Murder of migrants

50 years in prison for cartel members in Mexico

Task forces in front of the La Toma detention center in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz

(Bild: AP/AP (Archivbild))

In Mexico, eleven cartel members have been sentenced to 50 years in prison each for the murder of 122 people in 2011. The victims, many of them migrants on their way to the US border, were taken from the buses in which they were traveling in the northwestern state of Tamaulipas. 

Their bodies were later found in mass graves in the town of San Fernando.

Mass graves found
According to media reports, the convicts include Martin Omar Estrada Luna "El Kilo", the then regional head of the criminal group "Los Zetas", who is considered the mastermind behind the murders. Estrada was arrested in April 2011 after mass graves with numerous buried bodies were discovered.

About "Los Zetas"

The group "Los Zetas" was founded by deserted elite soldiers and initially served as the armed arm of the once influential and now fragmented Gulf Cartel (Cártel del Golfo) in Tamaulipas. Later, "Los Zetas" became independent. However, following the arrest of its most important leaders, this gang has also lost influence in recent years.

In 2010, 72 migrants were also found dead on a ranch in the region. Survivors reported that the victims had been murdered because they had refused to work for the drug cartel.