The fall of Juan Treviño Chavez, the “Egg”: who are the possible successors of the Northeast Cartel leader

The footprint of the Treviño Morales family — founder of the Northeast Cartel — in the state of Tamaulipas is that of the kidnapping, fuel theft, extortion and murder of Central American migrants.

Mexican authorities have pointed out that the story of the Treviños in crime began when the couple Rodolfo Treviño and María Arcelia Morales procreated an extensive family of 13 children, of whom at least six have been involved in drug trafficking: Juan Francisco, alias “Kiko Ozuna”, Arcelia Chelo, Irma, Alicia, Rodolfo, Maria Guadalupe, Jose, Ana Isabel, Jesus, Michelangelo, alias “The Z-40″, Oscar Omar or “The Z-42″ Alexander, Cristina and Adolfo.

Twenty-six years ago, the first-born son of the Treviños, Juan Francisco, alias “Kiko Ozuna”, was formally accused by the United States government for possessing more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana with the intention of distributing it.

His short criminal career began as a teenager and took place partly on the border between Mexico and the United States; however, it ended abruptly in 1995 when the Anti-Drug Agency (DEA) framed him for drug trafficking, due to the statements of protected witnesses.

Thus, on 1 December 1995 “Kiko Ozuna” was sentenced to 22 years in prison. His younger brother, Miguel Ángel Treviño known as “El Z 40″ “La Mona” or “El Muerto”, then became a narco, after Juan Francisco was captured.

The first traces of the criminal career of “Z 40″ date back to 2000, when he was in charge of retail drug sales in the Hidalgo neighborhood, in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas.

He first worked with Arturo Sauceda Gamboa, “El Karis”; Omar Lormendez, “El Comandante Pita” and Ivan Vázquez Caballero, “The Taliban”. He would later be recruited by Osiel Cardenas, head of the Gulf Cartel, first washing cars, then as a messenger for the mobster thanks to his command of English, and then as one of the main assassins of his brother, Ezequiel Cardenas, killed in 2010.

When, in the late 1990s, Osiel Cardenas founded Los Zetas as the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel, with a group of deserters from the Mexican Army special forces, Treviño would become the right-hand man of its leader, Corporal Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, “El Lazca”.

The cruelty of his methods would make his way up the ranks of organized crime. “The Z 40″ would impose the fashion of dismembering bodies and “stewing” enemies, dissolving them in acid, or melting them in oil containers.

After the capture of Osiel Cardenas in 2003, Los Zetas would go to war with the Gulf Cartel until its final break in January 2010. The army defectors with “El Lazca” and “El Z 40″ in the lead and their barbaric military methods of occupation of the territory would in recent years bloody the map of Mexico in a permanent dispute with other criminal cells.

The violence in Los Zetas would reach its climax in August 2010, when 72 tortured and murdered migrants were found in graves in San Fernando, Tamaulipas.

In addition to the viciousness of their killings, their tactic of putting the world of the underworld at their service wherever they were imposed, led them to engage in other crimes such as migrant smuggling, kidnapping and extortion in addition to drug trafficking.

The government of the former president, Felipe Calderón, decided in its last years to concentrate on dismantling the Zetas. The result of this pressure was the death of Lazca, which led to a new struggle for power, from which “El Z 40″ would win.

But in 2013 he was captured by the Mexican Army, so his brother, Omar Treviño Morales, “El Z 42″ became heir to the cartel.

Authorities said that since Omar took over the leadership of Los Zetas, the organization attacked US diplomatic representations, which put him in the sights of foreign authorities.

Omar did not achieve the recognition that his brother had and began to have opposition from some of the operators in the region.

Always in the shadow of the “Z 40″, Omar Treviño was captured two years after taking power in a house in San Pedro Garza, Nuevo Léon, one of the richest municipalities in the country.

After the fall came internal disputes within Los Zetas that pointed to the Treviño Morales family of allegedly betraying other leaders of the organization such as “El Mamito”, “El Lazca”, which were placed at the mercy of the authorities because the clan allegedly leaked information about their location to stay with the full control of the cartel.

This caused the Treviño family to lead the faction called the Northeast Cartel.

The split was led by Juan Francisco “Kiko” Treviño Chavez, nephew of Z 40 and Z 42, until in September 2016, he was arrested by the DEA in Houston.

Ana Isabel Treviño was another name that emerged as Kiko's successor; however, authorities in Tamaulipas identified Juan Gerardo Treviño, “El Huevo”, as the last leader of the criminal group, who was arrested by the Armed Forces this weekend.

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