Nicolas Ortiz Javier Miranda, alias El Flaco or Javi, who is currently imprisoned at the central prison of Cancun, belonged to a cell of Los Zetas during one of their bloodiest periods of violence in 2010 and slowly his testimony is coming to light. He operated with a group of assassins in which over 23 executions, including the killings of two police officials, were carried out in less than a six months period.
Javi was born on November 20, 1986, in the city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas; finished his high school education and then went on to be a hitman for the group of Los Zetas. He earned $8,000 pesos monthly for his work with this drug cartel organization.
This is how Javi began his sworn testimonial before the Public Security Ministry of Mexico investigating homicides.
In his presentation to the Public Ministry, he states he supports three family members, and he is addicted to marijuana and cocaine. His distinguishing marks are a clown tattoo with a hat, another is a crown of thorns on his right arm and another one of the Santa Muerte brandishing a pistol. In his back he has another Santa Muerte tattoo with his name and that of Monica and Irma.
In his confession he accepts the charges against him for kidnapping and murder. He says that for the last five months he came back to settle in Cancun where he is originally from. He was invited by Commander Pelon whom he met in Reynosa, so that he could perform vigilante and security work for Los Zetas.
Unknowingly he accepted to come back to his home town where he was in danger of being killed by members of the Gulf Cartel because of the struggles between them and Los Zetas.
For this new assignment he was paid $4,000 additional pesos every two weeks. When he arrived in Cancun he was assigned to guard the entrance of the subdivision Pok Ta Pok, in the tourist hotel zone.
Amongst his work obligations were to inform his bosses, of all suspicious police activities in the area, so that his co-workers and bosses could safely leave their residence located at Pok Ta Pok.
In his interrogation Javi, stated that three months into his job he was singled out by his boss El Comandante Pelon to get a promotion and work as an operative and get even more money.
As an new operative he was incharge of watching over a safe house where all the hostages were kept. In those days between April – May, 2010, they were holding about five people hostage, among them was a 17 year old girl and her father who was selling drugs to another drug cartel.
The girl was held in the house for two days and “I was just in charge of feeding her, while I also observed El Jairo repeatedly rape her in the bathroom.”
“We also were holding El Gramero, a drug dealer who was picked up for refusing to work with us, the Zetas. And we were also holding the owner of a restaurant in Las Palapas, which we were asking a million pesos for. Much in the same way, there was another person who was called the “Architect”, we contacted one of his relatives to pay a ransom of one million pesos, but they did not so we had to kill him.”
Javi also tells of a man that was executed because he arrived from Ciudad Juarez with the intention of selling drugs to the taxis by the hotel zone without the consent of Los Zetas. There he was picked up and taken somewhere, there he was beheaded while still alive, hoping to get information from him as they slowly cut into his throat and peeled his skins off.
Nicolas Miranda Ortiz currently has several criminal prosecutions for the murders of 12 people who were found last June 18, 2010 in garbage dumps and is under investigation for six bodies found iburied in a drain along the highway. He was arrested on June 17, 2010.
To read more in Spanish click here.
