10 Infamous Drug Lord Killings

Working in law enforcement is a dangerous job at the best of times. But working in cartel-heavy areas is notoriously unpredictable. Esteban Robles Espinosa was the commander of Mexico City’s Investigative Police Force and famous for battling cartel activity. And it tragically resulted in his death. Espinosa was leaving his house on the morning of May 9, 2008 when he was shot eight times outside his front door. The police commander was rushed to the hospital but died of his injuries. It’s still unclear who killed Espinosa, but many believe that it was a gang-related shooting motivated by revenge.

Benjamin LeBarón was not an officer of the law, but he still did what he could in the fight against crime. He founded an advocacy group to counter kidnapping called SOS Chihuahua, operating out of the northwest Mexican state. However, it made him a target of the Sinaloa drug cartel, and they came for him on July 7, 2009. Heavily armed men stormed LeBarón’s house, which also contained his wife and five children. His brother-in-law, Luis Widmar, lived across the street and ran to help. But both he and LeBarón were taken away, beaten, and fatally shot. Their bodies were found outside of town.

The Mexican drug war is a horrific affair, with rival cartels often attempting to outdo each other in viciousness. On January 2, 2009, a man named Hugo Hernandez was kidnapped in Sonora state and brought to neighboring Sinaloa, home of El Chapo’s infamous Sinaloa Cartel. The assailants killed Hernandez and made a public example out of his remains, leaving them in various containers. We can’t go into all the details here; it’s the stuff of nightmares. This killing was meant to scare the Juárez Cartel, a major rival.

The story of Kiki Camarena is well-known, having been portrayed in the first season of Netflix’s “Narcos: Mexico.” Camarena was a DEA agent working in Mexico to fight illegal marijuana operations. In 1984, Mexican soldiers destroyed a massive plantation that produced $8 billion worth of weed every year. In retaliation, Camarena was kidnapped on February 7. He was taken to a house owned by drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, founder of the Guadalajara Cartel, where he was tortured, before being killed and his body dumped outside town. The reaction was fierce and swift, with U.S. officials coming down hard on Mexican cartels and the corrupt officials who attempted to cover up the murder.

Journalists are often a target of the cartels. Guillermo Cano Isaza was the editor of Colombia’s El Espectador from 1952 to 1986. On December 17 of that year, Cano was leaving the paper’s office when he was fatally shot by hitmen riding a motorcycle. The killing was retaliation for Cano’s journalistic work linking drug traffickers to the country’s political leaders. Four people were found guilty in relation to Cano’s death, but three of the convictions were overturned. The only person to face justice was Luis Carlos Molina Yepes, who was sentenced to sixteen years in prison.

The 2011 San Fernando Massacre

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Los Zetas is a powerful Mexican cartel known for exceptionally violent tactics, which were on full display in the 2011 San Fernando massacre. The year prior, Los Zetas killed 72 immigrants in the Mexican municipality for refusing to work for them. In 2011, Los Zetas members kidnapped civilians off passenger buses, murdering 193. Female captives were sexually assaulted, and males forced to fight each other to the death. Thousands of San Fernando residents fled, and the Mexican government had to send in the military to restore order.

The DAS Building Bombing

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Miguel Maza Márquez served as director of Colombia’s Administrative Department of Security between 1985 and 1991. His work in combating drug running made him the target of the Medellín Cartel and its infamous founder, Pablo Escobar. On the morning of December 6, 1989, a truck pulled up to the DAS headquarters carrying 500 kilograms of dynamite. When it exploded, it destroyed 14 city blocks and injured over 2,200 people. A further 57 were killed in the immediate blast, with another six later dying from complications and injuries. While he was inside the building at the time, Márquez was not injured.

Just nine days before the DAS Building bombing, Escobar targeted Avianca Flight 203. Flying between Bogotá and Cali, the airplane was carrying 107 people. Escobar hoped to assassinate César Gaviria, a prominent Colombian politician and presidential hopeful in the upcoming election. Gaviria never boarded the plane, but those responsible were unaware of this fact. The aircraft exploded while in flight, killing all 107 onboard and a further three on the ground. Gaviria went on to become President the following year, in 1990.

Ranch Killings

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Before he died in 2012, the leader of Los Zetas, Heriberto Lazcano, had a fearful reputation. He was known as “El Verdugo,” or “The Executioner”, for his sadistic acts of violence. His modus operandi varied, and included decapitation and acid baths. Reportedly, he even ate some victims. However, his most infamous method of execution involved the lions and tigers he kept on his ranch. You can imagine the rest. Even among drug lords, Lazcano was infamous, and it’s believed that he killed hundreds of people throughout his life.

The Juárez House of Death

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This titular House of Death was located at 3633 Calle Parsioneros in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez. This is where members of the Juárez Cartel would take their victims, primarily rival cartel members and informants, to be viciously punished and killed. When the house was finally raided in the mid 2000s, Mexican authorities found 12 bodies on the property, leading to its now-infamous name. The men responsible were cartel member Heriberto Santillán Tabares and Guillermo Eduardo Ramírez Peyro. The latter went by the nickname “Lalo” and worked as a mole for ICE and the DEA. However, he was eventually sent to prison for participating in the killings.