Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, the dreaded Z-3, The Executioner

Things get tense for the Cartels.

When Los Zetas voted to go solo, the Gulf Cartel was headed by El Coss Costilla Sánchez and Antonio Cárdenas Gillen, brother of the imprisoned Osiel Cárdenas. Nicknamed Tony Tormenta, Antonia Cárdenas Guillén had an inflated opinion of himself, and frequently surrendered to temper tantrums. These in part because of his personality — he was sulky and usually in a bad mood — but also because he was a frequent flyer, usually buzzing on cocaine. The throne to the drug empire, the Gulf Cartel was his by divine right, he believed.

Z-3 — The Executioner, Heriberto Lazcano — didn’t bother to notify the Gulf kingpins that he no longer considered Los Zetas part of the Gulf Cartel. Nor did he officially resign. The Gulf Cartel kingpins figured it out following the arrest of El Hummer González Durán, their go-to guy in Reynosa. Reynosa was an important piece of the trafficking jigsaw puzzle, and Los Zetas had decided it was their turf. Z-3 mobilized his men and moved in, establishing roadblocks in and out of Reynosa. Heavily armed Zetas drove through the city looking for El Hummer González Durán’s replacement, a man by the name of Héctor Manuel Sauceda Gamboa aka El Karis. However, someone had beaten them to it and they found him dead.