The Executioner's Men: Los Zetas, Rogue Soldiers, Criminal Entrepreneurs, and the Shadow State They Created [Hardcover]

George W. Grayson (Author), Samuel Logan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 24, 2012 | ISBN-10: 141284617X | ISBN-13: 978-1412846172

A new generation of ruthless pragmatists carves a parallel state across Mexico and Central America. Most powerful among them is Los Zetas, ruled over by Heriberto Lazcano, known as The Executioner. Lazcano and his men have forced a tectonic shift among drug trafficking organizations in the Americas, forever altering how criminal business is conducted in the Western Hemisphere. This narrative brings an unprecedented level of detail in describing how Los Zetas became Mexico’s most diabolical criminal organization.

Criminals control networks of police, politician, and businessmen spanning the American continent. The Mexican government is losing its “war on drugs,” despite the military, technical, and intelligence resources provided by its northern neighbor. Subcontracted street gangs operate in hundreds of US cities, purchasing weapons, delivering product, executing targeted foes, and bribing the US Border Patrol.

Despite suffering severe losses that would cripple any major corporation, Los Zetas continues to operate internationally in criminal markets. Many of the poor and destitute across the region cooperate with Los Zetas, sometimes for money, often because of coercion.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Embroiled in multiple turf wars around the country as well as a battle with the nation’s armed forces, Mexico’s dozen-odd drug cartels all seek to strike fear into the hearts of their enemies, but none have cultivated a name for being cruel, ruthless and cold-blooded warriors quite so assiduously as the Zetas…. [This book] provide[s] us with the first hardnosed dissection of one of the most spine-chilling criminal organizations that has ever existed…. [E]ssential reading.”

—Jo Tuckman, International Affairs

“[T]his is the first authoritative book ever written solely about Los Zetas… The authors cover how Los Zetas are organized, financed, armed, and trained, and these sections contain information that is a researcher’s dream… Bottom line, if you do any work or research related to Mexico’s drug war, this needs to be in your book collection.”

—Sylvia Longmire, http://borderviolenceanalysis.typepad.com

“George Grayson and Samuel Logan provide the most detailed analysis to date of the Zetas, Mexico’s most brutal criminal group. The Executioner’s Men captures the sophisticated nature of the Zetas’ organizational structures and operations as well as the depraved flavor of the Zetas’ lives.”

—Vanda Felbab-Brown, fellow at the Brookings Institution; author, Shooting Up: Counterinsurgency and the War on Drugs

“[A]n astonishing tale with detail that Mickey Spillane would have envied. Vividly written, meticulously documented with footnotes that can serve as tools for other academics and journalists, this is a crime story that must be read and understood on both sides of the bloody border.”

—Jerry Kammer, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist

“Carefully researched and vividly written, The Executioner’s Men provides the most detailed analysis currently available of the ‘Zetas,’ Mexico’s most violent and aggressive criminal organization. The book will be essential to scholars, policy-makers, and the public in their efforts to grasp the dimensions of the challenges posed by a new breed of organized crime to Mexico and the United States.”

—John Bailey, professor of government and foreign service, Georgetown University

About the Author

George W. Grayson is the Class of 1938 Professor of Government at the College of William & Mary, an associate scholar at Foreign Policy Research Institute, and a senior associate at the Center for Strategic & International Studies. He is the author of Mexico’s Struggle with Drugs and Thugs and Mexico: Narco-Violence and a Failed State?

Samuel Logan is the founder of Southern Pulse, a human intelligence-based private investigations organization, a senior writer for the International Relations and Security Network, a member of the HarperCollins Speakers Bureau, and a story consultant for National Geographic Television. His works include This Is for the Mara Salvatrucha, America’s Most Violent Gang, The Reality of a Mexican Mega Cartel, and Mexico’s Criminal Organizations.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 294 pages
• Publisher: Transaction Publishers (April 24, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 141284617X
• ISBN-13: 978-1412846172
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 0.8 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #371,667 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Samuel Logan is an investigative journalist with over 11 years of experience in Latin America. His work focuses on black markets, organized crime, street gangs and other matters of national and human security. He is also the founder and editor of Southern Pulse | Networked Intelligence, a not-for-profit human intelligence organization focused on security, politics, and energy in Latin America.

He is a senior writer for the International Relations and Security Network, and he maintains a personal website - used by researchers and journalists from around the world who write about security in Latin America.

Samuel is regularly invited to provide briefings to US Intelligence Agencies, NGOS, and Universities around the United States.

His work has attracted members of the Inter-American Dialogue, the Eurasia Group, the RAND corporation, Control Risks Group, The Olive Group, StratFor, the European Security Institute, the International Crisis Group, agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration, Customs and Border Patrol, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, analysts with US Southern Command, the Cambridge Energy Research Associates, the Federation of American Scientists, Blackwater USA, and other organizations that maintain open channels of dialogue with him about the drug trade in Latin America and other matters pertaining to security in the Western Hemisphere.

The Council on Foreign Affairs, the Washington Post, the Gerson Lehrman Group, The Nation magazine, France 24 Television, Swiss World Radio, National Public Radio affiliates and others have interviewed him about topics pertaining to the organized crime and the drug trade, and he maintains regular contact with correspondents who work for the British Broadcast Corporation, the Financial Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Los Angeles Times, the Dallas Morning News, the New York Times, the Houston Chronicle, the Economist magazine, and the Washington Post.

Samuel has lived and worked in Latin America for nearly twelve years. He has lived in Mexico and Central America and a number of South American countries. Samuel has a MA in International Policy and has studied the economics of black markets, organized crime, and Latin America's criminal groups for nearly a decade. He has written extensively on organized crime in Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Central America, and Mexico. And with Jonathan Franklin, Samuel has published City of Death for Maxim, Addict Village for Penthouse, and Birds of Prey for Men's Vogue.

Samuel currently lives in Brazil.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Timely and a must for your professional library May 24, 2012

By J Jimenez

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

The Executioner's Men . . . is current and provides a solid background surrounding Los Zetas, a diabolical Mexican Transnational Criminal Organization (TCO) that is arguably one of two most powerful Mexican drug trafficking organizations. "The Executioner's Men" provides information on "spillover" that may not be politically correct but is the truth.
If your work as a scholar, intelligence analyst, law enforcement, or other entails the current Mexican phenomenon, this book is a must. You need this book because of the lack of information on the subject due to censorship of Mexican media (see chapter twelve, "Mexican Journalists Murdered from 2008 through 2011") and the uneasy intelligence sharing between Mexico and the United States.
The authors, Grayson and Logan, address important and key topics. For example the information found in the chapter "Psychological Operations", specifically of Los Zetas. More scholarship in the field must be developed to fully understand the threat from Mexican TCOs, and this book adds to that body of knowledge. The information found in the chapter "A Sampling of Zeta Financial Operators" is a critical element to dismantling any criminal organization.
One important discussion is found in the chapter "A Shadow Government: Elements of Dual Sovereignty" is critical due to the entwined relationship between Mexican institutions and TCOs that is a national security threat not only for Mexico but also the United States.
This book offers insight into topics not often or not researched as yet and certainly not openly discussed. The authors make a comparison of Los Zetas to "sturdy corporations". This validates to the sophistication of Los Zetas other TCOs. I especially appreciate that Dr. Grayson, a well-respected scholar, teamed up with a colleague with an intelligence/investigations portfolio providing a broader perspective. The Executioner's Men is a must for your professional, academic, or personal library.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for any drug war researcher! June 12, 2012

By Sylvia Longmire

Format:Hardcover

I was very excited to get started on this book for several different reasons. First, it was written by two colleagues of mine, professor and TCO expert Dr. George Grayson from the College of William & Mary, and journalist and author of This Is For The Mara Salvatrucha, Sam Logan. I've read most of the material written by both authors, so I knew it would contain a lot of good information.

Second, this is the first authoritative book ever written solely about Los Zetas, the most vicious, bloodthirsty, and ambitious TCO in Mexico. Of course, much has been written about Los Zetas over the years, but never this much, and never in this much detail.

It's obvious from the start that Grayson and Logan have done their homework. There's plenty of history about how Los Zetas were first recruited in the late 1990s, and joined the Gulf cartel as Osiel Cárdenas Guillen's private army. The authors cover how Los Zetas are organized, financed, armed, and trained, and these sections contain information that is a researcher's dream. The Executioner's Men also discusses the expansion of Los Zetas into Central America, as well as their operations in the United States - of particular interest and importance to my work.

One of my favorite parts is the chapter on Dual Sovereignty - how Los Zetas (and other TCOs in general) are operating as a state parallel to the Mexican state. The chart (one of many helpful charts and tables) in that chapter that outlines side by side all the state functions that both execute is quite eye-opening.

The book does have some down sides. First, it's not a page-turner; but then again, I don't think it's designed to be. I really hated it when my own book was criticized for things I never intended to do with it, because I believe a book should be reviewed with its purpose in mind. That being said, it's a great source of information for anyone who needs a solid source to cite for research. Unfortunately, that's the result of the book containing an overload of facts, figures, and names - my second dislike.

For anyone who has read Grayson's Mexico: Narco-Violence and a Failed State?, this should come as no surprise. I'm familiar enough with both authors' work to know who wrote what sections. Logan's narrative is awesome, and I highly recommend you check out his first work on MS-13; it's really good, and a great inside look at how the world's most dangerous gang operates. I just wish Logan's narrative sections had been interspersed throughout this book more frequently to break up the deluge of narco names and stories of arrests and killings (the biggest reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5).

Bottom line, if you do any work or research related to Mexico's drug war, this needs to be in your book collection. I read it with my page marker Post-Its because I knew I'd come across information I could use in my writing post haste. It's not light summer reading to take to the beach, but again, remember - it's not designed to be. The Executioner's Men is an immensely valuable source of solid information on Los Zetas, and anyone who seeks to know more about this brutal organization should crack this book open sooner rather than later.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Mexico... the biggest homeland security threat July 21, 2012

By CAPWA

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is unlike anything I have read before. I agree with others when they say that this book is a 'must' for any drug war researcher. The atrocities occurring in Mexico are horrific and are migrating North. The war occurring at the US/Mexico border should not be ignored. I believe this book represented the biggest threat to homeland security in our modern times. Forget Afganistan, Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan... look South!

This book illustrates what I have suspected for a long time regarding our nations borders and cartels. It is expertly written and full of well documented research. Be prepared for the horrific details you will read about the level of violence that takes place. I imagine this book will be cited in years to come.