Miguel Angel Trevino Morales is accused by the United States government of leading Los Zetas, the Mexican criminal organization later renamed Cartel del Noreste, from October 2012 until his arrest in Mexico in 2013. He has not been tried or convicted anywhere. In February 2025 Mexico transferred him and 28 other detainees to the United States, and on March 14, 2025 he pleaded not guilty in federal court in Washington, D.C. to charges of continuing a criminal enterprise, a drug trafficking conspiracy, firearms offenses and an international money laundering conspiracy. The government alleges that the enterprise involved conspiracies to kill and that he is personally responsible for dozens of murders. As of November 2026, his jury trial is set to begin on September 5, 2028.
His name appeared in American charging documents years before his arrest. In June 2009 a superseding indictment in the District of Columbia charged him and 15 others with conspiracy to possess cocaine and marijuana with intent to import them into the United States, and with two counts of possessing cocaine with intent to import it. The Justice Department named him as one of four leaders directing the organization, which it described as having begun as a security force for the Gulf Cartel before becoming a drug trafficking organization in its own right.
On July 20, 2009 the Justice Department announced a further indictment, unsealed in the Eastern District of New York, charging him with operating a continuing criminal enterprise, international cocaine distribution and firearms violations, with a forfeiture allegation of $1 billion. The department stated that conviction on all counts carried a possible sentence of life imprisonment. The State Department offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest, the Treasury Department designated him a Specially Designated Narcotics Trafficker under the Kingpin Act, and he was placed on the DEA Most Wanted list. These were allegations, and the department noted that all persons charged are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Mexican authorities arrested him on July 15, 2013, close to Nuevo Laredo on the border with Texas. He was apprehended with two other men. A spokesman for the Mexican government said at the time that he was accused of organized crime, torture, homicide and money laundering. He was also investigated in Mexico over the killing of migrants in the state of Tamaulipas in 2010.
He was held in Mexico without a sentence for more than eleven years. In February 2022 a federal appeals court in Mexico denied him an amparo, a constitutional protection proceeding, against the refusal of a transfer request. In July 2022 a federal collegiate tribunal granted him an amparo on the ground that prosecuting him again for organized crime in the periods and zones already adjudicated would violate the principle of non bis in idem, which bars a second trial for the same conduct. He was accused by the Mexican federal prosecutor of organized crime and related offenses in several regions of the country. The United States had opened extradition proceedings through the Eastern District of New York in 2014, but he remained in Mexican custody until 2025.
On October 16, 2024 the Justice Department announced that an indictment in the District of Columbia, a fifth superseding indictment, charged the leaders of Los Zetas and Cartel del Noreste with engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, a drug trafficking conspiracy, firearms offenses and an international money laundering conspiracy. The department alleged that he took control of Los Zetas after more than a decade as a member and led it from 2012, that his brother, a co-defendant, took control with him, and that both kept directing Cartel del Noreste from detention in Mexico by placing family members in charge of operations.
The announcement alleged that the two brothers were "personally responsible for committing dozens of murders" and had directed assassinations, kidnappings and acts of torture to protect the organization's drug trafficking and enrich its members. It stated that, if convicted, they faced a maximum penalty of life in prison. As with every Justice Department statement on the case, these are allegations; the indictment is not evidence and the defendants are presumed innocent.
On February 27, 2025 Mexico handed 29 detainees to United States custody, an operation Mexican officials described as a transfer rather than an extradition. The Attorney General confirmed that the United States had taken the 29 into custody. The Justice Department stated that the Mexican government elected to transfer them in response to American extradition requests. The two brothers were among the group.
On March 14, 2025 Miguel Angel Trevino Morales and his brother were arraigned in Washington, D.C. The Justice Department release listed one count each of continuing a criminal enterprise, conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine and 1,000 kilograms or more of marijuana for importation into the United States, a firearms count tied to drug trafficking crimes, and international money laundering conspiracy. The continuing criminal enterprise count carries "a maximum penalty of death or life imprisonment." As part of that count the government alleges conspiracies to kill members of the Mexican government, Mexican citizens and members of rival cartels, and members of the Guatemalan government and Guatemalan drug traffickers.
Both defendants pleaded not guilty. The department's account of the leadership period alleges that he took over Los Zetas in October 2012 and led it until his 2013 arrest, after which his brother led it until his own arrest in 2015, and that the defendants renamed the organization Cartel del Noreste and kept control while held in Mexico. The prosecution team came from the Criminal Division, the Eastern District of New York and the Western District of Texas.
In September 2025 the Justice Department informed the trial judge by letter that it would not seek the death penalty against either brother; the maximum sentence they face is life imprisonment. The case before the District Court for the District of Columbia also involves a third defendant. In October 2025 the court set a further hearing for May 1, 2026, citing the complexity of the case and the volume of evidence, and a hearing on possible conflicts affecting the defense was set for November 2025. His defense counsel withdrew over a conflict of interest.
At a hearing on July 10, 2026 the prosecution proposed starting trial in January 2028, while the defense said it would not be ready before 2029. A tentative date of May 19, 2028 had been set earlier and was moved because of the volume of evidence and pending motions. In a schedule reported on November 6, 2026, trial before a jury is set for September 5, 2028. Government experts are due January 31, 2028, defense experts March 6, 2028, and final evidence lists in July 2028. The defense may ask the court to exclude intercepted communications gathered in the federal investigation, and access to witness statements is disputed.
The central count is a United States federal offense that targets the leaders of large drug organizations. Under the Justice Department's description of the case, the charge carries a maximum of life imprisonment or, in a case where the government seeks it, death; in his case the government has declined to seek death. The indictment also alleges that murder conspiracies formed part of the enterprise, which is how killings enter a case brought chiefly as a drug prosecution. The murders alleged against him are therefore allegations within a charge of running a criminal enterprise, and the jury would decide the charged counts, not separate counts of homicide.
The case also sits within a wider change in relations between the two countries. In February 2025 the State Department designated Cartel del Noreste a foreign terrorist organization, and the Mexican president stated that Mexico would not tolerate a violation of its sovereignty and that the relationship should be one of collaboration and coordination.
Every killing attributed to him remains unproven. The Justice Department figure of "dozens of murders" is an allegation in an indictment and has not been tested at trial. The 2010 migrant killings in Tamaulipas were investigated in Mexico without a finding against him. The legal basis of his move from Mexico, described by Mexico as a transfer, has been questioned.
June 9, 2009: superseding indictment returned in the District of Columbia.
July 20, 2009: indictment unsealed in the Eastern District of New York.
October 2012: date from which the government alleges he led Los Zetas.
July 15, 2013: arrested by Mexican authorities near Nuevo Laredo.
2014: United States opens extradition proceedings through the Eastern District of New York.
July 2022: Mexican federal tribunal grants an amparo on the ground of non bis in idem.
October 16, 2024: fifth superseding indictment announced.
February 27, 2025: transferred to the United States with 28 others.
March 14, 2025: arraigned in Washington, D.C.; pleads not guilty.
September 2025: government states it will not seek the death penalty.
July 10, 2026: hearing on trial timing.
September 5, 2028: jury trial date.