Authorities confirm another Zeta in US Custody
A second alleged Zeta hitman has been taken into custody in Brownsville, according federal officials.
Luis Alberto Blanco Flores, also known as “El Pelochas,” 29, is in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.
Nina Pruneda, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman, said Blanco was arrested on July 23 during a joint operation that included ICE Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Border Patrol and Brownsville police.
On Tuesday, Blanco went before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald Morgan, who set his bail at $25,000 on the charge of illegal re-entry into the country and remanded him to custody.
According to court documents, Blanco was arrested for re-entering the country illegally after having been deported on Sept. 16, 2003. After Blanco concludes his pending legal matters with the U.S. government, he will be turned over to Mexican authorities, Pruneda said.
According to Mexican law enforcement officials, Blanco is affiliated with the Zetas criminal organization and worked under Arturo Castillo, also known as “El Apache.”
Castillo was arrested a day later in the same interagency operation on the charge of illegal entry and is also in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, Pruneda said. Castillo faces extradition to Mexico, she said.
Mexican officials said Castillo led his band of hitmen, including Blanco, in a series of recent firefights, including the shootout at the Matamoros municipal police station on June 9 in which seven officers were killed.
Castillo and Blanco reportedly are part of the Zetas criminal organization, which has been involved in a violent armed struggle with the Gulf Cartel over drug distribution routes and territories. The Zetas began as an elite unit of the Mexican military called Grupo Aeromovil de Fuerzas Especiales — GAFES — which then switched sides and became the enforcers of the Gulf Cartel under the leadership of former kingpin Osiel Cardenas Guillen. After Cardenas’ capture in 2003, the Zetas became an independent partner of the Gulf Cartel until earlier this year when they severed ties and began fighting openly.
On July 29, a few days after Castillo’s arrest, 15 bodies bearing bruises and gashes from torture and a large black Z painted on each back, were found on the highway between Matamoros and San Fernando. A source with firsthand knowledge of criminal activity in Mexico, who asked not to be identified due to safety concerns, said they were part of El Apache’s group and had been executed by the Gulf Cartel.
The Mexican navy arrested 12 Zetas in Valle Hermoso on July 25 during a raid at a motel where they were hiding. According to military officials, the Zetas had injured two marines during two separate firefights days before at a beach near Matamoros. The military reported gunning down several Zetas whose bodies were collected by others in their group.
The unnamed source confirmed the men arrested by the Mexican navy were also part of El Apache’s group.
About three weeks before Castillo was arrested, Mexican federal authorities found more than a dozen bodies on a highway near Matamoros.
Those bodies, too, showed signs of torture and, according to the source, were also members of El Apache’s group.
The source said the Gulf Cartel is offering an unconfirmed
