Mexican Marines Arrest Elusive Los Zetas Cartel Boss First Outed by Breitbart

Mexican military forces arrested a top lieutenant with Los Zetas who is linked to numerous killings in northern Mexico. He is also connected to a 2008 terrorist attack on a U.S. consulate in Mexico. Breitbart Texas first reported on this cartel lieutenant in 2018 after his secretive release from prison under suspicious circumstances.

On Friday morning, authorities arrested Hector Raul “El Tory” Luna Luna in the central Mexican state of Puebla. According to information released by authorities, the arrest took place when El Tory was driving a GMC Yukon Denali and authorities surrounded him. During the arrest, authorities found a handgun and a grenade. Military forces moved the crime boss to Mexico City after the arrest. There, he is expected to go before a judge to face multiple federal charges.

The man known as El Tory is a long-time member of Los Zetas who was arrested in Mexico in 2010 in connection with various terror-style attacks in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. These included a shooting and grenade attack on the U.S. Consulate in 2008. After his arrest, El Tory received a 20-year prison sentence in 2011. But, in 2018 a Mexican judge released him under suspicious circumstances.

Since his release, Breitbart Texas began to report on his return to Monterrey and the wave of violence that followed. For a time, El Tory joined the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas and became one of their top regional bosses. During his reign of terror, authorities tied El Tory to numerous murders and dismemberments and tried to capture him several times. During one of those times in early 2020, authorities managed to wound El Tory and forced him to hide out in Nuevo Laredo, Breitbart Texas reported.

In 2021, Breitbart Texas published an exclusive photograph of El Tory that showed that the crime boss had lost a considerable amount of weight that changed his appearance.
Since then, El Tory had a falling out with the supreme leader of the CDN-Los Zetas, Miguel Angel “Z-40” Trevino, who still controls the criminal organization despite being in prison since 2013. Due to that falling out, El Tory had been forced to hide out in central Mexico.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. 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 Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.