Breaking News: Los Zetas Gang Leader Caught

Mexican authorities announced July 3 that they had caught founding member of the Los Zetas drug cartel who is suspected of being involved in the recent murder of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent.

Jesus Enrique Rejon Aguilar has been identified as third in command of Los Zetas, a dangerous criminal enterprise started by deserters from the Mexican army's special forces. Originally an enforcement arm of the Gulf Cartel, over the course of a 10-year period the Zetas evolved into a drug-trafficking entity in its own right.

According to the Mexican federal police, Aguilar was captured without incident on Sunday, July 3, in the town of Atizapan, outside Mexico City. He was one of the most-wanted men in Mexico and the U.S. State Department had offered $5 million for information leading to his arrest (Aguilar is shown here at a press conference July 4).

In February, Los Zetas gunmen attacked ICE agents Victor Avila and Jaime Zapata while they drove along a road in San Luis Potosi state, wounding Avila and killing Zapata (shown at right). A week later, Mexican police arrested one of the gunmen, who said they had attacked the agents only because they thought they were members of a rival gang.

Aguilar joined the Mexican Army in 1993, became a member of its elite Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales in 1996, became an agent with the Mexican Attorney General's Office in 1997, and in 1999 deserted and helped establish Los Zetas.

Los Zetas Cartel active throughout Mexico and Texas and has expanded its operations to include contract killing, extortion, kidnapping, money laundering, oil siphoning, and human trafficking. Its armaments include fully automatic assault rifles, submachine guns, heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, surface-to-air missiles, explosives, armored vehicles, helicopters, and body armor. The gang is blamed for much of the violence that has left more than 35,000 dead since December 2006.

Los Zetas Cartel is one of the criminal organizations covered in "Gangland Texas," one of the "Mayhem" chapters in in Texas Confidential: Sex, Scandal, Murder, and Mayhem in the Lone Star State.