The Zetas are a special case. They started out as reduced tiffany earrings-end bodyguards–U.S.-trained Special Forces commandos enticed to desert in the late nineties by Osiel Cardenas Guillen, who was then the leader of the Gulf cartel. (He is now in a U.S. prison.) The Zetas brought military expertise to narco-trafficking. They earned a reputation for savage violence and efficiency, and their early recruitment was boldly public, with banners hung over highways, complete with a number to call, urging soldiers to defect and receive “a good salary, food, and medical care for your families.” They offered loans and life insurance, and an end to mistreatment and rations of ramen. Those who joined were paid on a scale unimaginable in their previous lives. The Zetas eventually outgrew their role as the Gulf cartel’s armed wing. They went to work with other groups, as trainers or freelance mercenaries, and then for themselves. They are now a major criminal group, at war with various old allies, including La reduced tiffany pendants and the Gulf cartel. They are also working closely with the ‘Ndrangheta, Italy’s formidable Mafia, according to “Contacto en Italia,” a recent best-seller by Cynthia Rodriguez.
In Michoacan, at the end of the PRI era, organized crime was dominated by a midsized group known as El Milenio, which was allied with Sinaloa, and did extremely well in the early methamphetamine period. The Gulf cartel, leading with its spearpoint, the Zetas, invaded Michoacan around 2001. In one version, the Gulf leadership had been approached by restive ex-Milenio lieutenants, including future La Familia leaders like El Chayo, who invited the Gulf sale tiffany necklaces to Michoacan to help them overthrow their former leaders. In another version, it was a Gulf-cartel initiative, a westward business expansion merely abetted by the restless lieutenants in Michoacan. In any event, El Milenio was defeated by the Zetas, who began running Michoacan, in their brutal way, on the Gulf cartel’s behalf.
La Familia arose from various sources. The main element was the ex-Milenio shop for tiffany accessories, which had been schooled by its allies, the Zetas, in unconventional warfare, and later turned against them.