The capture of Zetas drug cartel leader Miguel Angel Treviño Morales on Monday has been labeled as “possibly the biggest capture in the past few years” of any of Mexico’s notorious organized crime leaders.

It has also drawn speculation over what the future looks like for one of Mexico’s most violent drug trafficking organization.

Treviño's relatively peaceful capture by Mexican Marines on a remote road near the border city of Nuevo Laredo -- across from Laredo, Texas -- is another sign that Mexico’s second most powerful drug cartel is fragmenting and loosing grasp on its power, experts said.

“The Zetas are in for some tough times,” George Grayson, an expert on Mexico’s drug war at the College of William & Mary, told Fox News Latino.

SUMMARY

The capture of Treviño is also a major coup for the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto, who preached during his presidential campaign last year and during his nascent presidency that he was more concerned about reducing violence than about capturing major cartel members.

The arrest is just the latest in a series of arrests, killings and setbacks that have authorities and rivals closing in on the Zetas.Both U.S. and Mexican officials have been closely investigating the cartel and they have been locked in bloody battles with their former bosses, the Gulf Cartel, and Mexico’s most powerful cartel, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s Sinaloa Cartel.

“The big winner here is the Sinaloa Cartel,” said Grayson. “This should bolster their change of securing territory in Nuevo Laredo and other regions.”

Treviño's capture is also a major coup for the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto, who preached during his presidential campaign last year and during his nascent presidency that he was more concerned about reducing violence than about capturing major cartel members.

The so-called “kingpin” approach to the drug war was implemented by former Mexican President Felipe Calderón and has been blamed by many critics as the reason for the escalating body count in the conflict. Since 2006, when Calderón declared war on the drug cartels, an estimated 70,000 people have been killed.

Calderón’s approach had been championed by both the U.S. government and law enforcement agencies working with their counterparts in Mexico to combat drug trafficking.

Despite working with Mexico on numerous counter-narcotics efforts, U.S. federal law enforcement agencies – including the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) – denied any involvement in the capture of Treviño despite speculation that U.S. intelligence agents were involved.

“We had nothing to do with this. This is just kudos to the government of Mexico for doing an excellent job,” DEA spokesperson Barbara Carreno told Fox News Latino when questioned about U.S. involvement.

While experts argue that this capture won’t immediately curtail the mayhem, it could help give authorities a better grasp on what challenges remain.

“Over the medium to long term it could reduce the violence,” said Shannon O’Neil, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “Treviño was by all accounts a very violent man who oversaw the massacre of many Central American migrants.”

But it would be short-sighted to think his arrest will have a big impact on the multi-billion drug trafficking trade.

O’Neil argued that the capture will not have much of an effect on the flow of illicit substance across the border into the U.S. Unlike the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels, the Zetas don’t rely as heavily on the drug trade to fund their enterprise as their rivals and instead focus on more in-country crime trades such as kidnapping, extortion and immigrant smuggling.

“I don’t see a huge change in the drug market because of this capture,” O’Neil said. “If there is any change at all it will be in the domestic organized crime in Mexico, especially in regards to extortion.”

Source:http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2013/07/16/los-zetas-leader-arrest-leaves-drug-cartel-down-but-not-out-experts-say/

^this is the notorious z40, the most feared drug lord in mexico (next to el chapo). i wouldn't be exaggerating to say he was the most brutal cartel leader in mexico. this story i read about him sounds like something hitler would have done http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_San_Fernando_massacre#Alleged_survivor.27s_story

Evil piece of shit, just like most Zetas.

Zeta 40 was easily the most brutal and probably theuk only cartel leader or member I would consider evil in its purest form. Unlike other cartel leaders that would use corruption to control his turf he would commit evil acts to control hisorganization that piece of shit is known to torture women and children of rivals police and kidnapping victims. There are rumors about La Mona.( another nickname he goes by in Nuevo Laredo). He is known to of boiled alive 3 infants here in Nuevo Laredo , he would order his sicarios to kidnap people so that he would torture them. I thinl he also puredd boiling water into females his sicarios would ca pture until their slin melted off. The people of Nuevo Laredo are tired of his crap and his loyal henchmen for all the pain they have caused in this city. They throw grenades inside parties when the citizens reported them to the army. La Mona would go around in his car telling his estacas to stop the car to kill a random person that looked at him funny. It has been over R years since we had the police on the streets because La Mona would threaten the

This piece of shit deserves nothing but a slow, painful death before going to hell.

Someone once told me that it takes a man to be ruthless against his enemies, but a coward to be ruthless against innocents. Whether this statement is correct, is open to debate of course. I don't live in Mexico, nor do I know everything about the war going on over there but I think that no other criminal organization has commit so many vile acts against innocent citizens as the Zetas did under his command.
What goes around comes around, I hope.

I do think the Mexican Cartels are the most brutal, especially at this moment anyway. However these kinds of crimes have been committed by many other crime groups as well. All Four major mafia groups in Italy have done much of the same thing but to a lesser extent and in a less vile fashion. The Triads, Colombians and everyone else have also been involved in kidnappings, torture of children e.t.c.

But yeah the Mexicans tend to go for this gore shit pretty bad...

To be fair and not judge Trevino, the rumor of him boiling alive 3 babies is not confirmed to be truth, also with of him torturing innocents. It may be just a rumor made by his enemies and since then has stuck with him since then. Just like the rumor that he was a car washer for the Tejas gang and Chapo that capitalize and now every one associates or at least the underworld of Trevino being a child and women killer and filthy car washer. But he has innocent people or ordered to be killed, for example, he was attributed to order the massacre of 72 immigrants in San Fernando for refusing to join them. He also ordered the kidnapping of 49 immigrants to be slaughtered and throw them in Reynosa (gulf cartel stronghold) to heat up their corridor but the local zeta captain of Allende failed to do and instead threw them in the highway tha leads to Reynosa. I think he was also attributed to order the slaughter of 250 kidnaped immigrants along with regional bosss Ardilla that ordered his mem to do. That's why nobody wants to be associated with them because of the shit like this that they do. I wouldn't be suprised if Trevino has actually tortured women and children

(Continue) to install fear within his organization and keep anyone close to him from trying to do something funny. H ope he gets ass raped in jail by a big broom stick up his for all the evil things he has done and ppain of suffering that have died from the hans of this coward. All of the bad rep Mexico has got is because of people like 4O. Its ironic that the Los Zetas worst enemy was ZETA 40, it wasn't the Gulf Cartel nor the Mex gov/DEA that brought them down. It was 4O that turned in all the key players and killed the ones to save his ass.

Lazcano and all the regional bosses should of wacked him a long time ago for turning or snitching but primarly to save the lives oll the innocent he has killed or responsible for. Hope which ever regional boss takes over won't follow Trevinos footsteps. I predict that all of the bosses will gang up of what's left of the Trevino clan.