by BELO Border Bureau Chief Angela Kocherga

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico -- While drug cartels battle for control of smuggling routes in Juarez, the turf war in cities bordering South Texas is over. That region is Zetas territory. And the ruthless traffickers' reach extends beyond the border deep into Mexico and the United States.

You wouldn't know it these days, but a few years ago Nuevo Laredo was a battlefield for warring drug cartels.

"We'd wake up in the morning and there would be a body here. Next week there'd be a body down the street," said Nuevo Laredo native Jack Suneson. Suneson owns Marty's, a store that is a favorite with tourists. He remembers those dark days well.

However, on a recent visit, we were greeted by calm.

"Alguien esta poniendo paz (Somebody restored peace)," said one shop owner. But like most in this city, he won't say that the fighting stopped because the Zetas won.

But you can hear about the rise of the drug traffickers chronicled in corridos, or folk songs. Or you can see the group's deadly exploits displayed on YouTube.

In the video and on the streets the Zetas are commonly referred to as La Compania, or the company. And Nuevo Laredo is clearly a company town.

"From vendors, to extortion, kidnappings, murders - everything. Anything they can get some money on they're going to be involved in," said Robert Garcia, a detective with the Laredo Police Department.

Now that criminal enterprise reaches into the United States. Garcia has investigated several cases in his own city involving Zetas. For his safety, the Laredo Police Department did not want us to show his face.

In one police video, a detective interrogates a Texas teen, now a convicted murderer, who admitted he worked as a Zeta hitman in the U.S.

The Zetas deserted their elite military unit to work as enforcers for the Gulf cartel a decade ago. Mexican authorities said many of the of the original leaders have been captured or killed.

But the well-armed paramilitary group has only grown stronger, evolving into a cartel that smuggles not just drugs but weapons and oil stolen from Mexican pipelines.

They rule by brute force and fear, extorting protection money from nearly everyone from street vendors to big businesses.

Authorities say the city government survives only by quietly coexisting with a criminal regime, and local news media survive only by censoring themselves.

It's peace at a price in Nuevo Laredo. By most accounts the Zetas are more entrenched than ever in this border city, a city that is now their stronghold.

Suneson said he hasn't given up on his hometown. His Nuevo Laredo store is still open but it's often empty.

Now he has a brand new place in San Antonio, catering to customers who are too afraid to cross the border.

"Just to be on the safe side we have not gone. I miss it because it's a great place to go," said San Antonio resident Andi Rodriguez.

The peace we found is fragile. A recent shootout between the military and suspected traffickers left Laredo police standing guard on the Texas side near international bridges while in Mexico soldiers searched for suspects. People here won't say it, but everybody believes the gunmen are Zetas.

And fear of the Zetas may also extend to both sides of the border. This summer the DEA set up a toll-free tip line in Houston for information about the Zetas. According to the agency, there have been very few calls.

Written for KVIA.com by Web Producer Annette Arrigucci