He was the most sadistic cartel leader in the Americas.

 

Trevino, leader of the notorious Zetas drug cartel, is now in the custody of Mexican authorities, arrested Monday just across the border from the US. 

 

William & Mary professor George Grayson, an expert on the Zetas, says with the capture of Trevino, an absolute demon has been removed. One of his alleged favorite tactics, "el guiso", or "the stew". 

 

He delighted in putting his victims in barrels, pouring gasoline over them, and then setting them on fire, until there were nothing more than a crisp, a set of ashes. 

 

Trevino's other signatures, beheadings, and leaving the bodies of rivals or those who otherwise crossed the cartel, hanging from bridges. Analysts say he and the Zetas in different incidents of few years ago, killed dozens of migrants trying to get to the US, including these victims left in a warehouse just south of the border. 

 

He tried to recruit them as perhaps carriers or lookouts for Los Zetas, and when that didn't work, he bashed their heads with sledge hammers.

 

Grayson cites another recruiting tactic of Trevino's detailed in a 2011 Houston Chronical interview with a member of the Zetas. He told the Chronicle that on at least one occasion, the Zetas hijacked a bus, forced the young men out and gave them weapons. 

 

And he would have them fight each other until the last man was standing. And then he would say, "Well, you are now worthy to become a Zeta." 

 

Analysts say Trevino relished in this kind of Zetaism, but also did it to instill fear in rivals and the police. It was effective. The Zetas are now Mexico's second largest cartel controlling much of the drug flow into America. And Trevino's reach of violence also extends into the US. 

 

There had been reports that he was responsible for some executions or killings in the United States. And certainly the Zetas have, if not their own sales, but they do work with gangs and organize crime munas (slums) in various American cities. 

 

With Miguel Angel Trevino Morales' capture who will now take control over the Zetas? Analysts say his younger brother Omar is a potential candidate but they also say that Omar is a far weaker person - meaning the struggle for control of this cartel will likely be messy and violent.