[11] On 16 March 2012, the Attorney General's Office of Nuevo León confirmed that 37 prisoners had actually escaped on the day of the massacre.

[12] One of the fugitives, Óscar Manuel Bernal alias La Araña (The Spider), is considered by the Mexican authorities to be "extremely dangerous," and is believed to be the leader of Los Zetas in the municipality of Monterrey.

[19] According to The Wall Street Journal and El Universal, the mass murder in Apodaca is the deadliest prison massacre in Mexico's history.

[20][21] Milenio news, in addition, mentioned that the prisons in the state of Nuevo León are plagued with violence, and that they are "under the control of the criminal groups" that operate in the area.

[16] After the split of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas in early 2010, both groups have been battling for Monterrey and other areas in northeastern Mexico.

[23] And although no firearms were used in the fight between the two groups, the fact that their turf war goes as far as to Mexico's prison system only "emphasizes the bitterness of their rivalry.

"[34] And Jorge Domene, the security spokesman for the state of Nuevo León, does not discard the possibility that Óscar Manuel Bernal Soriano alias La Araña may have been the major leader in the riot and escape in the prison.

[38] By 16 March 2012, it was confirmed that Óscar Manuel Bernal, alias La Araña, was allowed to hold "parties with musical groups and women.

[52] Rodrigo Medina is offering more than 10 million Mexican pesos (almost $800,000 U.S. dollars) for information leading to the arrest of the fugitives that escaped in the mass jailbreak.

[57] The mayor of García, Nuevo León, Jaime Rodríguez, worries that the escape of Oscar Manuel Bernal Soriano alias La Araña (The Spider), a high-ranking Los Zetas leader, might bring reprisals from him and the cartel.

[58] On 21 February 2012 the United Nations asked for the Mexican authorities to work "exhaustively and independently" to find those responsible for the massacre.

[59] In addition, they condemned the massacre and asked for the National Human Rights Commission to "monitor conditions of detention throughout Mexico.

[61] As a result of the "crisis" in the prison systems of Tamaulipas and Nuevo León, the president of Mexico, Felipe Calderón, promised to begin a project to create 8 to 10 prisons by the end of his term, and reiterated that this project forms part of his "security strategy" to prevent Mexico from falling in the hands of the organized crime groups.

[65] On 24 February 2012 Jaime Castañeda Bravo, the Secretary of Public Security in Nuevo León was removed from office by the state government.

[67] In addition, the police forces of the city of Apodaca recruited former Mexican military officers to form part of their body.

[69] Although the events are not related, in the prison of Topo Chico, just north of Monterrey, 3 inmates were killed two days after the massacre in Apodaca.

[73] During the disturbances outside the prison, the hacker group Anonymous blocked the official page of the municipality of Apodaca as a "protest for the massacre.

[76] One of the prisoners that was transferred, known as El Comandante Chabelo, was reportedly the leader of Los Zetas in certain parts of Nuevo León and Coahuila, and is believed to be responsible for drug trafficking, aggression to military officers and federal agents, as well as conducting other organized crime activities.

[80] The capital city of Monterrey was not immune to the effects of the prison break and massacre, and on 24 February 2012 it experienced a series of the narco-blockades, a military technique used by the drug cartels to cut off the roads and slow down authorities who were pursuing them.

"[82] According to reports by CNNMéxico, alleged members of a drug cartel used buses and stripped people from their cars to block important avenues in Monterrey.

[83] Then, they began to put up several narco-banners against the state government of Nuevo León and the current governor, Rodrigo Medina.

[84] The Blog del Narco published an article on 25 February 2012 reporting that the criminal group Los Zetas had put up several narco-banners, messages hung from bridges or in other public places,[85] around the city of Monterrey at around 8:00 pm[86] According to a state police investigator who spoke on condition of anonymity, gunmen carjacked several cars and buses and blocked busy avenues in Monterrey to put up the messages allegedly signed by Heriberto Lazcano alias Z-3 and Miguel Treviño Morales alias Z-40, the two supreme leaders of the entire Los Zetas.

[89] The governor, however, reacted by saying that the messages posted by the cartel should be "discredited by the entire population," since they only "damage the public institutions" of the country.

[96] In Apatzingán, Michoacán on 5 January 2004, dozens of gunmen stormed a prison and released 25 inmates in only fifteen minutes before fleeing the scene.

[102] On 5 April 2010, in the same prison, a convoy of 10 trucks filled with gunmen broke into the cells and liberated 13 inmates, and the authorities later mentioned that 11 of them were "extremely dangerous.

[106] The federal government "strongly condemned" the prison breaks and said that the work by the state and municipal authorities of Tamaulipas "lack effective control measures" and urged them to strengthen their institutions.

[107] A confrontation inside a maximum security prison in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas on 15 July 2011 left 7 inmates dead and 59 escaped.

[108] The 5 guards that were supposed to supervise have not been found, and the Federal government of Mexico urged the state and municipal authorities to strengthen the security of their prisons.

[128] Moreover, in 1991, the time when Juan García Ábrego was the supreme leader of the Gulf Cartel, the federal prison in Matamoros experienced the massacre of 18 people.

[142] In Tijuana, Baja California on 18 September 2008, a total of 19 inmates were killed in a brawl between rival drug cartel members.