Events: Topics: On August 25, 2011, members of the drug cartel Los Zetas set a casino on fire in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, killing 52 people.

On January 17, 2011, it was announced in the news media that the business had been the victim of organized crime, and that an armed squad had entered the premises to subdue those inside, although this was denied by their then legal representative, Enrique Hernández Navarro.

[18] Minutes before 2:00 PM on August 25, 2011 in Monterrey, Nuevo León, twelve members of the criminal group Los Zetas, along with one of its leaders, met at El Gran Pastor restaurant located on Gonzalitos Avenue, just a few blocks away from the casino.

[20] The perpetrators arrived there at approximately 3:50 PM in a convoy of four vehicles: a Mini Cooper, a Chevrolet Equinox, a blue GMC and a grey VW Beetle.

[23][24] The crowd of 150 croupiers and customers, mostly women, stampeded inside the casino from the game area to the bathrooms, stairways, and blocked emergency exits.

[22] When the emergency crews tore down the walls of the smoldering casino, they found corpses littered in huge piles inside the bathrooms, the stairwells, and under game tables.

[17] A contingent of 3,000 soldiers and federal police were sent to the city, and the rest of the state was patrolled by armored units and Black Hawk helicopters to maintain security.

[30] Furthermore, the ex-mayor of Monterrey, Adalberto Madero, was detained by the Attorney General and federal forces for a supposed link to the administrative council of the company believed to manage the Casino Royale.

The attack was attributed to organized crime, with the two initially suspected groups being the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas, who both claimed control of the area.

[36] On August 29, the governor of Nuevo León, Rodrigo Medina de la Cruz, reported that the first five individuals suspected of starting the casino fire had been arrested.

The five of them confessed to having participated in the crime which led to 52 deaths, but stated that they had not intended to kill anyone, but had rather wanted to scare the owners of the building[38] because they had refused to pay a weekly fee of 130,000 pesos (roughly US$10,000 to $11,000, Aug 2011)[39] to be allowed to operate.

[42] On September 14, the Sub-Prosecutor for Regional Control of the Attorney General of Mexico, José Cuitláhuac Salinas Martínez, published a list of 18 people involved in the attack, including the identity and photographs of four Los Zetas leaders.

On September 27, the minor Alan Enrique[51] was released from the Juvenile Centre as no evidence was found that he was responsible for any part of the attack, despite having been named as a participant by some of the other arrested individuals,[52] although he was later re-arrested.

The Attorney General of Nuevo León ordered their arrests for homicide and organised criminal activity, having them moved to Topo Chico prison accompanied by a strong security team.

[66] Forty-five of the dead were identified (35 women and ten men) and the rest had to be tested in order to determine their identity as they had suffered severe burns.