Arturo Guzmán Decena Arturo Guzmán Decena ( a . k . a . Z - 1 ) ( 13 January 1976 − 21 November 2002 ) was a Mexican Army Special Forces soldier who , in 1997 , defected to the Gulf Cartel , where he founded and commanded Los Zetas , the mercenary gang at the service of the cartel ' s drug lord , Osiel Cárdenas Guillén . Guzmán Decena was born in a poor family in Puebla and joined the military as a teenager to escape from poverty . While in the military , he was a talented and bright soldier , earning a position in the Special Forces of the Mexican military by the mid - 1990s . During his military career , Guzmán Decena received counter - insurgency training , acquired skills in explosives , and learned how to track down and apprehend his enemies from an elite combat group trained by the U . S . Special Forces and the Israel Defense Forces . He began to take bribes from the Gulf Cartel while still serving in the military , but eventually defected to work full - time for the criminal organization in 1997 . For years he recruited other members of the Mexican Armed Forces to form Los Zetas , the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel , along with Cárdenas Guillén . He served as the right - hand man of Cárdenas Guillén until 21 November 2002 , when he was gunned down and killed by the Mexican Army in the border city of Matamoros , Tamaulipas . Biography . Career and military defection . Guzmán Decena was born in a poor village in Puebla , Mexico on 13 January 1976 , and finished middle school and high school before joining the Mexican military to escape poverty . His talents and aggressive behavior earned him a position with an elite Mexican military group called Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales ( GAFE ) , originally trained in counter - insurgency tactics for the Zapatista uprising in 1994 and for locating and apprehending members of Mexico ' s drug trafficking organizations . Guzmán Decena reportedly received military training from the Israel Defense Forces . His training came into practice after more than 3 , 000 Zapatista rebels seized several towns across the southern state of Chiapas in 1994 . The rebellion was a symbolic rising against poverty and the single - party rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party ( PRI ) , and many rebels took arms ; the Mexican government , however , sent in the GAFE to put down the Zapatistas . Within hours , 34 rebels were killed and three others were captured by Guzmán Decena ' s counter - insurgency group . Their bodies were then disposed on a riverbank – with their ears and noses sliced off . Now one of the brightest , highly - trained , and bloodiest members in the GAFE , Guzmán Decena was sent to the northern state of Tamaulipas . While operating as the security chief in the city of Miguel Alemán , Tamaulipas , he was recruited by Cárdenas Guillén ' s cartel . Investigators say that Guzmán Decena first worked with the Gulf Cartel by taking bribes from Osiel Cárdenas Guillén and turning a blind eye on the drug shipments of the cartel . Such payments were typical among military commanders , but while soldiers had often accepted bribes from the drug lords , it was not common for them to defect from the army and join their ranks . Bribes were seen by soldiers as " benefits " to their job , and officiers stood firm to the idea that they were protectors of the Mexican people . Guzmán Decena , however , shattered that model and left the military in 1997 to work full - time with a drug trafficking organization . According to Ioan Grillo , it is still unclear why Guzmán Decena defected from the army to become a " narco - mercenary . " A common explanation is that Guzmán Decena left the military in search of a higher payment , seeing that many cartel members lived ostentatiously and earned more in a year than a GAFE member earned in a lifetime . Nonetheless , he would have also lived comfortably as a successful GAFE member in the army . And by joining the Gulf cartel , he was becoming a fugitive and increasing his chances of being arrested or killed . Hence , a crucial factor in his defection may have been the seismic change of Mexico ' s transition to democracy and the tearing rule of the PRI . The " new Mexico " and the democracy that came with it was feared by many soldiers who had made abuses during the old regime . Mounting pressures arose from the families of the " disappeared " who made marches in Mexico City , and many military officers were found guilty in courts - martial for human right abuses and corruption . For years , some military generals took bribes from the cartels ; amid the turmoil , Guzmán Decena acknowledged that he was better off outside the system and as a leader of Los Zetas . Cárdenas Guillén then asked Guzmán Decena to help him recruit and set up the most ferocious hit squad possible for his cartel . Mexican federal agents later released the conversation between the two after an informant passed on the information of the new unit : Following the orders , Guzmán Decena recruited dozens of soldiers from the Mexican military . Some media outlets report that the formation of Los Zetas was the result of a " mass defection " of a single army unit . But military records show that this claim is false and inaccurate . Soldiers left their ranks and joined Los Zetas over some months and were from a number of different military units , but a number of GAFE soldiers made up a large part of the deserters . The members were given a codename with the letter Z , starting with Guzmán Decena with Z - 1 . Within some months , Guzmán Decena commanded a mercenary army of 38 defected soldiers enticed by salaries substantially higher than those paid by the Mexican government . The GAFE soldiers that went to work with the Gulf cartel took with them a number of the Mexican Army ' s most sophisticated machine guns , assault rifles , pistols , bazookas , grenades , and telecommunications and surveillance equipment . The role of Los Zetas was soon expanded by " collecting debts , securing cocaine supply and trafficking routes known as ' plazas , ' and executing its foes – often with grotesque savagery . " Gómez Herrera ' s execution . Once Juan García Ábrego , the founder of the Gulf cartel , was behind bars in 1996 , Ángel Salvador Gómez Herrera ( a . k . a . " El Chava " ) sought to take over the assets of the criminal organization along with Cárdenas Guillén . At first , both of them functioned well together : they bought off police officers , bribed politicians and soldiers , and managed to take control of major drug shipments coming in from Guatemala . Although supposedly Cárdenas Guillén ' s equal , Gómez Herrera ' s manipulative personality annoyed Guillén , especially after Herrera ' s constant requests for money loans . Such behavior offended Cárdenas Guillén , who assembled his own faction within the Gulf Cartel . But in mid - 1999 , Osiel Cárdenas Guillén , after his daughter ' s baptism ceremony , ordered Guzmán Decena to execute Gómez Herrera , the godfather of Cárdenas Guillén ' s baby . Gómez Herrera was cordially invited to ride in Cárdenas Guillén ' s Dodge Durango after the ceremony . They exchanged laughs and talked for a few minutes . Guzmán Decena , who was riding in the back seat of the truck , coldly fired a bullet into Gómez Herrera ' s head without hesitation , splattering his brain tissue and blood across the leather dashboard . Investigators later found Herrera ' s decaying dead body at the outskirts of the city of Matamoros , Tamaulipas . For killing Gómez Herrera , Cárdenas Guillén earned his nickname , the " Mata Amigos " ( " Friend Killer " ) , and Guzmán Decena , the trust of his boss . Death . Guzmán Decena was shot dead by Mexican soldiers inside a restaurant on 22 November 2002 in Matamoros , Tamaulipas after being spotted by the Mexican military . Another account written by Jesús Blancornelas indicates that Guzmán Decena went to a restaurant , had a few strong drinks , snorted a line of cocaine , and then decided to visit his mistress Ana Bertha González Lagunes , who lived a few blocks away . In order to not be interrupted , Guzmán Decena reportedly ordered his henchmen to block the street and direct traffic . Nonetheless , one of the neighbors called an anti - organized crime agency which called on the Mexican Army . When the soldiers arrived , Guzmán Decena was unable to defend himself and was shot to death . After his death , flowers in his honor were placed on the sidewalk outside the restaurant and at his gravesite . According to the photos published by the local newspapers in Matamoros , a note accompanied the flowers and read the following : Similarly , memorials were placed in the state of Oaxaca to venerate Guzmán Decena . In an apparent revenge for Guzmán Decena ' s assassination , four members of the Office of the General Prosecutor were abducted and executed near Reynosa , Tamaulipas in early 2003 , supposedly by Cárdenas Guillén ' s men . The second - in - command in Los Zetas , Rogelio González Pizaña ( a . k . a . : " Z2 " ) , was captured in October 2004 and so Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano ( a . k . a . : " Z3 " ) ascended to the leadership of the paramilitary gang . Less than four months after Guzmán Decena ' s death , the Mexican military captured the Gulf cartel ' s kingpin , Osiel Cárdenas Guillén , on 14 March 2003 . The death of Guzmán Decena marked the first significant success of the Mexican government against Los Zetas , but unconfirmed reports from within the organization claim that Guzmán Decena was killed by " his own men " on orders by Cárdenas Guillén , who feared Guzmán Decena ' s hegemony .