexican border in 2009. Otto Perez Molina — Guatemalan president from 2012 until his resignation and jailing in relation to a graft case in 2015 — said in 2013 that the Zetas controlled of two of the biggest drug routes in Guatemala and were fighting the Sinaloa cartel for control of the third.

Police stand guard next to suspected members of the Zeta drug cartel near Coban in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, December 20, 2010. REUTERS/Stringer

"Los Zetas, under the command of Guizar-Valencia, have murdered an untold number of Guatemalan civilians during the systematic overtake of the Guatemalan border region with Mexico during recent years," the State Department said in 2014.

The Zetas have also formed a relationship with members of Guatemala's vaunted and notoriously violent special forces, known as the Kaibiles, because the latter have "not just preparation, but discipline, and military training that could help [the Zetas] with illegal activities," Perez Molina said at the time.

In the years since, other Guatemalan politicians have been accused of taking bribes from the Zetas in exchange for allowing them to operate there. (The Kaibiles, like Mexico's special forces, have received training from the US.)

Suspected Zetas members at the Mexican navy's airplane hangar in Mexico City, October 7, 2011. Bernardo Montoya/Reuters

The Zetas' break from the Gulf cartel led to violent conflict between the two groups in Mexico, particularly in the northeast.

Areas in northeastern Mexico, especially areas along the border with the US and Tamaulipas, have also been the site of intense clashes between Gulf factions, while the Zetas are largely based in neighboring Nuevo Leon.

What effect Guizar's arrest will have on the Zetas' stability in southern Mexico remains to be seen. In recent years, the cartel has largely been run by plaza bosses, or regional leaders, Vigil said.

As in northern Mexico, Guizar's arrest could lead to more violence if a leadership vacuum opens and causes more internal feuding. It will likely further erode an organization that Vigil described as already "pretty well crippled."

"It'll probably cripple Zetas' ability to smuggle drugs through southern Mexico," Vigil said. Guizar "was a trusted member of cartel. He was probably going to rise to Zetas leadership," given his stature within the cartel, his knowledge of drug trade with Colombia, and knowledge of the Zetas' internal structure.

"He would've been a formidable leader with a little bit of time if he had been allowed to consolidate his power," Vigil said.</s>MEXICO CITY: Mexican marines have captured a kingpin in the violent Zetas drug cartel who had a US$5-million reward on his head in the United States, authorities said Friday (Feb 9).

Jose Maria Guizar Valencia, alias "Z43", was arrested Thursday in the upscale Mexico City neighborhood of La Roma "without the use of force", the head of the National Security Commission, Renato Sales, announced in a press conference.

Guizar, who has dual US-Mexican citizenship, had several warrants out for his arrest in both countries on charges including drug and arms trafficking, organised crime, murder and kidnapping.

"He is believed to be responsible for trafficking drugs from South America to the United States, and was one of the main drivers of violence in the states of southeastern Mexico," said Sales.

The US State Department, which says Guizar is 38 years old, says he launched his own faction of the Zetas group in southeastern Mexico after the 2012 killing of the cartel's founder, Heriberto Lazcano, and the 2013 arrest of his successor, Miguel Angel Trevino.

"Guizar Valencia is responsible for the importation of thousands of kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine to the United States on a yearly basis," his State Department rap sheet says.

"The Zetas, under the command of Guizar Valencia, have murdered an untold number of Guatemalan civilians during the systematic overtake of the Guatemalan border region with Mexico."

Mexican authorities trace his criminal career back to at least 1998, when he was identified as a mid-level drug trafficker in the western state of Michoacan, said Sales.

By 2005 he had extended his operations to three other states, Tamaulipas, Veracruz and Chiapas, recruiting local cartels into his network along the way.

Since 2007, he has been the Zetas's point man for smuggling Colombian drugs into the United States via Guatemala and Mexico, and also had connections with suppliers in other countries in Central and South America, Sales said.

Sales did not say how the cartel's command structure would now stand.

The Zetas are considered one of the most cruel criminal organizations in Mexico, accused of melting enemies in a barrel of "stew", slaughtering 72 migrants in August 2010 and igniting a fire that killed 52 people in a Monterrey casino in 2011.

The group, founded by former elite soldiers, was originally the armed enforcer of the Gulf Cartel until the two groups split in 2010, unleashing a wave of violence in northern Mexico.</s>Mexican authorities have captured the purported leader of the Los Zetas drug cartel in the country's southeast, a suspect who was one of their highest-priority targets, officials told EFE Friday.

Jose Maria Guizar Valencia, alias "Z43" or "Charly," was on a Mexican government list of its 122 most-wanted suspects, while the United States State Department had offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest.

Based on available information, the suspect was a leader of the Los Zetas cartel in southeastern Mexico; based in Huimanguillo, a municipality in Tabasco state, he allegedly controlled routes used in smuggling drugs from South and Central America to the US.

That drug gang, which was once extremely powerful but has been in decline in recent years, also is accused of running extortion and kidnapping rings in southeast Mexico.

A wave of violence that has affected parts of the world-famous Riviera Maya tourist zone in Mexico's Caribbean region and the Guatemala-Mexico border region also has been attributed to Los Zetas.

"I fully recognize the investigative work by the Navy Secretariat, in coordination with civil intelligence agencies, in (effecting) the important capture of one of the federal government's 122 priority targets," Government Secretary Alfonso Navarrete wrote on Twitter, without providing further details.</s>MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican authorities have captured Los Zetas drug cartel member and faction leader Jose Maria Guizar, also known as “Z43”, two security sources said on Thursday.

The U.S. State Department had offered a reward of up to $5 million for information that would lead to his capture. On its website it describes Guizar as the commander of his own faction of the violent Los Zetas in the south of Mexico.

“Guizar is responsible for the importation of thousands of kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine to the United States on a yearly basis,” the website says.

Guizar, an American citizen, has been charged in drug trafficking indictments in Texas and Viriginia.
Mexican authorities arrest American-born Jose Maria Guizar Valencia, the alleged leader of the Zetas drug cartel, as he was entering a hotel in Mexico City's upscale neighborhood of Roma.