‘Cowboy Cartel’: Mexican drug lord race disguised as deadly criminal gang

It’s not every day that you hear the words “horse cartel” and “deadly drug cartel” in the same sentence.

A new Apple TV+ docuseries, “Cowboy Cartel,” examines the Mexican drug cartel Los Zetas and its capture led by rookie FBI agent Scott Lawson.

The Zetas were once known as one of the deadliest drug cartels in Mexico, led by brothers Omar Treviño Morales and Miguel Angel Treviño Morales. But then the four-legged friends got involved.

In January 2010, the FBI office in Laredo, Texas, received a tip that the Zetas were involved in money laundering operations involving quarter horses on U.S. soil.

MAN CONVICTED IN TEXAS FOR LAUNCHING DRUG CARTEL MONEY THROUGH OCHRE RACE HORSE OPERATION

Omar Treviño Morales is escorted by soldiers during a press conference about his arrest in Mexico City on March 4, 2015. (Reuters/Henry Romero)

The duo’s other brother, José Treviño Morales, was involved in a fraudulent scheme in which he made millions of dollars through straws to conceal drug money through the sale of quarter horses and racing winnings, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas said after he was convicted in 2013.

Officials said the scheme involved structuring cash deposits in amounts under $10,000 to avoid mandatory bank reporting requirements.

CARTEL HORSE-RACING TRIAL MUST HAVE REVEALED THE ZETAS METHOD OF OPERATION

On June 12, 2012, the FBI raided the home and stables of José Treviño Morales in Lexington, Oklahoma. (AP)

The hardest part for Lawson and his team was proving that the crime was indeed illegal. And they had to do that before the brothers and the Zetas returned to Mexico.

Finally, on June 12, 2012, the FBI raided José’s home and stables, resulting in Miguel’s arrest in 2013, as well as José, who is currently serving a 20-year sentence in a federal prison.

FEDS: HORSE BUSINESS WAS A FRONT FOR CARTEL MONEY

José Treviño Morales greets the crowd at the All American Futurity horse race at Ruidoso Downs, NM, on September 6, 2010.

Most of the other Zetas were eventually captured and are currently in custody, although some have split from other cartel groups.

For the first time, the four-part series features interviews with Lawson and other local and national law enforcement officials who helped expose the brothers’ illegal activities.

Lawson, a detective from rural Tennessee, infiltrated the deadly cartel to expose its international money laundering activities.

“My boss said to me, ‘Here we are working against the Zetas,’” said Lawson, who was responsible for exposing the case.

OKLAHOMA, NEW MEXICO, HORSE TRACKS LINKED TO MEXICAN DRUG CARTEL, FEDS SAYS

Police officers take a horse from the stable at Ruidoso Downs Racetrack and Casino in Ruidoso, N.M., on June 12, 2012. (Ruidoso News/AP)

Lawson also provides insight into other key pieces of information about the arrest of the brothers and their accomplices, revealing that 1,200 law enforcement officers gathered on the same day for the arrest in the complex investigation that spanned more than three years.

Others involved in the arrest and contributing to the series included IRS agent Steve Pennington; Irving police officers Steve Junker, Brian Schutt and Kim Williams; Assistant District Attorney Doug Gardner; Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist Ginger Thompson; and Joe Tone, author of “Bones: Brothers, Horses, Cartels, and the Borderland Dream.”

“Anyone who opposes them will die,” said one of the interviewees.

“Anyone who opposed them would die.”

This photo, released during a Mexican government press conference on July 15, 2013, shows a series of photographs by Miguel Angel Treviño Morales. (Reuters/Secretaria de Gobernacion)

From a 911 call of a special agent shot and attacked on a Texas highway to cars going up in flames, experts on the case explain how the gang used violence to stake out their territory.

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“All cartels use violence to achieve their goals. The Zetas went one step further,” says a voice from law enforcement.

“All cartels use violence to achieve their goals. The Zetas went one step further.”

“When you think of drug cartels, you think of drugs, you think of violence, you think of money,” says another, as images of masked men with guns counting cash play. “But you don’t think of horses.”