The convicted terrorist leader of the Cartel Del Noreste (CDN) faction of Los Zetas was singled out by authorities as the man behind a series of beheadings and mutilations intended to intimidate law enforcement and rival criminal organizations.

According to Mexican federal and state authorities, gunmen for Hector Raul “El Tory” Luna Luna were linked to numerous mutilations and other high-impact crimes throughout Nuevo Leon. El Tory recently assumed control of CDN after an early release from a federal prison. The cartel boss was originally imprisoned for drug trafficking and a 2008 grenade attack on the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey.

Since assuming control of a faction of Los Zetas in late 2018, El Tory unleashed a wave of terror targeting rival cartel members where, in 16 separate cases, his men dismembered the victims. In one, the victim, Luis “El Rex” Reyes Enriquez, was the leader of a rival faction of Los Zetas called “Vieja Escuela” or Old School. El Tory had El Rex’s body dismembered and placed into four ice chests. His gunmen placed three outside state prisons in Nuevo Leon and the fourth in the neighboring state of Tamaulipas. Each chest featured a poster board or a banner threatening local rivals.

Other CDN Mutilations with Threatening Messages

February 14 – Cartel gunmen dumped the heads of Felipe de Jesus Ramirez and Jordan Arcenis Garcia near the Industrial Park in Escobedo. The victims were described as lookouts for the Gulf Cartel. Their bodies were found soon after along a dirt road.

February 7 – Authorities found a severed head with the skin peeled in the municipality of Apodaca.

February 5—Mutilated severed head left outside a church in Monterrey.

February 4 – Cartel gunmen tortured and dismembered former Los Zetas member Jose Hugo “El Huesos” Guevara Martinez. The gunmen dumped the body parts in various prisons and outside a police building.

January 22—Cartel gunmen dumped the dismembered body of former Mexican soldier Arturo Alberto Barron Hernandez in downtown Zuazua.

January 2 – Authorities find unidentified beheading victims along the Periferico in Apodaca.

December 15 – Authorities recover the dismembered body of Victor Manuel Estrada Trevino in Zuazua.

December 3—The mutilated bodies of Jesus Mario “La Estrella” Mendez Ramos and his son, Oscar Ivan “La Estrellita” Mendez Martinez, in Cadereyta.

November 28 – Cartel gunmen dump three ice chests with El Rex’s remains outside three prisons in the Monterrey area.

October 25 – Authorities find the dismembered body of Daniel “El Dany” Baez Vasquez by a sidewalk in Guadalupe.

October 19 – Cartel gunmen dumped a mutilated body wrapped in trash bags in the suburb of Pesqueria.

September 23 – Cartel gunmen dump a severed head in Guadalupe.

August 29 – Cartel gunmen dump a mutilated body in Santa Catarina.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon.  You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com. 

Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and Stephen K. Bannon. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.

Tony Aranda from the Cartel Chronicles project contributed to this report