Iván Velázquez Caballero

Iván Velázquez Caballero (born February 10, 1970), also known by his alias El Talibán, is a Mexican convicted drug lord of the criminal group known as Los Zetas.

Velázquez Caballero was born on 10 February 1970 in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas.

During his childhood, he befriended Miguel Treviño Morales, who would later become the leader of Los Zetas and his fierce rival.

When he was 14 years old, Velázquez Caballero initiated his criminal career by stealing cars in Nuevo Laredo; at the age of 22, he was imprisoned at La Loma penitentiary for car theft, and eventually began to work for Heriberto Lazcano.

Unlike the original members of Los Zetas who joined the organization in the 1990s, Velázquez Caballero was not a former member of the Mexican Armed Forces.

He is one of the few to rise to the leadership of the group that is not a military defector.

As Velázquez Caballero ascended in Los Zetas, he traded his code name L-50 for the fearsome nickname El Talibán, a likely reference to the decapitation techniques practiced by Los Zetas and to the Islamist militant group based in Afghanistan, the Taliban.

By 2007, Velázquez Caballero was relocated to the state of Zacatecas, where he commanded a group of over 400 men.

He later ascended to the top echelons of Los Zetas and became a major financial operator and money launderer for the criminal organization.

Upon his release from prison, he then became the regional boss of the cartel in Nuevo Laredo and was eventually sent to the state of Zacatecas in 2007, where he reportedly had around 400 men at his beck and call.

Velázquez Caballero was also a top financial operator and money launderer for Los Zetas.

The government of Mexico listed Velázquez Caballero in 2009 as one of its 37 most-wanted drug lords and was offering up to $30 million pesos, the equivalent of over $2.5 million USD, for information leading to his capture.

When he was a teenager, Velázquez Caballero began stealing cars in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, his hometown.

At the age of twenty-two, he was arrested for car theft and was imprisoned at a local jail.

Upon his release, Velázquez Caballero met Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano and was appointed as the regional boss of the cartel in Nuevo Laredo.

Along with other drug lords, Velázquez Caballero was placed on the list of Mexico's 37 most-wanted drug lords in 2009, with a $30 million pesos reward (US$2.3 million) for information that led to his capture.

He was wanted by the Mexican government for organized crime, drug trafficking, and money laundering.

In addition to these charges, Velázquez Caballero is responsible for ordering assassinations across the border in Laredo, Texas.

Velázquez Caballero has several aliases, including but not limited to: El Talibán, L-50, and Z-50.

Since late 2011, Velázquez Caballero had announced his discontent for Treviño Morales through a series of public banners left behind in several parts of northeastern Mexico and by uploading several videos on YouTube, where he accused him of setting up the arrests or deaths of his own men.

In 2012, he was served as a top commander in several states across Mexico.

Velázquez Caballero was arrested by the Mexican Navy on 26 September 2012 in the state of San Luis Potosí.

Prior to his arrest, Los Zetas had divided and Velázquez Caballero's faction had been fighting against Miguel Treviño Morales, the leader of the organization, causing a series of massacres and shootings in northern Mexico.

The infighting between two factions in the Los Zetas, one led by Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, alias El Lazca, and the other led by Miguel Treviño Morales, alias Z-40, reportedly began in mid 2012.

Security analysts, however, believe that Velázquez Caballero was working alongside Lazcano to kill Treviño Morales.

Amid the power struggle between the two Zeta leaders, Velázquez Caballero supposedly separated from Los Zetas and decided to join forces with the Knights Templar Cartel and Gulf Cartel, the Zeta's former allies, to put down Treviño Morales, whom they deemed as a traitor.

The Mexican police found 14 dead bodies stuffed inside a SUV on 9 August 2012 along a highway in the city of San Luis Potosí.

The massacre bore all signs of organized crime, but it was not immediately clear which drug group was responsible for the attack.

This massacre was the sixth time in recent months that the cartels had dumped fourteen bodies in Mexico, suggesting that the number 14 is a secret code among the cartels.

The number "14" may possibly be a reference to Z-14, a popular deceased commander of Los Zetas named Efraín Teodoro Torres, or to the fourteen original founders.

Initial reports attributed the attack to the Gulf Cartel and other drug gangs united against Los Zetas; nonetheless, the Mexican authorities concluded that the wave of violence San Luis Potosí in August 2012 was due to a feud between rival groups within Los Zetas.

Reportedly, the fourteen bodies dumped were members of the Coahuila-based faction led by Velázquez Caballero (Z-50 or El Talibán), one of the leaders of the organization.

They had been killed by a hit squad working for Miguel Treviño Morales (Z-40), another high-ranking leader in the cartel.

One of the victims managed to survive the attack by faking his death and letting the attackers pile him with the other bodies.

He then fled the scene when the assassins were distracted and notified that authorities of the mass killing; reportedly, the man told the authorities that the alliance between El Talibán and Z-40 was over.

It was later confirmed that the massacre was triggered after Velázquez Caballero's desire to leave Los Zetas and form an alliance with the Gulf Cartel to backlash Treviño Morales' faction.

Édgar Morales Pérez, the mayor-elect of a small town in San Luis Potosí, was killed during the raging infighting in Los Zetas.

Just after the arrest of the Gulf Cartel leader Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez, 9 bodies were found dead in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas on 15 September 2012, raising the number of homicides by violent acts to 63 in the city in only eight days.

A federal source speaking on the condition of anonymity said that a message was left at the scene of the massacre, but the authorities did not disclose its content.

Reportedly, Velázquez Caballero had tried to seize the operatives and drug distribution sites of Miguel Treviño Morales in the border city of Nuevo Laredo by attacking his assets.