Jaime Jorge Zapata (May 7, 1978 – February 15, 2011) was an Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent who was ambushed and murdered by the Mexican criminal group Los Zetas in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. He was one of two agents who were ambushed in a part of the country that was increasingly under the influence of drug violence. Zapata's death was the second highest-profile killing of a U.S. agent in Mexico—the first one was Enrique Camarena, an undercover DEA agent who was tortured and murdered by the former Guadalajara Cartel. Early life and education Zapata was born in Brownsville, Texas, United States, a border city directly north of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. He was one of five brothers, all in the field of criminal justice. Zapata attended Homer Hanna High School, and later graduated from the University of Texas at Brownsville in 2005, where he attained a degree in Criminal Justice and an associate degree in Applied Science. Career Zapata entered on duty with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (Office of the United States Border Patrol) on February 6, 2006, as a Border Patrol Agent. Zapata was a member of the U.S. Border Patrol Academy's 611th Session. After his graduation Zapata was assigned to the Yuma, Arizona Border Patrol Station. Zapata then joined Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations in 2006, after being assigned to the Office of the Deputy special agent in Laredo, Texas, where he served on the Human Smuggling and Trafficking Unit and in the Border Enforcement Security Task Force. Death Two U.S. Homeland Security Investigations special agents, Jaime Zapata and Víctor Ávila, were traveling from Laredo, Texas to Mexico City on an assignment for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. As they drove through the northern state of San Luis Potosí, the agents noticed two SUVs following them down Highway 57, a four-lane, federal highway from Mexico City to Monterrey. The two vehicles that came up behind them were at a high speed, and were described as driving "aggressively," according to agent Ávila. One vehicle passed the agents’ Suburban, while other gunmen started to fire at their vehicle, and eventually rammed them off the road. As one of the agents rolled down the window to inform them that they were U.S. diplomats, the agent recalls how one of the gunmen got off his vehicle, with a rifle in his hand, forced the