he joined the mexican army in the summer of 1995, and served at the presidential guard assault battalion unit at some point in his military career until he resigned in 1999. after not finding a job, vargas garcía was recruited to work as a lieutenant for los zetas and the gulf cartel, a drug trafficking organization, in 2005. he eventually became one of the leading members in los zetas until he was arrested along with a kidnapping ring in 2007.