Blog dedicated to reporting on Mexican drug cartels
on the border line between the US and Mexico
.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Zeta Founding Member, "Z9" Believed Killed in Reynosa Shootout

A Friday shootout in Reynosa may have claimed the life of an original member of Los Zetas, a group
of paramilitary deserters that grew into one of Mexico’s largest and most feared drug cartels.

Authorities in both the U.S. and Mexico believe that Galindo “El Mellado” or “Z-9” Mellado Cruz died Friday morning in a hail of gunfire during a raid at his hideout in the Las Fuentes neighborhood.
It remains unclear why Tamaulipas officials have not made any public announcements about Mellado’s apparent death.

But a U.S. law enforcement official and Tamaulipas law enforcement official, both not authorized to speak publicly, said Saturday they have received information that points to the slaying of the former Zeta.

While not a household name in regards to popular drug lords, Mellado had been a key target of U.S. law enforcement agencies in recent years for his role as a leading figure within the Gulf Cartel — while at the same time keeping a low profile, the U.S. official said.

On Friday evening, the Tamaulipas government issued out a news release briefly describing a firefight where a gunman and a Mexican soldier died, confirming the deaths of four other gunmen in another firefight.

The news release doesn’t identify those killed, one of whom is believed to be Galindo, the Tamaulipas official said.

A photograph provided to The Monitor by the Tamaulipas law enforcement official shows a bloodied disfigured Mellado lying next to a wall.

Mexican soldiers “had gone out to get him, but his people put up a fight and things got bad very, very quickly,” the official said in Spanish.

While Galindo and his men fought with authorities, Gulf Cartel gunmen set off a series of blockades and threw road spikes throughout the city’s main avenues in order to slow down military reinforcements, he said.

‘EL MELLADO’
The only known photograph of Mellado — apart from the bloodied body photographed Friday — comes from his days in the Mexican army, showing a young man with thick eyebrows, large cheeks and slicked back hair, wearing a white shirt and black coat.

Other than the small black-and-white photograph, little was known about Mellado’s current appearance.

According to information released by the Mexican army, Mellado signed up for military service Sept. 1, 1992 and requested his discharge May 1, 1999, which was granted.

The U.S. official said after leaving the military, Mellado joined the Gulf Cartel as one of the first members of a new enforcement wing that would evolve into the Zetas.

Originally made up of former military and federal police, the Zetas earned a name for their fighting skill and their ruthlessness, carrying out various executions in Mexico and South Texas. In early 2010, the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas split up, setting off a bloody war that has lasted for more than four years.

According to the U.S. law enforcement official, during that split, Mellado Cruz sided with the Gulf Cartel managed to avoid public attention. Still, he has been a key figure in controlling the area just south of Starr County, commonly known as La Ribereña.

RENEWED VIOLENCE
Reynosa in recent days has seen the return of regular firefights between warring factions from the Gulf Cartel, who are vying for control of the city.

Tamaulipas government figures show the recent firefights in Reynosa have claimed 23 lives, including two uninvolved civilians, two federal police officers, one soldier and 18 gunmen.

As a result of the perceived lack of security in Reynosa due to the constant firefights, on Saturday — which is Mother’s Day in Mexico — the border city’s residents took to social media to voice their discontent by sending out expletive-laden messages to the accounts of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Tamaulipas Governor Egidio Torre Cantu.

The messages blamed the government officials for the widespread violence in Tamaulipas.

The following video is from Reynosa, I believe from Friday, this may be the conflict referenced above:

Sourced from The Monitor, thank you to readers for the heads up

39 comments:

  1. To the Mothers of Borderland Beat, Wishing you a day filled with love and laughter...

    Abrazos,

    Chivís

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  2. this traitor dont deserve to be called an original Z

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    1. Los traidores son los zetas este hombre se quedo alineado con el cdg entoces era uno de los buenos. Y para los que hablan de que no se tienen huevos en el cdg ahi esta la prueba aunque para mucha gente es mejor vivir preso estos hombres decidieron pelear. Me pregunto porque o mejor como lo encontraron si algun comandante le puso el dedo por verlo caer y asi agarrar mas poder como le hicieron al metro?

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  3. Borderland people let me tell you something about that video at the end of this article i believe those are self defense members from michoacan , i have seen that truck before with the self defense groups in michoacan and in the video you can see not very clearlly the logo on one of the doors that michoacan sel defense groups put on trucks the drive to identify themselves. Please check it out bb

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    1. It clearly says balacera en reynosa lol so yeah not anywhere close to being near michoacan

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    2. Thise trucks are steel bullet proof they are a little bit less expensive to convert and the logo you confused, was from the group called grupo operativo metros 35 comandane mono/paquito/chiricuas. the other ones say cdg grupo m3 m4 or Some just have a $ on the front wondow on the left side Reynosa is verry crazy and the video of the shoot out was Paquito vs Gafes people.

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  4. un saludo a pena nieto en el dia de su jefecita santa:
    TATA TA TAA TAA!!!
    y otro a su gabinete y a toda su pinchi camarilla:
    TATA TA TAA TAAAA!!!

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    1. Y se lo repitimos. TATATATARA......................................

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  5. All fun and games for them until they start dropping like flies. They're obviously on drugs though.

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  6. capitalist militants acting up again. tell it how it is.

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  7. There's still like 3 or 4 original Z somewhere out there.

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  8. Galdino Mellado Cruz "Comandante Mellao" was a Zetas founder believed to be Z9. Once the war between Golfos versus Zetas started El Mellao was still with the Zetas, but if any you guys remember in September, 2012, narcomantas appeared signed by Los Zetas. The Zetas basically said that El Mellao was infiltrated within the organization, and giving out information to authorities of various Zetas commanders including of Miguel Trevino Z40. Supposedly Z40 was almost captured in Zacatecas by GAFES Mexican special forces, but Z40 was able to escape and realized that El Mellao was giving out information. El Mellao jumped ships to the Gulf Cartel although he was probably working for them for a long time without the Zetas realizing. I think El Mellado became a member of Los Metros most likely his number is Metro 9. Anyways Comandate Mellao was the plaza boss of Miguel Aleman. The weird thing is that there is now DNA proof that Mellao is really dead only pictures but even then it might not be him.

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    1. Yea that's true he was working alongside Z-50 in zacatecas and when Z-50 switched to the gulf cartel so did Z-9 but because he couldn't keep control of where he was operating I guess he felt like he had to work in the C.D.G. homebases but I'm still wondering if this is true there is no news of this on any other blog.

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    2. Valor Por Tamaulipas also reported that El Mellao might be dead, but Valor said that there is no proof. It is really difficult to know if his dead because the Mexican government has not even issued a statement.

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  9. Never heard of him. The guy did a good job staying low pro

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    1. Usually Zetas members keep a low profile especially the original members. No one knew stuff about Lazcano only after he was supposedly killed.

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    2. He was always low profile, but he was a high roller worked under x20 and m3 he controlled Miguel aleman and when m3 died he moved to reynosa

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  10. Ya no se ha hablado mucho del R1. Solo se comento que estaba en Victoria asiendole frente a los zetas. Alguin tambien comento que ya no era R1 que era rey de reyes o tenia otra clave o que ya no eran los rojos pero que todavia seguia con el CDG. Con todo lo que esta pasando ahorita, que papel juega R1 en todo esto? Es jefe de alguna estaca? Con quien esta aliado? Con ciclones, metros etc etc....pregunto porque de todos los jefes que se oian mentar del 2010 para aca que eran de cuando yo empese a escuchar y ver sus videos ya estan muertos o en la carcel. Solo se conocian por sus nombres como Puma, Nectar, tony tormenta, juanillo carrisales, wicho, polimenso, panochitas, cierra, gringo, coss, comandante diablo o como los grupos cyclones, metros, alfas, deltas, rojos, escorpiones etc etc...Al parecer ya no se habla mucho de estos grupos o personajes. Ahora se escucha que dragones, la sheila, el chevis o algo asi. Al pareser es pura gente nueva o que no eran nada conocidos. Al parecer solo R1 queda de esa vieja escuela ya que no se a escuchado nada de el. Sea lo que sea, hojale que se compongan las cosas en tamaulipas.

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  11. People are saying the men on the video are AD members. There's the AD logo on the truck's door and because of the hills that wouldn't be seen in Reynosa. Also the guys on the video were being careful not to shoot the power lines. Don't think sicarios would really care. Also the accents are different.

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  12. R1 is dead for sure he has been to quiet for to long along with cmd diablo

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  13. I am pretty sure it's always been Z-9. The confusion lies in Commandante Mateos testimony calling him Z-11. I did some digging, talked to some people and I found a good bit of information. He didn't like the Z-9 clave ever and always went by the moniker Mellado. After the split with Los Zetas he was given the clave of M-10 or Metro 10 but just went by 10. This guy yielded a lot of power but at the same time he was also extremely secretive. He had strong ties to Los Talibans and was always close with 50. He played a pivotal role in 50 switching back to the CDG. At one point he controlled the state of Coahuila for the cartel before being pushed out by the Z. He had strong ties to San Louis Potosi and used his Colombian contacts to import cocaine using the ports. I think he is always had a presence in Reynosa. I could be wrong but I believe he was working with Talibans people in Reynosa. El Hamburguesa was his right hand man before making a name for himself. Everyone I talked to really didn't know a lot about him they all talked about how secretive he was. This is obviously a rumor but I've heard from a few different sources that Mellado was the infamous Rey-De-Reyes of El Diablo fame. It's obviously just a rumor but interesting nonetheless. This is a major loss for the CDG this guy was a major player he was as important as M3, R1, Or X20 he was just so secretive that people didn't know anything about him or his role. Speaking of X20 I was told that X20 never trusted Mellado and always suspected him of still being linked to the Z he tried to take him out at one point but Mellado had so much clout and power he couldn't touch him. Mellado was very highly respected amongst cartel members he was known as being fair and was widely considered an unofficial leader everyone knew the only thing holding him back was his past ties to Los Zetas. I am personally quite shocked he was killed I think it was a fluke, or they just got lucky finding him. They probably didn't even realize who they had in their midst until much later. Mellado was just about the only guy still around who had intimate knowledge of the origins of Los Zetas. I can't even imagine all of the questions he could have answered. I guarantee that his killing leads to major cartel infighting. It might even lead to a major fracture within the cartel especially if his people believe he was set up from within.


    -El Plata

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    1. There's still a couple of og Z out there but this guy did not side with cdg when they split. He was always close to Z-50 and he never controlled coahuila he tried to take it over after lazcanos death when Z-50 deflected alongside with him but he didn't have enough power to take control and got drove out with his men so he had no choice but to fully go back to the cdg operating in their home plazas. But in another blog they already said that it was a mistake he wasn't the one yhat was killed.

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  14. ABC News has a short article on this:
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/mexico-zetas-founder-dead-shootout-23676261

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  15. Which founding members remain then of la letra??

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    1. Prisciliano ibarra yepis, el chocotorro, el guerra, Omar treviño (Z-42) I'm not sure who else.

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    2. 12:29 am none of those assholes are funding members of the Z

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  16. Only CDG die, Zetas do not.

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  17. Thank you Mr. pena and Governor for secure Mother's day Sat. We stayed inside than went McAllen. Mr. pena and the Governor are doing such a great job taking $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ from the cartel how rich do you want to be?

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  18. I heard from a person who is from Diaz Ordaz that the recent fighting was a result of the different factions not happy with the fact that the most recent leader /commandate for the gulf cartel was not from the frontera chica and a former zeta who went by the name of el Mellado. They want a local with no previous tie to any other cartel to be the head of the organization.

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  19. el taliban z50 and el mellado z9 are not traitors for seeing clear thru z40 and getting aware of his greedy games, STEALING ALL THE MONEY, and brainwashing el lazca like the texas lacra carwasher he is. paying later never comes, and if you push it, you get a bullett rain for pushing your luck, better to have your house demolished and get arrested, imprisoned and thrown in jail, as long as you take the azzhole and his loyals down with you, then it's worth it seeing it all go to hell.
    the gafes committed treason against their military brothers, and worse against all of mexico, some committed further treason when they went against the zetas, and some for not paying their comrades, to allow z40 to enhance his take for his private horse ranch, not for nothing so many bigwig zetas were delegated rural zetas, to ranchos all over mexico to handle the pedestrian logistics of their infantry asses.
    --in the worst act of cowardice, all these former military elements never have properly denounced the rampant corruption that exists all over the front lines of the superior ranks of the mexican military, but booy, they can kill unarmed citizens and the most worthless of mexicans, the indians, on heroic military missions the US trained them for, like some renowned kaibiles and pinochet and argentinian junta golpistas, whose military still honor their juntista arses all over the still banana banana republics...
    but sure let's pile up on the little treasons of a former GAFE/zeta...

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  20. I just got out of a federal prison this past november and there was a shitload of estacas del comandante guerra habian coclones tambien y como tres estacas de los zetas i was raised in the usa so im way bigger and syronger than most of my people but in prison these pussies are polite i asked them all why all nive here and out there yall koll anybody i told them they were too skinny to carry an ak anyways i made it back to my wife and kids thank god the u s a gov is a p o s tho they know that half the people that get deported get kidnapped or turned into a killer so whos the real killer who splits families apart thry gave the indians land and let them be so do the same to us yall fucked us over with so much already i.think its time for my people to give yall hell and fuck ur border security i ran right by nightvision machine suk it u s a

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    1. You say that the US government is a pos, but they supported your convict ass with the money of tax payers, and your wife and kids lived off welfare and food stamps all paid by hard working people. If you don't want to be separated from your family, go to school and get a good job in Mexico, or wait in line like thousands of other people until you apply and get a visa, so all of you can come here legally, but know with a conviction on your record you will never get a visa, and that's good, we won't have to support your skinny ass for another 5 years in prison. And please don't start any racist bullshit because I'm of Mexican descent.

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    2. Don't matter how big or strong you are,I bet all those guys you met in there from down south Mexico(paisas)will kill you ten times faster than you can go at one.These guys are desensitized they don't care about anything,and will drop you in a heartbeat.As for you,you care about your wife and kids,who you where anxiously awaiting your release to go back to them..that's the thing with these buff tough guy cholos,they think they're top of the food chain..what a pendejo.and you say fuck the USA,then go back to Mexico,baboso!

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    3. There is no point in letting comments like this ignorant uneducated donkey. Why post it? Just so people could know i bet he was in federal prison for being caught in the usa illigally and deported and got caught again probably commited some crimes. My people do not want trash like him in my country the U.S.A

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  21. supposedly the monitor says they saw a death foto, but I have not seen any thing on social networks. i have not looked today.

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  22. omarra treviño, aka z42, is not an original zeta, and his military training was only killing tied up defenseless people, like the evil sister, el barril de menudo con patas, z40; i don't really know about the others, but special people z42 is famous for not being smart or military...

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  23. A lot of the comments on youtube are saying that this is Auto-defensas in Michoacan. At some point in the video, there are symbols that real Community Policia or something like that?

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  24. And guys, some talking shit. United States is the reason South/Central America are as bad as they are. US CIA has supported drug trafficking for decades. If you would care to do some reason and stop being so predictably stupid, then you might say something that is smart, and not stupid and arrogant.

    Mexico is a great country. Beautiful people. It's the USA's stance on drugs, their peoples' need for those drugs, that have turned these great countries into war zones. USA needs tobe brought down a peg or two. Stop invading countries to steal oil, and fix your problems that you create in countries so close to home!

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