According to Mexican police, Rejon was instrumental in expanding the Zetas’ influence into southern Mexico, including the Caribbean resorts around Cancun.
U.S. officials, who offered $5 million for Rejon’s capture, praised the arrest of the man they allege is responsible for assassinating American immigration agent Jaime Zapata, on the highway to Mexico City from San Luis Potosi. That area was under Rejon’s control.
Another agent, Victor Avila, was wounded in the leg.
Rejon trained as a sniper and demolitions expert during service in the Mexican army, He and several others defected from the Special Forces to form the Zetas in the late 1990s at the behest of former Gulf Cartel leader Osiel Cardenas.
The Zetas served as an elite band of bodyguards for the Gulf Cartel, but began to branch off after Cardenas was arrested in 2003. They severed ties with the organized crime syndicate early last year.
The Zetas have been fighting for turf with rival narcotics traffickers and security forces in western and southern Mexico and in Guatemala. According to the Houston Chronicle, 15 suspected Zeta gunmen were killed in a pitched battle with Mexican marines on Friday in Zacatecas state.
Police are still searching for Miguel Trevino, a Zeta leader to whom Rejon reported based in Nuevo Laredo, across the Rio Grande from the Laredo, TX.
Rejon was also subordinate to Heriberto Lazcano, the last founding member of the Zetas who remains at large.
