The Zeta Spanish connection

El Pais:

In March of this year, Spanish police arrested Mexican national Juan Manuel Muñoz Luévano, aka El Mono (The Monkey), charging him with money laundering and working for the Zetas drug cartel. Since then, authorities have uncovered a money trail to the top of Mexican politics, as well as learning more about the organization’s European distribution network.

Muñoz, now being held in a Spanish prison, is linked to Humberto Moreira, a former high-ranking Mexican politician, and Rolando González Treviño, a Mexican media mogul who has turned state’s evidence. According to González’s statements to US police, he helped Moreira funnel embezzled government funds. Moreira is also believed to have used some of the funneled funds to help finance the 2012 campaign of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.

Following Muñoz’s arrest, Spanish police found Excel spreadsheets on a laptop computer at his home detailing the handover of 59 suitcases containing a total of €63 million to Zetas bosses inside luxury hotels, supermarket parking lots and car dealerships in Mexico City.

EL PAÍS has seen official documents confirming that the money came from the sale of 2,100 kilograms of cocaine the Zetas cartel shipped into the country through the port of Valencia over the course of six days in early February 2012, and then sold on to the rest of Europe.

The US authorities have asked Spain to extradite Muñoz, calling him “an important member of the Zetas who has high-level political links in Mexico.” The DEA further describes him as “a major drug trafficker and money launderer.” They say he runs a chain of gas stations in Mexico he uses to launder the money he makes from drug trafficking.

Spanish police believe the computer they found in Muñoz’s house, in the upscale La Moraleja district of Madrid, belonged to Ricardo Fuyivara Romero. The latter is believed to have visited Muñoz in June 2012, and was arrested the following month in Mexico.

One entry on the spreadsheets in the computer notes the “loss” by “accident” of some $900,000 after Fuyivara was arrested in Mexico. The amount tallies with the figure the Mexican police reported finding in a suitcase when they detained him.
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There is more.

This story appears to break significant new details on the corruption within the Mexican government as well as the cartel's attempt to get into the Europe market.  Mexico has always had corruption on the local level but this seems to go well beyond morditta to look the other way.

The Zeta's grew out of a Gulf Cartel muscle operation and eventually fought the Gulf cartel for turf along the Rio Grande Valley border with the US.  They had few inhibitions when it came to dealing with those who opposed them.