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Gulf Cartel

January 11, 2023

The Gulf Cartel (Spanish: Cártel del Golfo, Golfos, or CDG)[7][8] is a criminal syndicate and drug trafficking organization in Mexico,[9] and perhaps one of the oldest organized crime groups in the country.[10] It is currently based in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, directly across the U.S. border from Brownsville, Texas.

Gulf Cartel
Cártel del Golfo
Logo of the Gulf Cartel
Founded1930s
Founded byJuan Nepomuceno Guerra, Juan García Ábrego
Founding locationMatamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico
Years active1930s−present
TerritoryMexico: Tamaulipas , Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí , Veracruz, Jalisco, the U.S. states of Texas , Louisiana and Georgia
EthnicityMajority Mexican Mexican-American, minority Guatemalan
Criminal activitiesDrug trafficking, money laundering, extortion, kidnapping, human trafficking, robbery, murder, arms trafficking, bribery, fencing, counterfeiting
AlliesJalisco New Generation Cartel
Aryan Brotherhood of Texas[1]
Medellín Cartel (defunct)
Cali Cartel (defunct)
Los Mexicles (current status unknown)
Narcosatanists[2][3] (defunct)
Camorra[4]
'Ndrangheta
Serbian mafia[5][4]
RivalsLos Zetas
Juárez Cartel
Guadalajara Cartel (defunct)
Sinaloa Cartel[6] (starting in 2021)
La Familia Michoacana
Beltrán-Leyva Cartel
Tijuana Cartel
Los Negros (disbanded)
Cártel del Noreste
Milenio Cartel (defunct)

Their network is international, and is believed to have dealings with crime groups in Europe, West Africa, Asia, Central America, South America, and the United States.[11][12] Besides drug trafficking, the Gulf Cartel operates through protection rackets, assassinations, extortions, kidnappings, and other criminal activities.[13] The members of the Gulf Cartel are known for intimidating the population and for being particularly violent.[14]

Although its founder Juan Nepomuceno Guerra smuggled alcohol in large quantities to the United States during the Prohibition era, and heroin for over 40 years,[15] it was not until the 1980s that the cartel was shifted to trafficking cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana under the command of Juan Nepomuceno Guerra and Juan García Ábrego.

History

Foundation: 1930s–1980s

The Gulf Cartel, a drug cartel based in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, was founded in the 1930s by Juan Nepomuceno Guerra.[16][17] Originally known as the Matamoros Cartel (Spanish: Cártel de Matamoros),[18] the Gulf Cartel initially smuggled alcohol and other illegal goods into the U.S.[17] Once the Prohibition era ended, the criminal group controlled gambling houses, prostitution rings, a car theft network, and other illegal smuggling.[19] It grew significantly in the 1970s under the leadership of kingpin Juan García Ábrego.[17]

García Ábrego era (1980s–1990s)

By the 1980s, García Ábrego began incorporating cocaine into the drug trafficking operations and started to have the upper hand on what was now considered the Gulf Cartel, the greatest criminal dynasty in the US-Mexico border. By negotiating with the Cali Cartel,[20] García Ábrego was able to secure 50% of the shipment out of Colombia as payment for delivery, instead of the US$1,500 per kilogram they were previously receiving. This renegotiation, however, forced Garcia Ábrego to guarantee the product's arrival from Colombia to its destination. Instead, he created warehouses along the Mexican's northern border to preserve hundreds of tons of cocaine; this allowed him to create a new distribution network and increase his political influence. In addition to trafficking drugs, García Ábrego would ship cash to be laundered, in the millions.[21] Around 1994, it was estimated that the Gulf Cartel handled as much as "one-third of all cocaine shipments" into the United States from the Cali Cartel suppliers.[22] During the 1990s, the PGR(Procuraduría General de la República), the Mexican attorney general's office, estimated that the Gulf Cartel was "worth over US$10 billion."[23]

Corruption in the United States

García Ábrego's ties extended beyond the Mexican government corruption and into the United States. With the arrest of one of García Ábrego's traffickers, Juan Antonio Ortiz, it became known the cartel would ship tons of cocaine in the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) buses between the years of 1986 to 1990. The buses made great transportation, as Antonio Ortiz noted since they were never stopped at the border.[24]

It also became known that, in addition to the INS bus scam, García Ábrego had a "special deal" with members of the Texas National Guard who would truck tons of cocaine and marijuana from South Texas to Houston for the cartel.[24]

Garcia Abrego's reach became known when a United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent named Claude de la O, in 1986, stated in testimony against García Ábrego that he received over US$100,000 in bribes and had leaked information that could have endangered an FBI informant as well as Mexican journalists. In 1989 Claude was removed from the case for unknown reasons, retiring a year later. García Ábrego bribed the agent in an attempt to gather more information on U.S. law enforcement operations.[25][26]

Arrest of Ábrego

 
Juan García Ábrego, founder of the organization.

García Ábrego's business had grown to such length that the FBI placed him on the Top Ten Most Wanted in 1995. He was the first drug trafficker to be on that list.[27] On 14 January 1996, García Ábrego was arrested outside a ranch in Monterrey, Nuevo León.[28] He was quickly extradited to the United States where he stood trial eight months after his arrest. García Ábrego was convicted for 22 counts of money laundering, drug possession and drug trafficking.[29] Jurors also ordered the seizure of $350 million of García Ábrego's assets — $75 million more than what was previously planned.[30] Juan García Ábrego is currently serving 11 life terms in a maximum security prison in Colorado, U.S.[31] In 1996, it was disclosed that García Ábrego's organization paid millions of dollars in bribes to politicians and law enforcement officers for his protection. It was later proven after his arrest that the deputy attorney general in charge of Mexico's federal Judicial Police had accumulated more than US$9 million for protecting García Ábrego.[32]

García Ábrego's arrest was even subject to allegations of corruption. It is believed the Mexican government knew all García Ábrego's whereabouts all along and had refused to arrest him due to information he possessed about the extent of corruption within the government. The arresting officer, a FJP commander, is believed to have received a bullet-proof Mercury Grand Marquis and US$500,000 from a rival cartel for enacting the arrest of García Ábrego.[33]

Further theories put forward to allege the arrest of García Ábrego was to satisfy U.S. demands and meet certification, from the Department of Justice (DOJ), as a trade partner, the vote set to take place on 1 March. García Ábrego was apprehended on 14 January 1996, and Mexico shortly after received certification on 1 March.[34]

United States v. García Ábrego

Upon his capture outside the city of Monterrey, Nuevo León, the drug lord was flown to Mexico City where U.S. federal agent took him on a private plane to Houston, Texas.[35] Wearing slacks and a striped shirt, García Ábrego was immediately extradited to the United States where he was interviewed by an FBI agent, and confessed to have "ordered people murdered and tortured," bribed top Mexican officials, and smuggled tons of narcotics into the United States.[36] His prosecutors, however, tried García Ábrego as a U.S. citizen because he also had an American birth certificate, although Mexican authorities claimed the certificate was "fraudulent."[37] He also had an official birth certificate that claimed García Ábrego was indeed born in Mexico.[38] According to The Brownsville Herald, García Ábrego went into the courtroom grinning and talking animatedly with his lawyers who helped him translate his words from Spanish into the English language.[39] Hours after the judge told García Ábrego that he was going to spend the rest of his life in prison, the death penalty was out of the question for the prosecutors.[40]

According to the factual documents presented in court on 8 May 1998, the Matamoros-based criminal syndicate of the Gulf Cartel was responsible for trafficking tremendous amounts of narcotics into the United States from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s, and García Ábrego was given eleven life sentences in prison.[41] During the four-week trial, 84 witnesses, ranging from "law enforcement officers to convicted drug smugglers," confessed that García Ábrego smuggled loads of Colombian cocaine on planes and then stored them in several border cities along the Mexico–United States border before being smuggled to the Rio Grande Valley.[42]

In addition, it was brought up that García Ábrego had previously been arrested in Brownsville, Texas for six-year-old auto theft charges, but was released later with no charges whatsoever.[43] Two men from the Rio Grande Valley were charged before the drug lord's arrest for laundering more than $30 million for García Ábrego.[44] He was also held responsible in 1984 for the massacre of 6 people in La Clínica Raya, a hospital where rival drug members were being treated, and was also blamed for the massacre of the Cereso prison in 1991, where 18 prisoners were slain—both in Matamoros, Tamaulipas.[45][46][47]

After García-Ábrego era

Following Ábrego's 1996 arrest by Mexican authorities and subsequent deportation to the United States, a power vacuum was left and several top members fought for leadership.[48]

Humberto García Ábrego, brother of Juan García Ábrego, tried to take the lead of the Gulf Cartel, but ultimately failed in his attempt.[49] He did not have the leadership skills nor the support of the Colombian drug-provisioners. In addition, he was under observation and was widely known, since his surname meant more of the same.[50] He was to be replaced by Óscar Malherbe de León and Raúl Valladares del Ángel, until their arrest a short time later,[51] causing several cartel lieutenants to fight for the leadership. Malherbe tried to bribe officials $2 million for his release, but it was denied.[52] Hugo Baldomero Medina Garza, known as El Señor Padrino de los Tráilers (the lord of the Trailers), is considered one of the most important members in the rearticulation of the Gulf Cartel.[53] He was one of the top officials of the cartel for more than 40 years, trafficking about 20 tons of cocaine to the United States each month.[54] His luck ended in November 2000 when he was captured in Tampico, Tamaulipas and imprisoned in La Palma.[55] After Medina Garza's arrest, his cousin Adalberto Garza Dragustinovis was investigated for allegedly forming part of the Gulf Cartel and for money-laundering, but the case is still open.[56] The next in line was Sergio Gómez alias El Checo, however, his leadership was short-lived when he was assassinated in April 1996 in Valle Hermoso, Tamaulipas.[57] After this, Osiel Cárdenas Guillén took control of the cartel in July 1999 after assassinating Salvador Gómez Herrera alias El Chava, co-leader of the Gulf Cartel and close friend of him, earning his name as the Mata Amigos (Friend Killer).[58]

Osiel Cárdenas Guillén's era

As confrontations with rival groups heated up, Osiel Cárdenas Guillén sought and recruited over 30 deserters of the Mexican Army's elite Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales (GAFE) to form part of the cartel's armed wing.[59] Los Zetas, as they are known, served as the hired private mercenary army of the Gulf Cartel. Nevertheless, after the arrest and extradition of Cárdenas, internal struggles led to a rupture between the Gulf and the Zetas.[60]

Los Zetas

In 1997 the Gulf Cartel began to recruit military personnel whom Jesús Gutiérrez Rebollo, an Army General of that time, had assigned as representatives from the PGR offices in certain states across Mexico. After his imprisonment a short time later, Jorge Madrazo Cuéllar created the National Public Security System (SNSP), to fight the drug cartels along the U.S.–Mexico border. After Osiel Cárdenas Guillén took full control of the Gulf Cartel in 1999, he found himself in a no-holds-barred fight to keep his notorious organization and leadership untouched, and sought out members of the Mexican Army Special Forces to become the military armed-wing of the Gulf Cartel.[61] His goal was to protect himself from rival drug cartels and from the Mexican military, to perform vital functions as the leader of the most powerful drug cartel in Mexico.[62] Among his first contacts was Arturo Guzmán Decena, an Army lieutenant who was reportedly asked by Cárdenas to look for the "best men possible."[63] Consequently, Guzmán Decenas deserted from the Armed Forces and brought more than 30 army deserters to form part of Cárdenas' new criminal paramilitary wing.[64] They were enticed with salaries much higher than those of the Mexican Army.[65] Among the original defectors were Jaime González Durán,[66] Jesús Enrique Rejón Aguilar,[67] Miguel Treviño Morales,[68] and Heriberto Lazcano,[69] who would later become the supreme leader of the independent cartel of Los Zetas. The creation of Los Zetas brought a new era of drug trafficking in Mexico, and little did Cárdenas know that he was creating the most violent drug cartel in the country.[70] Between 2001 and 2008, the organization of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas was collectively known as La Compañía (The Company).[71]

One of the first missions of Los Zetas was to eradicate Los Chachos, a group of drug traffickers under the orders of the Milenio Cartel, who disputed the drug corridors of Tamaulipas with the Gulf Cartel in 2003.[72] This gang was controlled by Dionisio Román García Sánchez alias El Chacho, who had decided to betray the Gulf Cartel and switch his alliance with the Tijuana Cartel; however, he was eventually killed by Los Zetas.[73] Once Cárdenas consolidated his position and supremacy, he expanded the responsibilities of Los Zetas, and as years passed, they became much more important for the Gulf Cartel. They began to organize kidnappings;[74] impose taxes, collect debts, and operate protection rackets;[75] control the extortion business;[76] securing cocaine supply and trafficking routes known as plazas (zones) and executing its foes, often with grotesque savagery.[63] In response to the rising power of the Gulf Cartel, the rival Sinaloa Cartel[77] established a heavily armed, well-trained enforcer group known as Los Negros.[78] The group operated similar to Los Zetas, but with less complexity and success. There is a circle of experts who believe that the start of the Mexican Drug War did not begin in 2006 (when Felipe Calderón sent troops to Michoacán to stop the increasing violence), but in 2004 in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, when the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas fought off the Sinaloa Cartel and Los Negros.[79]

In 2002, there were three main divisions of the Cartel, all ruled over by Cárdenas and led by: Jorge Eduardo "El Coss" Costilla Sanchez, Antonio "Tony Tormenta" Cárdenas Guillen, and Heriberto "El Lazca" Lazcano Lazcano.[80]

Upon the arrest of the Gulf Cartel boss Cárdenas in 2003 and his extradition in 2007, the panorama for Los Zetas changed—they started to become synonymous with the Gulf Cartel, and their influences grew within the organization.[81] Los Zetas began to grow independently from the Gulf Cartel, and eventually a rupture occurred between them in early 2010.[82][83]

Standoff with U.S. agents

Main article: 1999 Matamoros standoff

On 9 November 1999, two U.S. agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and FBI were threatened at gunpoint by Cárdenas Guillén and approximately fifteen of his henchmen in Matamoros. The two agents traveled to Matamoros with an informant to gather intelligence on the operations of the Gulf Cartel.[84][85] Cárdenas Guillén demanded the agents and the informant to get out of their vehicle, but they refused to obey his orders. The incident escalated as Cárdenas Guillén threatened to kill them if they did not comply and as his gunmen prepared to shoot. The agents tried to reason with him that killing U.S. federal agents would bring a massive manhunt from the U.S. government. Cárdenas Guillén eventually let them go and threatened to kill them if they ever returned to his home turf.[84]

The standoff triggered a massive law enforcement effort to crackdown the leadership structure of the Gulf Cartel. Both the Mexican and U.S. government increased their efforts to apprehend Cárdenas Guillén. Before the standoff, he was regarded as a minor player in the international drug trade, but this incident catapulted his reputation and made him one of the most-wanted criminals.[86] The FBI and the DEA mounted numerous charges against him and issued a US$2 million bounty for his arrest.[87]

Arrest and extradition

 
Osiel Cárdenas Guillén's extradition to the United States from Mexico.

The former leader of the Gulf Cartel, Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, was captured in the city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, on 14 March 2003, in a shootout between the Mexican military and Gulf Cartel gunmen.[88] He was one of the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, which was offering $2 million for his capture.[89] According to government archives, this six-month military operation was planned and carried out in secret; the only people informed were the President Vicente Fox, the Secretary of Defense in Mexico, Ricardo Clemente Vega García, and Mexico's Attorney General, Rafael Macedo de la Concha.[90] After his capture, Cárdenas was sent to the federal, high-security prison La Palma.[91] However, it was believed that Cárdenas still controlled the Gulf Cartel from prison,[92] and was later extradited to the United States, where he was sentenced to 25 years in a prison in Houston, Texas for money laundering, drug trafficking and death threats to U.S. federal agents.[93][94] Reports from the PGR and El Universal state that while in prison, Cárdenas and Benjamín Arellano Félix, from the Tijuana Cartel, formed an alliance. Moreover, through handwritten notes, Cárdenas gave orders on the movement of drugs along Mexico and to the United States, approved executions, and signed forms to allow the purchase of police forces.[95] And while his brother Antonio Cárdenas Guillén led the Gulf Cartel, Cárdenas still made vital orders from La Palma through messages from his lawyers and guards.[95]

The arrest and extradition of Cárdenas, however, caused for several top lieutenants from both the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas to fight over important drug corridors to the United States, especially the cities of Matamoros, Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa, and Tampico—all situated in the state of Tamaulipas. They also fought for coastal cities Acapulco, Guerrero and Cancún, Quintana Roo; the state capital of Monterrey, Nuevo León, and the states of Veracruz and San Luis Potosí.[96] Through his violence and intimidation, Heriberto Lazcano took control of both Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel after Cardenas' extradition.[97] Lieutenants that were once loyal to Cárdenas began following the commands of Lazcano, who tried to reorganize the cartel by appointing several lieutenants to control specific territories.Morales Treviño was appointed to look over Nuevo León;[98] Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez in Matamoros;[99] Héctor Manuel Sauceda Gamboa, nicknamed El Karis, took control of Nuevo Laredo;[100] Gregorio Sauceda Gamboa, known as El Goyo, along with his brother Arturo, took control of the Reynosa plaza;[101] Arturo Basurto Peña, alias El Grande, and Iván Velázquez-Caballero alias El Talibán took control of Quintana Roo and Guerrero;[102] Alberto Sánchez Hinojosa, alias Comandante Castillo, took over Tabasco.[103] However, continual disagreement was leading the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas into an inevitable rupture. On 18 August 2013, Gulf Cartel leader Mario Ramirez Trevino was captured.[104]

United States vs Osiel Cárdenas Guillén

In 2007, Cárdenas was extradited to the United States and charged with the involvement of conspiracies to traffic large amounts of marijuana and cocaine, violating the "continuing-criminal-enterprise statute" (also known as the "drug kingpin statute"), and for threatening two U.S. federal officers.[105] The standoff the two agents had with the drug lord in 1999 in the city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas led for the U.S. to indict Cárdenas and pressure the Mexican government to capture him.[106] In 2010 he was finally sentenced to 25 years in prison after being charged with 22 federal charges;[107] the courtroom was locked and the public prevented from witnessing the proceeding.[108] The proceedings took place in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas in the border city of Brownsville, Texas.[109] Cárdenas has been isolated from interacting with other prisoners in the supermax prison he is in.[110]

Nearly $30 million of the former drug lord's assets were distributed among several Texan law enforcement agencies.[111] In exchange for another life-sentence, Cárdenas agreed to collaborate with U.S. agents in intelligence information.[112] The U.S. federal court awarded two helicopters owned by Cárdenas to the Business Development Bank of Canada and the GE Canada Equipment Financing respectively, and both of them were brought from "drug proceeds".[113]

Rupture from Los Zetas

It is unclear which of the two – the Gulf Cartel or Los Zetas – started the conflict that led to their break up. It is clear, however, that after the capture and extradition of Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, Los Zetas outclassed the Gulf Cartel in revenue, membership, and influence.[114] Some sources reveal that as a result of the supremacy of Los Zetas, the Gulf Cartel felt threatened by the growing force of their enforcer group and decided to curtail their influence, but eventually failed in their attempt, instigating a war.[115] According to narco-banners left by the Gulf Cartel in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, and Reynosa, Tamaulipas, the reason for their rupture was that Los Zetas had expanded their operations to include extortion, kidnapping, assassinations, theft, and other actions with which it disagreed.[116] Unwilling to stand for such abuse, Los Zetas responded and countered the accusations by posting their own banners throughout Tamaulipas. They pointedly noted that they had carried out executions and kidnappings under orders of the Gulf Cartel when they served as their enforcers, and they were created by them for that sole purpose.[117] Also, Los Zetas mentioned that the Gulf Cartel also kills innocent civilians, and then blames them for their atrocities.[117]

Nevertheless, other sources also reveal that Antonio Cárdenas Guillén, brother of Osiel and one of the successors of the Gulf Cartel, was addicted to gambling, sex, and drugs, leading Los Zetas to consider his leadership as a threat to the organization.[118] Other reports mention, however, that the rupture occurred due to a disagreement about who would take on the leadership of the cartel after the extradition of Osiel. The candidates of the Gulf Cartel were Antonio Cárdenas and Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez, while Los Zetas wanted the leadership of their current head, Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano.[119] Other sources, however, mention that the Gulf Cartel began looking to form a truce with their Sinaloa Cartel rivals, and Los Zetas did not want to recognize the treaty settlement, which led them to act independently and eventually break apart.[120] On the other hand, other sources reveal that Los Zetas separated from the Gulf Cartel to ally with Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, which led to conflict between them.[121] Other sources mention that what initiated the conflict between them was when Samuel Flores Borrego, alias El Metro 3, lieutenant of the Gulf Cartel, killed Sergio Peña Mendoza, alias El Concorde 3, lieutenant of Los Zetas, due to a disagreement for the drug corridor of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, whom both protected.[122] Soon after his death, Los Zetas demanded the Gulf Cartel to hand over the killer, but they didn't, and observers believe that triggered the war.[123]

Tamaulipas was mostly spared from the violence until early 2010, when the Gulf Cartel's enforcers, Los Zetas, split from and turned against the Gulf Cartel, sparking a bloody turf war. When the hostilities began, the Gulf organization joined forces with its former rivals, the Sinaloa Cartel and La Familia Michoacana, aiming to take out Los Zetas.[124][125] Consequently, Los Zetas allied with the Juárez Cartel, the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel and the Tijuana Cartel.[126][127]

Antonio Cárdenas Guillén's era

Osiel Cárdenas' brother, Antonio Cárdenas Guillén, along with Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez (El Coss), a former policeman, filled in the vacuum left by Osiel and became the leaders of the Gulf Cartel.[128] The death of Antonio allowed for Costilla Sánchez to become the co-leader of the Gulf Cartel and head of the Metros, one of the two factions within the Gulf Cartel.[129][130] Mario Cárdenas Guillén, brother of Osiel and Antonio, is the other leader of Gulf Cartel and head of the Rojos, the other faction within the Gulf Cartel and the parallel version of the Metros.[131][132]

Costilla was often viewed as the "strongest leader" of the two, but collaborated with Antonio Cárdenas, who acted as representative of his jailed brother.[133] However, Antonio died in an eight-hour shooting with the Mexican government forces on 5 November 2010, in the border city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas.[134] Government sources claimed that this operation—where more than 660 marines, 17 vehicles, and 3 helicopters participated—left 8 dead: three marines, one soldier, and four gunmen, including Antonio Cárdenas.[135] Other sources mention that one news reporter was also killed in the crossfire.[136] This military-led operation was a result of more than six months of intelligence work.[137] Milenio Television mentioned that the Mexican authorities had tried to apprehend Cárdenas Guillén twice before this incident, but that his personal gunmen had distracted the Mexican forces and allowed him to be escorted in his armored vehicle.[138]

The confrontations started around 10:00 am, and extended to 06:00 pm, around the time Cárdenas Guilén was killed. The intense shootings provoked the temporary closure of three international bridges in Matamoros,[139] along with the University of Texas at Brownsville, just across the border.[140] Public transportation and school classes in Matamoros were canceled, along with the suspension of activities throughout the municipality, since the cartel members hijacked the units of public transport and made dozens of roadblocks to prevent the mobilization of the soldiers, marines, and federal police forces.[141] The street confrontations generated a wave of panic among the population and caused the publication and broadcast of messages through social networks like Twitter and Facebook, reporting the clashes between authorities and the cartel members.[142] When the Mexican authorities reached the spot where Antonio Cárdenas (Tony Tormenta) was present, the gunmen received the soldiers and cops with grenades and high-calibre shots. Reports mention that Antonio Cárdenas was being protected by the Los Escorpiones (The Scorpions), the alleged armed wing of the Gulf Cartel and the personal army of Antonio Cárdenas, who was serving as snipers and bodyguards for him.[143] La Jornada newspaper mentioned that over 80 SUV's packed with gunmen fought to protect Cárdenas Guillén, and over 300 grenades were used in the shootout that day.[144] And even after the drug lord was killed, the roadblocks continued throughout the rest of the day.[145]

The Guardian newspaper mentioned that in a YouTube video, a convoy of SUV's filled with gunmen and pickups packed with marines were seen in a chase through the streets of Matamoros, Tamaulipas. And although there wasn't any visible confrontation between the two, the intensity of the situation was clear through the background noises of grenade explosions and automatic gunfire.[146] A news video from Televisa, also on YouTube, shows images from the confrontations of that day.[147] Moreover, several bystanders also recorded the shootouts.[148][149][150]

Nevertheless, according to the newspapers The Brownsville Herald and The Monitor from across the border in Brownsville, Texas and McAllen, Texas, around 50 people were killed in the gunfights.[151][152][153][154][155] Although not confirmed, KVEO-TV, several online sources and witnesses, along with one law enforcement officer who preferred to keep his name anonymous, mentioned that more than 100 people died that day in Matamoros.[156][157][158][159][160][161][162] The death of Antonio Cárdenas Guillen also caused a spiral of violence in Reynosa, Tamaulipas a number of days after he was killed.[163] Moreover, his death also generated a turf war with Los Zetas in the city of Ciudad Mier, Tamaulipas, resulting in the exodus of more than 95% of its population.[164] Banners written by Los Zetas, the Gulf Cartel's former armed wing, appeared all across Mexico, celebrating the death of Cárdenas Guillén.[165][166] United States President, Barack Obama, called the President of Mexico, Felipe Calderón, congratulating him and the Mexican forces for the operation in Matamoros, and reiterated his effort against organized crime.[167]

After this incident, there was a huge division of opinions over the fate of the Gulf Cartel. Some experts believed that the death of Antonio Cárdenas would be dreadful for the Gulf Cartel, and that Los Zetas would overthrow them and eventually take control of Tamaulipas.[168] Others explained how his death allowed Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez to take full directive of the cartel, and that would tighten relations with Colombia and straighten the Gulf Cartel's path, something quite difficult with Antonio Cárdenas as co-leader.[169]

Los Escorpiones

Los Escorpiones, also called Grupo Escorpios,[170] (The Scorpions), was believed to be the mercenary group that protected Antonio Cárdenas Guillén, the former leader of the organization.[171] According to reports by the Mexican government, Los Escorpiones was created by Antonio Cárdenas Guillen and is composed of over 60 civilians, former police officers, and ex-military officials. According to El Universal, there are several music videos on YouTube that exalt the power of this armed group through narcocorridos.[172] After the rupture between the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas (which until then had served as the cartel's armed wing), Los Escorpiones became the armed wing of the entire Gulf organization.[173] The first mention of Los Escorpiones on the media was in 2008, when El Universal wrote an article about some "protected witnesses" from the Gulf Cartel who denounced the alliance between the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel and Los Zetas to the Mexican authorities, and that the Gulf Cartel had created Los Escorpiones to stop and balance the growing hegemony of Los Zetas.[174]

However, his brother Osiel Cárdenas Guillén disapproved the existence of this mercenary group, since he had created Los Zetas, the parallel version of Los Escorpiones, and they had turned against the organization.[175] El Universal reported that Mexican authorities identified the gunmen that were engaging in confrontations against the troops in Matamoros, Tamaulipas as members of the Los Escorpiones group. Along with Antonio Cárdenas, the following members of Los Escorpiones were killed: Sergio Antonio Fuentes, alias El Tyson or Escorpión 1; Raúl Marmolejo Gómez, alias Escorpión 18; Hugo Lira, alias Escorpión 26; and Refugio Adalberto Vargas Cortés, alias Escorpión 42.[176] The arrests of Marco Antonio Cortez Rodríguez alias Escorpión 37 and of Josué González Rodríguez alias Escorpión 43—the two who were hospitalized after the shootout of 5 November 2010—allowed for the Mexican forces to understand the structure of Los Escorpiones.[177]

Present-day

Metros and Rojos infighting

Main article: Infighting in the Gulf Cartel
 
Gulf Cartel factions in 2021.
  Los Ciclones
  Los Metros
  Los Rojos
  Panteras

In the late 1990s, Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, the former leader of the Gulf cartel, had other similar groups besides Los Zetas established in several cities in Tamaulipas.[178] Each of these groups were identified by their radio codes: the Rojos (The Red ones) were based in Reynosa; the Metros were headquartered in Matamoros; and the Lobos (The wolves) were established in Laredo.[178] The infighting between the Metros and the Rojos of the Gulf cartel began in 2010, when Juan Mejía González, nicknamed El R-1, was overlooked as the candidate of the regional boss of Reynosa and was sent to the "Frontera Chica," an area that encompasses Miguel Alemán, Camargo and Ciudad Mier – directly across the U.S.–Mexico border from Starr County, Texas. The area that Mejía González wanted was given to Samuel Flores Borrego, suggesting that the Metros were above the Rojos.[178]

 
Samuel Flores Borrego, former Gulf Cartel high-ranking member.

Unconfirmed information released by The Monitor indicated that two leaders of the Rojos, Mejía González and Rafael Cárdenas Vela, teamed up to kill Flores Borrego.[178] Cárdenas Vela had held a grudge on Flores Borrego and the Metros because he believed that they had led the Mexican military to track down and kill his uncle Antonio Cárdenas Guillén on 5 November 2010.[178][179] Other sources indicate that the infighting could have been caused by the suspicions that the Rojos were "too soft" on the Gulf cartel's bitter enemy, Los Zetas.[180] When the Gulf cartel and Los Zetas split in early 2010, some members of the Rojos stayed with the Gulf cartel, while others decided to leave and join the forces of Los Zetas.[181]

InSight Crime explains that the fundamental disagreement between the Rojos and the Metros was over leadership. Those who were more loyal to the Cárdenas family stayed with the Rojos, while those loyal to Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez, like Flores Borrego, defended the Metros.[180]

Originally, the Gulf cartel was running smoothly, but the infighting between the two factions in the Gulf cartel triggered when Flores Borrego was killed on 2 September 2011.[178] When the Rojos turned on the Metros, the largest faction in the Gulf cartel, firefights broke throughout Tamaulipas and drug loads were stolen among each other, but the Metros managed to retain control of the major cities that stretched from Matamoros to Miguel Alemán, Tamaulipas.[182]

Some experts have found it difficult to argue that the Gulf Cartel does not impose a direct threat to the state since they "do not seek political change," and that they only want to be left alone with their business. Observations indicate that the Gulf Cartel controls territories and imposes its own rules—often violent and bloody—over the population. And in doing so, they inherently become a "competitor" with the state, who also claims sovereignty over its territories.[183] Like other drug trafficking organizations, the Gulf Cartel also subverts government institutions, particularly at state and local levels, by using their large profits to bribe officials.[184]

Presence in the U.S.

The Gulf Cartel has important cells operating inside the United States—in Mission, Roma, and Rio Grande City—for example, and their presence is expanding.[185] Thomas A. Shannon, a U.S. diplomat and ambassador, stated that criminal organizations like the Gulf Cartel have "substantially weakened" the institutions in Mexico and Central America, and have generated a surge of violence in the United States.[186] The U.S. National Drug Threat Assessment mentioned that the drug trafficking organizations like the Gulf Cartel tend to be less structured in U.S. than in Mexico, and often rely on street gangs to operate inside the United States.[187] The arrest of several Gulf Cartel lieutenants, along with the drug-related violence and kidnappings, have raised concerns among Texas officials that the drug war in Mexico and the drug cartels are taking hold in Texas.[188] The strong ties the Gulf Cartel has with the prison gangs in the United States have also raised concern to American officials.[189] Reports mention that Mexican drug cartels operate in more than 1,000 cities in the United States.[190] In 2013, high ranking Gulf Cartel member Aurelio Cano Flores became the highest cartel member to be convicted by a U.S. jury in 15 years[191] In January 2020, high-ranking U.S. Gulf Cartel member Jorge Costilla-Sanchez pleaded guilty to an international drug trafficking conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana into the United States.[192]

Presence in Europe

The Gulf Cartel is believed to have ties with the 'Ndrangheta, an organized crime group in Italy that also has ties with Los Zetas.[193] Reports indicated that the Gulf Cartel was using the BlackBerry smartphones to communicate with 'Ndrangheta, since the texts are "normally difficult to intercept".[194] In 2009, the Gulf organization concluded that expanding their market opportunities in Europe, combined with the euro strength against the U.S. dollar, justified establishing an extensive network in that continent. The main areas of demand and drug consumption are in Eastern Europe, the successor states of the Soviet Union. In Western Europe, the primarily increase has been in the use of cocaine.[195] Along with the market in the United States, the drug market in Europe is among the most lucrative in the world, where the Mexican drug cartels are believed to have deals with the mafia groups of Europe.[196]

Presence in Africa

The Gulf Cartel and other Mexican drug trafficking groups are active in the northern and western parts of Africa.[197] Although cocaine is not grown in Africa, Mexican organizations, such as the Gulf Cartel, are currently exploiting West Africa's struggling rule-of-law caused by war, crime and poverty, to stage and expand supply routes to the increasingly lucrative European illegal drug market.[198][199]

Gulf Cartel vs. Los Zetas

The rumors of the broken alliance between the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas began on blogs and mass emails in September 2009, but it remained pretty much the same throughout that year—a rumor. But on 24 February 2010, hundreds of trucks marked with C.D.G, XXX, and M3 (the insignias of the Gulf Cartel) began to hit the streets of northern Tamaulipas.[200] The clash between these two groups first happened in Reynosa, Tamaulipas and then expanded to Nuevo Laredo and Matamoros.[201] The war then spread out through 11 municipalities of Tamaulipas, 9 of them bordering the state of Texas.[202] Soon, the violence generated between these two groups had spread to Tamaulipas' neighboring states of Nuevo León and Veracruz.[203][204] Their conflict has even occurred on U.S. soil, where the Gulf Cartel killed two Zeta members in Brownsville, Texas on 5 October 2010.[205] In the midsts of violence and panic, local authorities and the media tried to minimize the situation and claim that "nothing was occurring", but the facts were impossible to cover up.[206] Confrontations between these two groups have paralyzed entire cities in broad daylight.[207] Several witnesses claimed that many of the municipalities throughout Tamaulipas were "war zones", and that many businesses and houses were burned down, leaving areas in "total destruction".[208] The bloodbath in Tamaulipas has caused thousands of deaths, but most of shootings and body counts often go unreported.[209] The complexity and territorial advantage of Los Zetas forced the Gulf Cartel to seek for an alliance with the Sinaloa Cartel and La Familia Michoacana; in addition, Stratfor mentioned that these three organizations also united because they hold a "profound hate" for Los Zetas.[210] Consequently, Los Zetas joined forces with the Beltrán Leyva Cartel and the Tijuana Cartel to counterattack the opposing cartels.[211]

On 10 November 2014, a document from the Mexican government was released to the media and claimed that Los Rojos faction of the Gulf Cartel was planning to ally with Los Zetas. The potential alliance was conducted by Juan Reyes Mejía González (alias "R1"), from the Gulf Cartel; and Rogelio González Pizaña (alias "Z-2"), from Los Zetas. The latter was released from prison months earlier even though he was scheduled to serve 16-years behind bars in January. Authorities believe that González Pizaña reincorporated in organized crime and decided to join with the Gulf Cartel to end the war with Los Zetas, and bring back the "old school" ways when they were together.[212]

Fragmentation

In June 2020, Insight Crime journalist Victoria Dittmar claimed that the Gulf Cartel had undergone "fragmentation" at some point in time.[213] Los Pelones emerged as an independent cartel during this fragmentation as well.[213] However, remnants still exist in Tamaulipas.[213]

Tamaulipas: State corruption

Political corruption

The drug violence and political corruption that has plagued Tamaulipas, the home state of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas, has fueled thoughts of Tamaulipas becoming a "failed state" and a haven for drug traffickers and criminals of all kinds.[214] The massacre of the 72 migrants and the clandestine mass graves with more than 250 bodies in San Fernando, Tamaulipas,[215][216] mounted with the assassination of the governor candidate Rodolfo Torre Cantú (2010),[217] the increasing violence generated between drug groups, and the state's inability to ensure tranquility, has led specialists to conclude that "neither the regional nor federal government have control over the territory of Tamaulipas."[218]

Although drug-related violence has existed since the early beginnings of the Gulf Cartel, it often happened in low-profile levels, while the government agreed to "look the other way" while the drug traffickers went about their business—as long as they behaved.[219] Back in the days of the 71-year rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), it was believed that they ran exactly that show: if the drug cartels got off the line, the Mexican government would conduct some arrests, make some disappearances, and the drug lords would get their people straight and back on the line again.[220] After the PRI lost the presidency in 2000 to the National Action Party (PAN), the arrangement between the government and the cartels was lost, as well the pax mafiosa.[221][222] Moreover, the state of Tamaulipas was no exception; according to Santiago Creel, a PAN politician and pre-candidate for the 2012 presidency, the PRI in Tamaulipas has protected the Gulf Cartel for years.[223][224] In addition, El Universal newspaper mentions that the narco-corruption in Tamaulipas is due to the fact the opposing political parties, the PAN and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), rarely win an election and "practically do not exist".[225] PRI's main opposition party, the PAN, claimed that government elections in Tamaulipas are likely to encounter an "organized crime influence."[226]

The Excélsior newspaper reported that the former governors of Tamaulipas, Manuel Cavazos Lerma (1993–1999), Tomás Yarrington (1999–2004), and Eugenio Hernández Flores (2005–2010) have had close ties with the Gulf Cartel.[227] On 30 January 2012, the Attorney General of Mexico issued a communiqué ordering the past three governors of Tamaulipas and their families to remain in the country as they are being investigated for possible cooperation with the Mexican drug cartels.[228][229] The municipal president of Tampico, Tamaulipas, Óscar Pérez Inguanzo, was arrested 12 November 2011, due to his "improper exercise of public functions and forgery" of certain documents.[230] In addition, La Jornada mentions that the Gulf Cartel owns "all of Matamoros", where they act as the State itself and conduct all forms of criminal activities.[231] In mid-2010, Eugenio Hernández Flores, the governor of Tamaulipas and Óscar Luebbert Gutiérrez, the mayor of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, both members of the PRI, were criticized for claiming that there were no armed confrontations in Tamaulipas and that the violence was "only a rumor."[232] Months later, Hernández Flores finally recognized that several parts of Tamaulipas were "being overrun by organized crime violence."[233] Luebbert Gutiérrez later recognized the work of the federal troops and acknowledged that his city was experiencing "an escalation in violence."[234]

On 5 June 2016, citizens from Tamaulipas elected a governor from the opposition party, Fransico Javier Garcia Cabeza de Vaca member of Accion Nacional (National Action). It is the first time in 87 years, a governor from the opposition wins in the state.[235] He won under the slogan "winds of change are coming" to Tamaulipas.[236] While his election did not have that much substance in a public policy perspective, its rhetoric of a peaceful transition, enabled him to defeat by double digits the candidate from the ruling party, Baltazar Manuel Hinijosa Ochoa.[237]

Both candidates have and continue to face accusations of receiving illicit money from the Gulf Cartel while being mayors of two border towns. In 1986, according to Proceso, Cabeza de Vaca was arrested for stealing weapons under the orders for a Drug Trafficking Organization (DTOs) of the Gulf Cartel.[238] Cabeza de Vaca is accused by a Bloomberg/El Financiero of having a big and unexplained wealth of 951 million pesos.[239] Cabeza de Vaca is accused of not reporting its total wealth and having properties both in Texas, Tamaulipas, and Mexico City. Cabeza de Vaca has been for 11 years a public servant, which questions according to El Financiero, the origin of its wealth. Balatazar Hinojosa Ochoa is also accused of coopting with DTOs of the Gulf Cartel while being mayor of Matamoros in 2006. In goes into the extent, in a recent book called Tamaulipas; La casta de los narcogobernadores: un eastern mexicano is accused of being present while former governor Tomas Yarrington, also accused of involvements with DTOs of the Gulf Cartel, received illicit money from the Gulf Cartel to finance its campaign for governor.[240] Also according to Proceso, Baltazar Hinojosa is under investigation by the United States Department of Treasury for laundering money through the Panama Papers target, the law firm Mossack Fonseca. According to the media outlet, Baltazar Hinojosa brother in law, owns a shell company created by the law firm, where its board of directors' members is his wife and three daughters.[241]

Prison breaks

On 25 March 2010, in the city of Matamoros, 40 inmates escaped from a federal prison.[242] Authorities are still trying to understand how the prisoners escaped.[243] The authorities mentioned that the incident is "under investigation," but did not give further information.[244] In the border city of Reynosa, 85 inmates escaped from a prison on 10 September 2010.[245] Reports first indicated that there were 71 fugitives, but the correct figures were later released.[246] 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."[247] In Nuevo Laredo on 17 December 2010, about 141 inmates escaped from a federal prison. At first, estimates mentioned that 148 inmates had escaped, but later counts gave the exact figures.[248] 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.[249] A confrontation inside a maximum security prison in Nuevo Laredo on 15 July 2011, left 7 inmates dead and 59 escaped.[250] The 5 guards that were supposed to supervise have not been found, and the Federal government urged the state and municipal authorities to strengthen the security of their prisons.[251] Consequently, the federal government did not hesitate to assign the Mexican Army and the Federal Police to vigilate the prisons until further notice; they were also left in charge of searching for the fugitives.[252] CNN mentioned that the state government of Tamaulipas later recognized "their inability to work with the federal government."[253] In a prison in the state of Zacatecas, on 16 May 2009, an armed commando liberated 53 Gulf Cartel members using 10 trucks and even a helicopter.[254]

According to CNN, more than 400 prison inmates escaped from several prisons in Tamaulipas from January 2010 to March 2011 due to corruption.[255]

Police corruption

The Excélsior newspaper mentioned that the police forces in the state of Tamaulipas are the "worst paid in Mexico" despite being "one of the states hardest hit by violence."[256] They also reported that in Aguascalientes, a state where violence levels are much lower, policemen are paid five times more than in Tamaulipas. In fact, they are paid around $3,618 pesos (about US$260) a month in all of Tamaulipas.[257] As a result, most of the police forces in Tamaulipas are believed to be "corrupt" due to their low wages and the presence of organized crime, who can easily bribe them.[258]

On 9 May 2011, the Mexican government, along with Sedena, disarmed all police forces in the state of Tamaulipas, beginning with the cities of Matamoros and Reynosa.[259] In June 2011, the state government of Tamaulipas requested the federal government to send in troops to combat the drug cartels in the area, to "consolidate actions on public safety" and "strengthen the capacity of their institutions."[260] The Joint Operation Nuevo León-Tamaulipas issued in 2007, along with several other military-led operation by the federal government, have brought thousands of troops to restore order in Tamaulipas.[261] CNN mentioned that the troops "replaced half of the policemen" in the state of Tamaulipas.[262] On 7 November 2011, about 1,660 policemen were released from their duties because they had either failed their control tests or refused to take them.[263]

Although there have been efforts by the federal government to wipe out police corruption, Terra Networks published an article of a witness who said that the police forces in Matamoros work as "informants for the Gulf Cartel" and report on the activity of the Mexican military, and even "wave at [the cartel members]" when they see them in the streets.[264] El Universal released an article which said that the National Public Security System (SNSP) has condemned the cops' salaries, and demanded the state and municipal authorities to create better paying programs for the policemen so they can have a "just wage" for themselves and their families.[265] The federal government is also constructing three military bases in Tamaulipas: in Ciudad Mier, San Fernando and Ciudad Mante.[266]

Alliances

In 2003, the arrest of several high-profile cartel leaders, including the heads of the Tijuana Cartel and Gulf Cartel, Benjamín Arellano Félix and Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, turned the war on drugs into a trilateral war. While in prison, Cárdenas and Arellano formed an alliance to defend themselves from the Sinaloa and Juarez Cartels,[267] who had also allied with each other, and were planning to take over the smuggling routes and territories of the Gulf and Tijuana Cartel.[268] After a dispute, however, Cárdenas ordered Arellano beaten, and the Gulf-Tijuana alliance ceased to exist at that point. It was reported that after the fallout, Cárdenas ordered Los Zetas to Baja California to wipe out the Tijuana Cartel.[269]

The Sinaloa-Juarez alliance ceased to exist as well due to an unpaid debt in 2007, and now the Sinaloa and Juarez Cartel are at war against each other.[270] Since February 2010, the major cartels have aligned in two factions, one integrated by the Juárez Cartel, Tijuana Cartel, Los Zetas and the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel;[271] the other faction integrated by the Gulf Cartel, Sinaloa Cartel, La Familia Cartel (now extinct) and the Knights Templar Cartel.[272][273]

Structure

 
Gulf Cartel hierarchy

The rupture from Los Zetas left Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez and Antonio Cárdenas Guillén in full control of the Gulf Cartel. However, Ezekiel died in a shooting with the Mexican Marines in Matamoros, Tamaulipas in 2010,[274] and Costilla Sanchez became the sole head of the cartel until his arrest in September 2012.[275] Mario Cárdenas Guillén, brother of both Osiel and Antonio, became one of the top lieutenants in the organization after his release from prison in 2007.[276] In addition, within the Gulf Cartel there is believed to be two groups—the Rojos and the Metros.[277] The modus operandi ("mode of operation") of the Gulf Cartel changes whenever the United States attempts to strengthen their domestic policy in reinforcing the borders. When drug trafficking tightens, they usually invest in more sophisticated methods to smuggle drugs, recruit new members, corrupt more officials, seek new ways to remove obstacles that impede the immediate success of the organization, along with many others.[278] Below is the basic structure of the cartel:

  • Falcons (Halcones): Considered the "eyes and ears" of the streets, the falcons are the lowest rank position in any drug cartel. They are responsible for supervising and reporting on the activities of the Mexican military and of their rival groups.[279]
  • Hitmen (Sicarios): They are the armed group within the drug cartel; they are responsible for carrying out assassinations, kidnappings, thefts, extortions, operating protection rackets, and defending their plaza from the rival groups and the military.[280][281]
  • Lieutenants (Lugartenientes): The second-highest position in the drug cartel organization; they are responsible for supervising the sicarios and halcones within their territory. They are allowed to carry low-profile executions without permission from their bosses.[282]
  • Drug lords (Capos): This is the highest position in any drug cartel; they are responsible supervising the entire drug industry, appointing territorial leaders, making alliances, and planning high-profile executions.[283]

It's worth noting that there are other operating groups within the drug cartels. For example, the drug producers and suppliers,[284] although not considered in the basic structure, are critical operators of any drug cartel, along with the financers and money launderers.[285][286][287] In addition, the arms suppliers operate in a completely different circle,[288] and are technically not considered part of the cartel's logistics.

In June 2019, Carlos Abraham Ríos Suárez, also known as El Oaxaco, was arrested. He served as head of cartel's operations in Oaxaca.[289]

Modus operandi

Protection racketeering Organized crime groups opt for protection racketeering in an effort to control markets and "maintaining internal order."[290] It is generally seen as a way where criminals change the legal face of security and provide their own form of "insurance".[291] This practice of extorting money from people is also seen in the human trafficking business in Mexico; the cartels threaten smugglers to pay a fee for using the corridors, and if they refuse to pay, drug traffickers respond in a deadly form.[292] The Gulf Cartel operates in a similar way, and often extorts businesses for protection money in the areas where it operates, pledging to kill those who do not agree to pay the fee.[293] In addition, the Mexican drug cartels also tax several Mexican businesses inside the United States and threaten them with property damage and murder if they do not comply.[294]

Kidnappings The Gulf Cartel, along with their rival group Los Zetas, have been the two drug cartels with the most kidnappings in all of Mexico, and "more than half of the country's kidnappings are attributed to them."[295] And, there are several kidnapping rings of the Gulf Cartel throughout several parts of Tamaulipas.[296] The Mexican military mentioned that in the states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon, where the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas fight for territory, abductions are carried out very commonly. An intelligence agency mentioned that the Gulf Cartel kidnaps for three reasons:

  1. To increase the ranks of their cartel after the deaths or arrests of their members;
  2. To exterminate members of their rival gangs;
  3. To kidnap people for money and other ransom.[297]

In April 2011 in the border city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, 68 kidnapped victims from different parts of Mexico and Central America were found in a safe house of the Gulf Cartel.[298][299] Omar Ortiz, best known for his nickname El Gato, was a former soccer star from C.F. Monterrey who was arrested in January 2012 for working in a kidnapping ring within the Gulf Cartel.[300] The Mexican Lucha libre wrestler Lázaro Gurrola, known as the Estrella Dorada (Golden Star), was also arrested for kidnapping people for the Gulf Cartel.[301]

In the United States, the Gulf Cartel has been responsible for several kidnappings, primarily in the McAllen metropolitan area.[302][303][304] Investigators believe that more unreported kidnappings have occurred in nearby locations.[305] When victims are kidnapped by the drug cartels on American territory, kidnappers usually hide them in the trunk of a car and take them to Mexico.[306] FBI investigators said that victims are "kidnapped, threatened, assaulted, drugged and transported into Mexico to meet with Cartel members."[307] Reports indicated that kidnappers working for the Gulf Cartel train with paintball equipment "to practice simulated kidnapping schemes in order to prepare for the actual kidnapping they intended to commit."[308] In one reported incident, Isaac Sanchez Gutierrez, a man from Palmview, Texas, said he faced an ultimatum: pay $10 million to the Gulf Cartel, or transport 50 drug loads from Mexico into the U.S. in order to free his kidnapped brother.[309]

Human trafficking

See also: Human trafficking in Mexico

Before 2010, it was not clear whether the Gulf Cartel controls the human trafficking business in its territory or whether it simply taxes operators for using their smuggling corridors.[310] La Jornada mentioned that before the rupture with Los Zetas in 2007, the corridor of Reynosa, Tamaulipas was often used for human smuggling.[311] People smuggling is currently controlled by a cell within the Gulf Cartel known as Los Flacos, dedicated to the kidnapping and smuggling of undocumented migrants as far as South America to the United States.[312] It operates primarily on the Tabasco–Veracruz–Tamaulipas corridor.[313] Human trafficking in the Rio Grande Valley has become "ground zero" and was considered the "new Arizona" in December 2011 by the Homeland Security Today.[314]

A U.S. agent mentioned that the drug cartels that operate on the Mexico–United States border, and principally across from Texas, are "in control of not only the narcotrafficking, but also the human smuggling."[315]

Extortion In August 2007, La Maña gang, an alleged sub-group of the criminal group Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, was reported to have controlled the extortion business in Matamoros, Tamaulipas.[316] The newspaper La Vanguardia mentioned that the Gulf Cartel receives "large sums of money by extorting businesses" all around Tamaulipas.[317] Many of the extortions are first carried out on the phone.[318] --> Critics say that the strategy of capturing drug kingpins often resulted in the increase in extortion, as the cartels look for other sources of money.[319]

Bribery When the Gulf Cartel was moving tons of cocaine to the United States and moving millions of dollars in cash along the border in the 1970s, Juan García Ábrego decided that he needed more protection. Court documents indicated that García Ábrego was bribing several law enforcement officials, prosecutors, and politicians on both sides on the border to keep himself impune and untouched.[320] His former friends and associates mentioned that the drug lord was paying one of Carlos Salinas de Gortari's deputy attorneys general more than $1.5 million a month for his protection.[321] He is allegedly reported to have been protected by a large private army of gunmen.[322] A retired FBI agent and expert in drug trafficking explained that the Gulf Cartel "relied on bribery" to build its drug empire and consolidate its prominence.[323]

FBI agents have claimed that the Gulf Cartel moves millions of dollars in cash through the Rio Grande Valley each month, a tempting amount for many U.S. officials.[324] Much of the money stays in the area, which has caused several officials—both federal and state—to succumb to the "easy money aspect" the drug money has to offer.[325] The Gulf Cartel also bribes journalists to persuade them not to mention any violent incidents in the media.[326] In addition, due to the low-paying salaries of many policemen, the Gulf Cartel often "buys" many law enforcement officers in Mexico.[327]

Theft Stealing oil from PEMEX and selling it illegally has been one of the many funding activities of the Gulf Cartel.[328] They were reported to have stolen around 40% of the oil products in 2011 in northern Mexico and then selling it illegally in Mexico and in the American black market.[329] One leader of the Gulf Cartel confessed after his apprehension that "drug trafficking is their main business, but due to the difficulties they have been encountering, oil theft has been an important financial cushion" for the cartel.[330] They have also been reported to steal vehicles.[331]

Money laundering Some of the revenue of the Gulf Cartel is often laundered in several bank accounts, properties, vehicles, and gasoline stations.[332] Bars and casinos are often the hubs for money laundering of the drug cartels.[333] Top leaders of the Gulf organization, like Juan García Ábrego, Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez and Antonio Cárdenas Guillén, among others, have been charged by the U.S. government for laundering millions of dollars.[334] Bank accounts inside the United States also launder millions of dollars for the drug lords of the Gulf Cartel.[335] The Economist mentioned in 1997 that the drug money from the Gulf Cartel in the Rio Grande Valley was perhaps moving about $20 billion, and that around 15% of the retailers' gains were from drug money.[336]

Arms trafficking For the most part, the arms trafficking circles of the Gulf Cartel operate directly across the border in the United States, just like most of the criminal groups in Mexico.[337][338][339] Nonetheless, there are indeed circles within the Gulf Cartel that coordinate the arms trafficking routes inside Mexico.[340] Arms trafficking from the U.S. to Mexico, however, is often carried out individually, and there is no criminal group in Mexico or an international organization that is solely dedicated to this activity.[341]

Jesús Enrique Rejón Aguilar, a top-tier Los Zetas boss, was caught on 3 July 2011, and claimed in an interview that was aired on national television that the Gulf Cartel, unlike Los Zetas, has an "easier and quicker access to arms in the United States", and probably works "with some people in the government" to traffic weapons south of the U.S. border.[342]

Prostitution network Prostitution circles are believed to be used by the Gulf Cartel to persuade journalists to favor them in the media.[343] Prostitutes are also used as informants and spies, and provide their sexual favors to extract information from certain targets.[344]

Counterfeiting The Mexican criminal organizations like the Gulf Cartel launder money through counterfeiting, since they are free from taxes and more accessible to people who cannot buy original products.[345] The products sold can be clothing, TVs, video games, music, computer programs, and movies.[346] In 2008 in the state of Michoacán, the Gulf Cartel was reported to have controlled the counterfeit business, where it produced and sold millions of fake CDs and movies.[347]

Police impersonation Reports indicate that gunmen from the Gulf Cartel often impersonate law enforcement officers, using military uniforms to confuse rival drug gangs and move freely through city streets.[348]

Transportation Due to the Gulf Cartel's territory in northern Tamaulipas, primarily in the border cities of Reynosa and Matamoros, they have been able to establish a sophisticated and extensive drug trafficking and distribution network along the U.S.–Mexico border in South Texas.[349] The Mexican drug cartels that operate in the area are currently employing gang members to distribute drugs and conduct other criminal activities on their behalf.[350] Among these gangs, that range from street gangs to prison gangs, are the Texas Syndicate, the Latin Kings, the Mexican Mafia, Puro Tango Blast (Vallucos), the Hermandad de Pistoleros Latinos, and the Tri-City Bombers—all based in the Rio Grande Valley and Webb County, Texas.[351]

 
A narco submarine seized in Ecuador in July 2010

While the entire Mexico–United States border has experienced high levels of drug trafficking and other illegal smuggling activities for decades, this activity tends to be concentrated in certain sectors within Texas. Two such sectors are the Rio Grande Valley and West Texas, near the El Paso–Juárez metropolitan area. The high level of legitimate travel and movement of goods and services between border cities in the U.S. and Mexico facilitates the drug business in the area. The majority of the commerce between the United States and Mexico passes through the state of Texas.[352] Due to its multifaceted transportation networks and proximity to major production areas right across the border in Mexico, Texas is a major hub for drug trafficking. According to the National Drug Intelligence Center, drug traffickers commonly use private vehicles and commercial trucks to traffic narcotics throughout the state. The drug organizations usually use the Interstates 10, 20, 25, 30, and 35, as well as U.S. Highways 59, 77, 83, and 281.[353] The Gulf of Mexico also presents a danger to the flow of drugs to Texas; the Port of Houston and the Port of Brownsville enable traffickers to use small vessels and pleasure craft to transport illicit drugs into and from southern Texas.[354]

Illicit drugs also are smuggled into and through Texas via commercial aircraft, cars, buses, passenger trains, pedestrians, and package delivery services. Narcotics are also smuggled through the railroads that connect the U.S. and Mexico. Moreover, the Mexican drug traffickers often use small boats to transport drugs through the coastal areas of South Texas, usually operating at night to prevent them from being spotted by law enforcement officials.[355] Another avenue that they have implemented is to construct tunnels to get their product across the border. By constructing a tunnel, the cartel can get their product across the tight border security with the possibility of no detection.[356] Apart from using these common ways, once the product is across the border, common cars and trucks are used for faster distribution in different cities. To use the seas, the cartel also implemented the use of narco submarines.[357][358][359]

Indictments

On 21 July 2009, the United States DEA announced coordinated actions against the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas drug trafficking organizations. Antonio Cárdenas Guillén, Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez, Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano and 15 of their top lieutenants, have been charged in U.S. federal courts with drug trafficking-related crimes,[360][361] while the U.S. State Department announced rewards totaling US$50 million for information leading to their capture.[360]

In May 2013, Aurelio Cano Flores (alias El Yankee) was sentenced to 35 years in prison for conspiring to import multi-ton quantities of marijuana and cocaine into the United States. Cano Flores, also known as "Yeyo", was a former Mexican police officer and is the highest-ranking Gulf Cartel member to be convicted by a U.S. jury in 15 years.[362]

On 30 June 2019, Mario Alberto Cárdenas Medina, the son of Osiel's brother Mario, was arrested in the state of Mexico.[363][364] He was arrested with a female companion identified as Miriam "M" and is accused of being responsible for recent violence in Tamaulipas[365]

In popular culture

In Sicario: Day of Soldado (2018) the CIA framed the “Matamoros Cartel” for killing the antagonist’s men to intentionally start a cartel war between rivals.

The Gulf Cartel during the late 1980s and early 1990s era is briefly portrayed in Netflix’s Narcos: Mexico series (2018 - 2021) with Mexican actor Jesús Ochoa playing Juan Nepomuceno Guerra and Flavio Medina playing as nephew Juan García Ábrego.

See also

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External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gulf Cartel.
  • PBS Frontline: The Gulf Cartel, PBS (1997)
  • Cartel Wars by Michael Deibert, Truthdig, 16 May 2011

Bibliography

  • Drug Wars: Narco Warfare in the twenty-first century. Flemming, Gary. Booksurge, 2008.
  • Correa-Cabrera, Guadalupe (2017). Los Zetas Inc.: Criminal Corporations, Energy, and Civil War in Mexico. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-1477312773.

January 11, 2023
gulf, cartel, spanish, cártel, golfo, golfos, criminal, syndicate, drug, trafficking, organization, mexico, perhaps, oldest, organized, crime, groups, country, currently, based, matamoros, tamaulipas, directly, across, border, from, brownsville, texas, cártel,. The Gulf Cartel Spanish Cartel del Golfo Golfos or CDG 7 8 is a criminal syndicate and drug trafficking organization in Mexico 9 and perhaps one of the oldest organized crime groups in the country 10 It is currently based in Matamoros Tamaulipas directly across the U S border from Brownsville Texas Gulf CartelCartel del GolfoLogo of the Gulf CartelFounded1930sFounded byJuan Nepomuceno Guerra Juan Garcia AbregoFounding locationMatamoros Tamaulipas MexicoYears active1930s presentTerritoryMexico Tamaulipas Nuevo Leon San Luis Potosi Veracruz Jalisco the U S states of Texas Louisiana and GeorgiaEthnicityMajority Mexican Mexican American minority GuatemalanCriminal activitiesDrug trafficking money laundering extortion kidnapping human trafficking robbery murder arms trafficking bribery fencing counterfeitingAlliesJalisco New Generation CartelAryan Brotherhood of Texas 1 Medellin Cartel defunct Cali Cartel defunct Los Mexicles current status unknown Narcosatanists 2 3 defunct Camorra 4 NdranghetaSerbian mafia 5 4 RivalsLos ZetasJuarez CartelGuadalajara Cartel defunct Sinaloa Cartel 6 starting in 2021 La Familia MichoacanaBeltran Leyva CartelTijuana CartelLos Negros disbanded Cartel del NoresteMilenio Cartel defunct Their network is international and is believed to have dealings with crime groups in Europe West Africa Asia Central America South America and the United States 11 12 Besides drug trafficking the Gulf Cartel operates through protection rackets assassinations extortions kidnappings and other criminal activities 13 The members of the Gulf Cartel are known for intimidating the population and for being particularly violent 14 Although its founder Juan Nepomuceno Guerra smuggled alcohol in large quantities to the United States during the Prohibition era and heroin for over 40 years 15 it was not until the 1980s that the cartel was shifted to trafficking cocaine methamphetamine and marijuana under the command of Juan Nepomuceno Guerra and Juan Garcia Abrego Contents 1 History 1 1 Foundation 1930s 1980s 1 2 Garcia Abrego era 1980s 1990s 1 2 1 Corruption in the United States 1 2 2 Arrest of Abrego 1 3 After Garcia Abrego era 1 4 Osiel Cardenas Guillen s era 1 4 1 Los Zetas 2 Standoff with U S agents 2 1 Arrest and extradition 2 2 Rupture from Los Zetas 2 3 Antonio Cardenas Guillen s era 2 3 1 Los Escorpiones 3 Present day 3 1 Metros and Rojos infighting 3 2 Presence in the U S 3 3 Presence in Europe 3 4 Presence in Africa 3 5 Gulf Cartel vs Los Zetas 3 6 Fragmentation 4 Tamaulipas State corruption 4 1 Political corruption 4 2 Prison breaks 4 3 Police corruption 5 Alliances 6 Structure 7 Modus operandi 8 Indictments 9 In popular culture 10 See also 11 References 12 External links 13 BibliographyHistory EditFoundation 1930s 1980s Edit The Gulf Cartel a drug cartel based in Matamoros Tamaulipas Mexico was founded in the 1930s by Juan Nepomuceno Guerra 16 17 Originally known as the Matamoros Cartel Spanish Cartel de Matamoros 18 the Gulf Cartel initially smuggled alcohol and other illegal goods into the U S 17 Once the Prohibition era ended the criminal group controlled gambling houses prostitution rings a car theft network and other illegal smuggling 19 It grew significantly in the 1970s under the leadership of kingpin Juan Garcia Abrego 17 Garcia Abrego era 1980s 1990s Edit By the 1980s Garcia Abrego began incorporating cocaine into the drug trafficking operations and started to have the upper hand on what was now considered the Gulf Cartel the greatest criminal dynasty in the US Mexico border By negotiating with the Cali Cartel 20 Garcia Abrego was able to secure 50 of the shipment out of Colombia as payment for delivery instead of the US 1 500 per kilogram they were previously receiving This renegotiation however forced Garcia Abrego to guarantee the product s arrival from Colombia to its destination Instead he created warehouses along the Mexican s northern border to preserve hundreds of tons of cocaine this allowed him to create a new distribution network and increase his political influence In addition to trafficking drugs Garcia Abrego would ship cash to be laundered in the millions 21 Around 1994 it was estimated that the Gulf Cartel handled as much as one third of all cocaine shipments into the United States from the Cali Cartel suppliers 22 During the 1990s the PGR Procuraduria General de la Republica the Mexican attorney general s office estimated that the Gulf Cartel was worth over US 10 billion 23 Corruption in the United States Edit Garcia Abrego s ties extended beyond the Mexican government corruption and into the United States With the arrest of one of Garcia Abrego s traffickers Juan Antonio Ortiz it became known the cartel would ship tons of cocaine in the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service INS buses between the years of 1986 to 1990 The buses made great transportation as Antonio Ortiz noted since they were never stopped at the border 24 It also became known that in addition to the INS bus scam Garcia Abrego had a special deal with members of the Texas National Guard who would truck tons of cocaine and marijuana from South Texas to Houston for the cartel 24 Garcia Abrego s reach became known when a United States Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI agent named Claude de la O in 1986 stated in testimony against Garcia Abrego that he received over US 100 000 in bribes and had leaked information that could have endangered an FBI informant as well as Mexican journalists In 1989 Claude was removed from the case for unknown reasons retiring a year later Garcia Abrego bribed the agent in an attempt to gather more information on U S law enforcement operations 25 26 Arrest of Abrego Edit Juan Garcia Abrego founder of the organization Garcia Abrego s business had grown to such length that the FBI placed him on the Top Ten Most Wanted in 1995 He was the first drug trafficker to be on that list 27 On 14 January 1996 Garcia Abrego was arrested outside a ranch in Monterrey Nuevo Leon 28 He was quickly extradited to the United States where he stood trial eight months after his arrest Garcia Abrego was convicted for 22 counts of money laundering drug possession and drug trafficking 29 Jurors also ordered the seizure of 350 million of Garcia Abrego s assets 75 million more than what was previously planned 30 Juan Garcia Abrego is currently serving 11 life terms in a maximum security prison in Colorado U S 31 In 1996 it was disclosed that Garcia Abrego s organization paid millions of dollars in bribes to politicians and law enforcement officers for his protection It was later proven after his arrest that the deputy attorney general in charge of Mexico s federal Judicial Police had accumulated more than US 9 million for protecting Garcia Abrego 32 Garcia Abrego s arrest was even subject to allegations of corruption It is believed the Mexican government knew all Garcia Abrego s whereabouts all along and had refused to arrest him due to information he possessed about the extent of corruption within the government The arresting officer a FJP commander is believed to have received a bullet proof Mercury Grand Marquis and US 500 000 from a rival cartel for enacting the arrest of Garcia Abrego 33 Further theories put forward to allege the arrest of Garcia Abrego was to satisfy U S demands and meet certification from the Department of Justice DOJ as a trade partner the vote set to take place on 1 March Garcia Abrego was apprehended on 14 January 1996 and Mexico shortly after received certification on 1 March 34 United States v Garcia AbregoUpon his capture outside the city of Monterrey Nuevo Leon the drug lord was flown to Mexico City where U S federal agent took him on a private plane to Houston Texas 35 Wearing slacks and a striped shirt Garcia Abrego was immediately extradited to the United States where he was interviewed by an FBI agent and confessed to have ordered people murdered and tortured bribed top Mexican officials and smuggled tons of narcotics into the United States 36 His prosecutors however tried Garcia Abrego as a U S citizen because he also had an American birth certificate although Mexican authorities claimed the certificate was fraudulent 37 He also had an official birth certificate that claimed Garcia Abrego was indeed born in Mexico 38 According to The Brownsville Herald Garcia Abrego went into the courtroom grinning and talking animatedly with his lawyers who helped him translate his words from Spanish into the English language 39 Hours after the judge told Garcia Abrego that he was going to spend the rest of his life in prison the death penalty was out of the question for the prosecutors 40 According to the factual documents presented in court on 8 May 1998 the Matamoros based criminal syndicate of the Gulf Cartel was responsible for trafficking tremendous amounts of narcotics into the United States from the mid 1970s to the mid 1990s and Garcia Abrego was given eleven life sentences in prison 41 During the four week trial 84 witnesses ranging from law enforcement officers to convicted drug smugglers confessed that Garcia Abrego smuggled loads of Colombian cocaine on planes and then stored them in several border cities along the Mexico United States border before being smuggled to the Rio Grande Valley 42 In addition it was brought up that Garcia Abrego had previously been arrested in Brownsville Texas for six year old auto theft charges but was released later with no charges whatsoever 43 Two men from the Rio Grande Valley were charged before the drug lord s arrest for laundering more than 30 million for Garcia Abrego 44 He was also held responsible in 1984 for the massacre of 6 people in La Clinica Raya a hospital where rival drug members were being treated and was also blamed for the massacre of the Cereso prison in 1991 where 18 prisoners were slain both in Matamoros Tamaulipas 45 46 47 After Garcia Abrego era Edit Following Abrego s 1996 arrest by Mexican authorities and subsequent deportation to the United States a power vacuum was left and several top members fought for leadership 48 Humberto Garcia Abrego brother of Juan Garcia Abrego tried to take the lead of the Gulf Cartel but ultimately failed in his attempt 49 He did not have the leadership skills nor the support of the Colombian drug provisioners In addition he was under observation and was widely known since his surname meant more of the same 50 He was to be replaced by oscar Malherbe de Leon and Raul Valladares del Angel until their arrest a short time later 51 causing several cartel lieutenants to fight for the leadership Malherbe tried to bribe officials 2 million for his release but it was denied 52 Hugo Baldomero Medina Garza known as El Senor Padrino de los Trailers the lord of the Trailers is considered one of the most important members in the rearticulation of the Gulf Cartel 53 He was one of the top officials of the cartel for more than 40 years trafficking about 20 tons of cocaine to the United States each month 54 His luck ended in November 2000 when he was captured in Tampico Tamaulipas and imprisoned in La Palma 55 After Medina Garza s arrest his cousin Adalberto Garza Dragustinovis was investigated for allegedly forming part of the Gulf Cartel and for money laundering but the case is still open 56 The next in line was Sergio Gomez alias El Checo however his leadership was short lived when he was assassinated in April 1996 in Valle Hermoso Tamaulipas 57 After this Osiel Cardenas Guillen took control of the cartel in July 1999 after assassinating Salvador Gomez Herrera alias El Chava co leader of the Gulf Cartel and close friend of him earning his name as the Mata Amigos Friend Killer 58 Osiel Cardenas Guillen s era Edit As confrontations with rival groups heated up Osiel Cardenas Guillen sought and recruited over 30 deserters of the Mexican Army s elite Grupo Aeromovil de Fuerzas Especiales GAFE to form part of the cartel s armed wing 59 Los Zetas as they are known served as the hired private mercenary army of the Gulf Cartel Nevertheless after the arrest and extradition of Cardenas internal struggles led to a rupture between the Gulf and the Zetas 60 Los Zetas Edit In 1997 the Gulf Cartel began to recruit military personnel whom Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo an Army General of that time had assigned as representatives from the PGR offices in certain states across Mexico After his imprisonment a short time later Jorge Madrazo Cuellar created the National Public Security System SNSP to fight the drug cartels along the U S Mexico border After Osiel Cardenas Guillen took full control of the Gulf Cartel in 1999 he found himself in a no holds barred fight to keep his notorious organization and leadership untouched and sought out members of the Mexican Army Special Forces to become the military armed wing of the Gulf Cartel 61 His goal was to protect himself from rival drug cartels and from the Mexican military to perform vital functions as the leader of the most powerful drug cartel in Mexico 62 Among his first contacts was Arturo Guzman Decena an Army lieutenant who was reportedly asked by Cardenas to look for the best men possible 63 Consequently Guzman Decenas deserted from the Armed Forces and brought more than 30 army deserters to form part of Cardenas new criminal paramilitary wing 64 They were enticed with salaries much higher than those of the Mexican Army 65 Among the original defectors were Jaime Gonzalez Duran 66 Jesus Enrique Rejon Aguilar 67 Miguel Trevino Morales 68 and Heriberto Lazcano 69 who would later become the supreme leader of the independent cartel of Los Zetas The creation of Los Zetas brought a new era of drug trafficking in Mexico and little did Cardenas know that he was creating the most violent drug cartel in the country 70 Between 2001 and 2008 the organization of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas was collectively known as La Compania The Company 71 One of the first missions of Los Zetas was to eradicate Los Chachos a group of drug traffickers under the orders of the Milenio Cartel who disputed the drug corridors of Tamaulipas with the Gulf Cartel in 2003 72 This gang was controlled by Dionisio Roman Garcia Sanchez alias El Chacho who had decided to betray the Gulf Cartel and switch his alliance with the Tijuana Cartel however he was eventually killed by Los Zetas 73 Once Cardenas consolidated his position and supremacy he expanded the responsibilities of Los Zetas and as years passed they became much more important for the Gulf Cartel They began to organize kidnappings 74 impose taxes collect debts and operate protection rackets 75 control the extortion business 76 securing cocaine supply and trafficking routes known as plazas zones and executing its foes often with grotesque savagery 63 In response to the rising power of the Gulf Cartel the rival Sinaloa Cartel 77 established a heavily armed well trained enforcer group known as Los Negros 78 The group operated similar to Los Zetas but with less complexity and success There is a circle of experts who believe that the start of the Mexican Drug War did not begin in 2006 when Felipe Calderon sent troops to Michoacan to stop the increasing violence but in 2004 in the border city of Nuevo Laredo when the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas fought off the Sinaloa Cartel and Los Negros 79 In 2002 there were three main divisions of the Cartel all ruled over by Cardenas and led by Jorge Eduardo El Coss Costilla Sanchez Antonio Tony Tormenta Cardenas Guillen and Heriberto El Lazca Lazcano Lazcano 80 Upon the arrest of the Gulf Cartel boss Cardenas in 2003 and his extradition in 2007 the panorama for Los Zetas changed they started to become synonymous with the Gulf Cartel and their influences grew within the organization 81 Los Zetas began to grow independently from the Gulf Cartel and eventually a rupture occurred between them in early 2010 82 83 Standoff with U S agents EditMain article 1999 Matamoros standoff On 9 November 1999 two U S agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration DEA and FBI were threatened at gunpoint by Cardenas Guillen and approximately fifteen of his henchmen in Matamoros The two agents traveled to Matamoros with an informant to gather intelligence on the operations of the Gulf Cartel 84 85 Cardenas Guillen demanded the agents and the informant to get out of their vehicle but they refused to obey his orders The incident escalated as Cardenas Guillen threatened to kill them if they did not comply and as his gunmen prepared to shoot The agents tried to reason with him that killing U S federal agents would bring a massive manhunt from the U S government Cardenas Guillen eventually let them go and threatened to kill them if they ever returned to his home turf 84 The standoff triggered a massive law enforcement effort to crackdown the leadership structure of the Gulf Cartel Both the Mexican and U S government increased their efforts to apprehend Cardenas Guillen Before the standoff he was regarded as a minor player in the international drug trade but this incident catapulted his reputation and made him one of the most wanted criminals 86 The FBI and the DEA mounted numerous charges against him and issued a US 2 million bounty for his arrest 87 Arrest and extradition Edit Osiel Cardenas Guillen s extradition to the United States from Mexico The former leader of the Gulf Cartel Osiel Cardenas Guillen was captured in the city of Matamoros Tamaulipas on 14 March 2003 in a shootout between the Mexican military and Gulf Cartel gunmen 88 He was one of the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives which was offering 2 million for his capture 89 According to government archives this six month military operation was planned and carried out in secret the only people informed were the President Vicente Fox the Secretary of Defense in Mexico Ricardo Clemente Vega Garcia and Mexico s Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha 90 After his capture Cardenas was sent to the federal high security prison La Palma 91 However it was believed that Cardenas still controlled the Gulf Cartel from prison 92 and was later extradited to the United States where he was sentenced to 25 years in a prison in Houston Texas for money laundering drug trafficking and death threats to U S federal agents 93 94 Reports from the PGR and El Universal state that while in prison Cardenas and Benjamin Arellano Felix from the Tijuana Cartel formed an alliance Moreover through handwritten notes Cardenas gave orders on the movement of drugs along Mexico and to the United States approved executions and signed forms to allow the purchase of police forces 95 And while his brother Antonio Cardenas Guillen led the Gulf Cartel Cardenas still made vital orders from La Palma through messages from his lawyers and guards 95 The arrest and extradition of Cardenas however caused for several top lieutenants from both the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas to fight over important drug corridors to the United States especially the cities of Matamoros Nuevo Laredo Reynosa and Tampico all situated in the state of Tamaulipas They also fought for coastal cities Acapulco Guerrero and Cancun Quintana Roo the state capital of Monterrey Nuevo Leon and the states of Veracruz and San Luis Potosi 96 Through his violence and intimidation Heriberto Lazcano took control of both Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel after Cardenas extradition 97 Lieutenants that were once loyal to Cardenas began following the commands of Lazcano who tried to reorganize the cartel by appointing several lieutenants to control specific territories Morales Trevino was appointed to look over Nuevo Leon 98 Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez in Matamoros 99 Hector Manuel Sauceda Gamboa nicknamed El Karis took control of Nuevo Laredo 100 Gregorio Sauceda Gamboa known as El Goyo along with his brother Arturo took control of the Reynosa plaza 101 Arturo Basurto Pena alias El Grande and Ivan Velazquez Caballero alias El Taliban took control of Quintana Roo and Guerrero 102 Alberto Sanchez Hinojosa alias Comandante Castillo took over Tabasco 103 However continual disagreement was leading the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas into an inevitable rupture On 18 August 2013 Gulf Cartel leader Mario Ramirez Trevino was captured 104 United States vs Osiel Cardenas GuillenIn 2007 Cardenas was extradited to the United States and charged with the involvement of conspiracies to traffic large amounts of marijuana and cocaine violating the continuing criminal enterprise statute also known as the drug kingpin statute and for threatening two U S federal officers 105 The standoff the two agents had with the drug lord in 1999 in the city of Matamoros Tamaulipas led for the U S to indict Cardenas and pressure the Mexican government to capture him 106 In 2010 he was finally sentenced to 25 years in prison after being charged with 22 federal charges 107 the courtroom was locked and the public prevented from witnessing the proceeding 108 The proceedings took place in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas in the border city of Brownsville Texas 109 Cardenas has been isolated from interacting with other prisoners in the supermax prison he is in 110 Nearly 30 million of the former drug lord s assets were distributed among several Texan law enforcement agencies 111 In exchange for another life sentence Cardenas agreed to collaborate with U S agents in intelligence information 112 The U S federal court awarded two helicopters owned by Cardenas to the Business Development Bank of Canada and the GE Canada Equipment Financing respectively and both of them were brought from drug proceeds 113 Rupture from Los Zetas Edit It is unclear which of the two the Gulf Cartel or Los Zetas started the conflict that led to their break up It is clear however that after the capture and extradition of Osiel Cardenas Guillen Los Zetas outclassed the Gulf Cartel in revenue membership and influence 114 Some sources reveal that as a result of the supremacy of Los Zetas the Gulf Cartel felt threatened by the growing force of their enforcer group and decided to curtail their influence but eventually failed in their attempt instigating a war 115 According to narco banners left by the Gulf Cartel in Matamoros Tamaulipas and Reynosa Tamaulipas the reason for their rupture was that Los Zetas had expanded their operations to include extortion kidnapping assassinations theft and other actions with which it disagreed 116 Unwilling to stand for such abuse Los Zetas responded and countered the accusations by posting their own banners throughout Tamaulipas They pointedly noted that they had carried out executions and kidnappings under orders of the Gulf Cartel when they served as their enforcers and they were created by them for that sole purpose 117 Also Los Zetas mentioned that the Gulf Cartel also kills innocent civilians and then blames them for their atrocities 117 Nevertheless other sources also reveal that Antonio Cardenas Guillen brother of Osiel and one of the successors of the Gulf Cartel was addicted to gambling sex and drugs leading Los Zetas to consider his leadership as a threat to the organization 118 Other reports mention however that the rupture occurred due to a disagreement about who would take on the leadership of the cartel after the extradition of Osiel The candidates of the Gulf Cartel were Antonio Cardenas and Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez while Los Zetas wanted the leadership of their current head Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano 119 Other sources however mention that the Gulf Cartel began looking to form a truce with their Sinaloa Cartel rivals and Los Zetas did not want to recognize the treaty settlement which led them to act independently and eventually break apart 120 On the other hand other sources reveal that Los Zetas separated from the Gulf Cartel to ally with Beltran Leyva Cartel which led to conflict between them 121 Other sources mention that what initiated the conflict between them was when Samuel Flores Borrego alias El Metro 3 lieutenant of the Gulf Cartel killed Sergio Pena Mendoza alias El Concorde 3 lieutenant of Los Zetas due to a disagreement for the drug corridor of Reynosa Tamaulipas whom both protected 122 Soon after his death Los Zetas demanded the Gulf Cartel to hand over the killer but they didn t and observers believe that triggered the war 123 Tamaulipas was mostly spared from the violence until early 2010 when the Gulf Cartel s enforcers Los Zetas split from and turned against the Gulf Cartel sparking a bloody turf war When the hostilities began the Gulf organization joined forces with its former rivals the Sinaloa Cartel and La Familia Michoacana aiming to take out Los Zetas 124 125 Consequently Los Zetas allied with the Juarez Cartel the Beltran Leyva Cartel and the Tijuana Cartel 126 127 Antonio Cardenas Guillen s era Edit Osiel Cardenas brother Antonio Cardenas Guillen along with Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez El Coss a former policeman filled in the vacuum left by Osiel and became the leaders of the Gulf Cartel 128 The death of Antonio allowed for Costilla Sanchez to become the co leader of the Gulf Cartel and head of the Metros one of the two factions within the Gulf Cartel 129 130 Mario Cardenas Guillen brother of Osiel and Antonio is the other leader of Gulf Cartel and head of the Rojos the other faction within the Gulf Cartel and the parallel version of the Metros 131 132 Costilla was often viewed as the strongest leader of the two but collaborated with Antonio Cardenas who acted as representative of his jailed brother 133 However Antonio died in an eight hour shooting with the Mexican government forces on 5 November 2010 in the border city of Matamoros Tamaulipas 134 Government sources claimed that this operation where more than 660 marines 17 vehicles and 3 helicopters participated left 8 dead three marines one soldier and four gunmen including Antonio Cardenas 135 Other sources mention that one news reporter was also killed in the crossfire 136 This military led operation was a result of more than six months of intelligence work 137 Milenio Television mentioned that the Mexican authorities had tried to apprehend Cardenas Guillen twice before this incident but that his personal gunmen had distracted the Mexican forces and allowed him to be escorted in his armored vehicle 138 The confrontations started around 10 00 am and extended to 06 00 pm around the time Cardenas Guilen was killed The intense shootings provoked the temporary closure of three international bridges in Matamoros 139 along with the University of Texas at Brownsville just across the border 140 Public transportation and school classes in Matamoros were canceled along with the suspension of activities throughout the municipality since the cartel members hijacked the units of public transport and made dozens of roadblocks to prevent the mobilization of the soldiers marines and federal police forces 141 The street confrontations generated a wave of panic among the population and caused the publication and broadcast of messages through social networks like Twitter and Facebook reporting the clashes between authorities and the cartel members 142 When the Mexican authorities reached the spot where Antonio Cardenas Tony Tormenta was present the gunmen received the soldiers and cops with grenades and high calibre shots Reports mention that Antonio Cardenas was being protected by the Los Escorpiones The Scorpions the alleged armed wing of the Gulf Cartel and the personal army of Antonio Cardenas who was serving as snipers and bodyguards for him 143 La Jornada newspaper mentioned that over 80 SUV s packed with gunmen fought to protect Cardenas Guillen and over 300 grenades were used in the shootout that day 144 And even after the drug lord was killed the roadblocks continued throughout the rest of the day 145 The Guardian newspaper mentioned that in a YouTube video a convoy of SUV s filled with gunmen and pickups packed with marines were seen in a chase through the streets of Matamoros Tamaulipas And although there wasn t any visible confrontation between the two the intensity of the situation was clear through the background noises of grenade explosions and automatic gunfire 146 A news video from Televisa also on YouTube shows images from the confrontations of that day 147 Moreover several bystanders also recorded the shootouts 148 149 150 Nevertheless according to the newspapers The Brownsville Herald and The Monitor from across the border in Brownsville Texas and McAllen Texas around 50 people were killed in the gunfights 151 152 153 154 155 Although not confirmed KVEO TV several online sources and witnesses along with one law enforcement officer who preferred to keep his name anonymous mentioned that more than 100 people died that day in Matamoros 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 The death of Antonio Cardenas Guillen also caused a spiral of violence in Reynosa Tamaulipas a number of days after he was killed 163 Moreover his death also generated a turf war with Los Zetas in the city of Ciudad Mier Tamaulipas resulting in the exodus of more than 95 of its population 164 Banners written by Los Zetas the Gulf Cartel s former armed wing appeared all across Mexico celebrating the death of Cardenas Guillen 165 166 United States President Barack Obama called the President of Mexico Felipe Calderon congratulating him and the Mexican forces for the operation in Matamoros and reiterated his effort against organized crime 167 After this incident there was a huge division of opinions over the fate of the Gulf Cartel Some experts believed that the death of Antonio Cardenas would be dreadful for the Gulf Cartel and that Los Zetas would overthrow them and eventually take control of Tamaulipas 168 Others explained how his death allowed Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez to take full directive of the cartel and that would tighten relations with Colombia and straighten the Gulf Cartel s path something quite difficult with Antonio Cardenas as co leader 169 Los Escorpiones Edit Los Escorpiones also called Grupo Escorpios 170 The Scorpions was believed to be the mercenary group that protected Antonio Cardenas Guillen the former leader of the organization 171 According to reports by the Mexican government Los Escorpiones was created by Antonio Cardenas Guillen and is composed of over 60 civilians former police officers and ex military officials According to El Universal there are several music videos on YouTube that exalt the power of this armed group through narcocorridos 172 After the rupture between the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas which until then had served as the cartel s armed wing Los Escorpiones became the armed wing of the entire Gulf organization 173 The first mention of Los Escorpiones on the media was in 2008 when El Universal wrote an article about some protected witnesses from the Gulf Cartel who denounced the alliance between the Beltran Leyva Cartel and Los Zetas to the Mexican authorities and that the Gulf Cartel had created Los Escorpiones to stop and balance the growing hegemony of Los Zetas 174 However his brother Osiel Cardenas Guillen disapproved the existence of this mercenary group since he had created Los Zetas the parallel version of Los Escorpiones and they had turned against the organization 175 El Universal reported that Mexican authorities identified the gunmen that were engaging in confrontations against the troops in Matamoros Tamaulipas as members of the Los Escorpiones group Along with Antonio Cardenas the following members of Los Escorpiones were killed Sergio Antonio Fuentes alias El Tyson or Escorpion 1 Raul Marmolejo Gomez alias Escorpion 18 Hugo Lira alias Escorpion 26 and Refugio Adalberto Vargas Cortes alias Escorpion 42 176 The arrests of Marco Antonio Cortez Rodriguez alias Escorpion 37 and of Josue Gonzalez Rodriguez alias Escorpion 43 the two who were hospitalized after the shootout of 5 November 2010 allowed for the Mexican forces to understand the structure of Los Escorpiones 177 Present day EditMetros and Rojos infighting Edit Main article Infighting in the Gulf Cartel Gulf Cartel factions in 2021 Los Ciclones Los Metros Los Rojos Panteras In the late 1990s Osiel Cardenas Guillen the former leader of the Gulf cartel had other similar groups besides Los Zetas established in several cities in Tamaulipas 178 Each of these groups were identified by their radio codes the Rojos The Red ones were based in Reynosa the Metros were headquartered in Matamoros and the Lobos The wolves were established in Laredo 178 The infighting between the Metros and the Rojos of the Gulf cartel began in 2010 when Juan Mejia Gonzalez nicknamed El R 1 was overlooked as the candidate of the regional boss of Reynosa and was sent to the Frontera Chica an area that encompasses Miguel Aleman Camargo and Ciudad Mier directly across the U S Mexico border from Starr County Texas The area that Mejia Gonzalez wanted was given to Samuel Flores Borrego suggesting that the Metros were above the Rojos 178 Samuel Flores Borrego former Gulf Cartel high ranking member Unconfirmed information released by The Monitor indicated that two leaders of the Rojos Mejia Gonzalez and Rafael Cardenas Vela teamed up to kill Flores Borrego 178 Cardenas Vela had held a grudge on Flores Borrego and the Metros because he believed that they had led the Mexican military to track down and kill his uncle Antonio Cardenas Guillen on 5 November 2010 178 179 Other sources indicate that the infighting could have been caused by the suspicions that the Rojos were too soft on the Gulf cartel s bitter enemy Los Zetas 180 When the Gulf cartel and Los Zetas split in early 2010 some members of the Rojos stayed with the Gulf cartel while others decided to leave and join the forces of Los Zetas 181 InSight Crime explains that the fundamental disagreement between the Rojos and the Metros was over leadership Those who were more loyal to the Cardenas family stayed with the Rojos while those loyal to Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez like Flores Borrego defended the Metros 180 Originally the Gulf cartel was running smoothly but the infighting between the two factions in the Gulf cartel triggered when Flores Borrego was killed on 2 September 2011 178 When the Rojos turned on the Metros the largest faction in the Gulf cartel firefights broke throughout Tamaulipas and drug loads were stolen among each other but the Metros managed to retain control of the major cities that stretched from Matamoros to Miguel Aleman Tamaulipas 182 Some experts have found it difficult to argue that the Gulf Cartel does not impose a direct threat to the state since they do not seek political change and that they only want to be left alone with their business Observations indicate that the Gulf Cartel controls territories and imposes its own rules often violent and bloody over the population And in doing so they inherently become a competitor with the state who also claims sovereignty over its territories 183 Like other drug trafficking organizations the Gulf Cartel also subverts government institutions particularly at state and local levels by using their large profits to bribe officials 184 Presence in the U S Edit The Gulf Cartel has important cells operating inside the United States in Mission Roma and Rio Grande City for example and their presence is expanding 185 Thomas A Shannon a U S diplomat and ambassador stated that criminal organizations like the Gulf Cartel have substantially weakened the institutions in Mexico and Central America and have generated a surge of violence in the United States 186 The U S National Drug Threat Assessment mentioned that the drug trafficking organizations like the Gulf Cartel tend to be less structured in U S than in Mexico and often rely on street gangs to operate inside the United States 187 The arrest of several Gulf Cartel lieutenants along with the drug related violence and kidnappings have raised concerns among Texas officials that the drug war in Mexico and the drug cartels are taking hold in Texas 188 The strong ties the Gulf Cartel has with the prison gangs in the United States have also raised concern to American officials 189 Reports mention that Mexican drug cartels operate in more than 1 000 cities in the United States 190 In 2013 high ranking Gulf Cartel member Aurelio Cano Flores became the highest cartel member to be convicted by a U S jury in 15 years 191 In January 2020 high ranking U S Gulf Cartel member Jorge Costilla Sanchez pleaded guilty to an international drug trafficking conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana into the United States 192 Presence in Europe Edit The Gulf Cartel is believed to have ties with the Ndrangheta an organized crime group in Italy that also has ties with Los Zetas 193 Reports indicated that the Gulf Cartel was using the BlackBerry smartphones to communicate with Ndrangheta since the texts are normally difficult to intercept 194 In 2009 the Gulf organization concluded that expanding their market opportunities in Europe combined with the euro strength against the U S dollar justified establishing an extensive network in that continent The main areas of demand and drug consumption are in Eastern Europe the successor states of the Soviet Union In Western Europe the primarily increase has been in the use of cocaine 195 Along with the market in the United States the drug market in Europe is among the most lucrative in the world where the Mexican drug cartels are believed to have deals with the mafia groups of Europe 196 Presence in Africa Edit The Gulf Cartel and other Mexican drug trafficking groups are active in the northern and western parts of Africa 197 Although cocaine is not grown in Africa Mexican organizations such as the Gulf Cartel are currently exploiting West Africa s struggling rule of law caused by war crime and poverty to stage and expand supply routes to the increasingly lucrative European illegal drug market 198 199 Gulf Cartel vs Los Zetas Edit The rumors of the broken alliance between the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas began on blogs and mass emails in September 2009 but it remained pretty much the same throughout that year a rumor But on 24 February 2010 hundreds of trucks marked with C D G XXX and M3 the insignias of the Gulf Cartel began to hit the streets of northern Tamaulipas 200 The clash between these two groups first happened in Reynosa Tamaulipas and then expanded to Nuevo Laredo and Matamoros 201 The war then spread out through 11 municipalities of Tamaulipas 9 of them bordering the state of Texas 202 Soon the violence generated between these two groups had spread to Tamaulipas neighboring states of Nuevo Leon and Veracruz 203 204 Their conflict has even occurred on U S soil where the Gulf Cartel killed two Zeta members in Brownsville Texas on 5 October 2010 205 In the midsts of violence and panic local authorities and the media tried to minimize the situation and claim that nothing was occurring but the facts were impossible to cover up 206 Confrontations between these two groups have paralyzed entire cities in broad daylight 207 Several witnesses claimed that many of the municipalities throughout Tamaulipas were war zones and that many businesses and houses were burned down leaving areas in total destruction 208 The bloodbath in Tamaulipas has caused thousands of deaths but most of shootings and body counts often go unreported 209 The complexity and territorial advantage of Los Zetas forced the Gulf Cartel to seek for an alliance with the Sinaloa Cartel and La Familia Michoacana in addition Stratfor mentioned that these three organizations also united because they hold a profound hate for Los Zetas 210 Consequently Los Zetas joined forces with the Beltran Leyva Cartel and the Tijuana Cartel to counterattack the opposing cartels 211 On 10 November 2014 a document from the Mexican government was released to the media and claimed that Los Rojos faction of the Gulf Cartel was planning to ally with Los Zetas The potential alliance was conducted by Juan Reyes Mejia Gonzalez alias R1 from the Gulf Cartel and Rogelio Gonzalez Pizana alias Z 2 from Los Zetas The latter was released from prison months earlier even though he was scheduled to serve 16 years behind bars in January Authorities believe that Gonzalez Pizana reincorporated in organized crime and decided to join with the Gulf Cartel to end the war with Los Zetas and bring back the old school ways when they were together 212 Fragmentation Edit In June 2020 Insight Crime journalist Victoria Dittmar claimed that the Gulf Cartel had undergone fragmentation at some point in time 213 Los Pelones emerged as an independent cartel during this fragmentation as well 213 However remnants still exist in Tamaulipas 213 Tamaulipas State corruption EditPolitical corruption Edit The drug violence and political corruption that has plagued Tamaulipas the home state of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas has fueled thoughts of Tamaulipas becoming a failed state and a haven for drug traffickers and criminals of all kinds 214 The massacre of the 72 migrants and the clandestine mass graves with more than 250 bodies in San Fernando Tamaulipas 215 216 mounted with the assassination of the governor candidate Rodolfo Torre Cantu 2010 217 the increasing violence generated between drug groups and the state s inability to ensure tranquility has led specialists to conclude that neither the regional nor federal government have control over the territory of Tamaulipas 218 Although drug related violence has existed since the early beginnings of the Gulf Cartel it often happened in low profile levels while the government agreed to look the other way while the drug traffickers went about their business as long as they behaved 219 Back in the days of the 71 year rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party PRI it was believed that they ran exactly that show if the drug cartels got off the line the Mexican government would conduct some arrests make some disappearances and the drug lords would get their people straight and back on the line again 220 After the PRI lost the presidency in 2000 to the National Action Party PAN the arrangement between the government and the cartels was lost as well the pax mafiosa 221 222 Moreover the state of Tamaulipas was no exception according to Santiago Creel a PAN politician and pre candidate for the 2012 presidency the PRI in Tamaulipas has protected the Gulf Cartel for years 223 224 In addition El Universal newspaper mentions that the narco corruption in Tamaulipas is due to the fact the opposing political parties the PAN and the Party of the Democratic Revolution PRD rarely win an election and practically do not exist 225 PRI s main opposition party the PAN claimed that government elections in Tamaulipas are likely to encounter an organized crime influence 226 The Excelsior newspaper reported that the former governors of Tamaulipas Manuel Cavazos Lerma 1993 1999 Tomas Yarrington 1999 2004 and Eugenio Hernandez Flores 2005 2010 have had close ties with the Gulf Cartel 227 On 30 January 2012 the Attorney General of Mexico issued a communique ordering the past three governors of Tamaulipas and their families to remain in the country as they are being investigated for possible cooperation with the Mexican drug cartels 228 229 The municipal president of Tampico Tamaulipas oscar Perez Inguanzo was arrested 12 November 2011 due to his improper exercise of public functions and forgery of certain documents 230 In addition La Jornada mentions that the Gulf Cartel owns all of Matamoros where they act as the State itself and conduct all forms of criminal activities 231 In mid 2010 Eugenio Hernandez Flores the governor of Tamaulipas and oscar Luebbert Gutierrez the mayor of Reynosa Tamaulipas both members of the PRI were criticized for claiming that there were no armed confrontations in Tamaulipas and that the violence was only a rumor 232 Months later Hernandez Flores finally recognized that several parts of Tamaulipas were being overrun by organized crime violence 233 Luebbert Gutierrez later recognized the work of the federal troops and acknowledged that his city was experiencing an escalation in violence 234 On 5 June 2016 citizens from Tamaulipas elected a governor from the opposition party Fransico Javier Garcia Cabeza de Vaca member of Accion Nacional National Action It is the first time in 87 years a governor from the opposition wins in the state 235 He won under the slogan winds of change are coming to Tamaulipas 236 While his election did not have that much substance in a public policy perspective its rhetoric of a peaceful transition enabled him to defeat by double digits the candidate from the ruling party Baltazar Manuel Hinijosa Ochoa 237 Both candidates have and continue to face accusations of receiving illicit money from the Gulf Cartel while being mayors of two border towns In 1986 according to Proceso Cabeza de Vaca was arrested for stealing weapons under the orders for a Drug Trafficking Organization DTOs of the Gulf Cartel 238 Cabeza de Vaca is accused by a Bloomberg El Financiero of having a big and unexplained wealth of 951 million pesos 239 Cabeza de Vaca is accused of not reporting its total wealth and having properties both in Texas Tamaulipas and Mexico City Cabeza de Vaca has been for 11 years a public servant which questions according to El Financiero the origin of its wealth Balatazar Hinojosa Ochoa is also accused of coopting with DTOs of the Gulf Cartel while being mayor of Matamoros in 2006 In goes into the extent in a recent book called Tamaulipas La casta de los narcogobernadores un eastern mexicano is accused of being present while former governor Tomas Yarrington also accused of involvements with DTOs of the Gulf Cartel received illicit money from the Gulf Cartel to finance its campaign for governor 240 Also according to Proceso Baltazar Hinojosa is under investigation by the United States Department of Treasury for laundering money through the Panama Papers target the law firm Mossack Fonseca According to the media outlet Baltazar Hinojosa brother in law owns a shell company created by the law firm where its board of directors members is his wife and three daughters 241 Prison breaks Edit On 25 March 2010 in the city of Matamoros 40 inmates escaped from a federal prison 242 Authorities are still trying to understand how the prisoners escaped 243 The authorities mentioned that the incident is under investigation but did not give further information 244 In the border city of Reynosa 85 inmates escaped from a prison on 10 September 2010 245 Reports first indicated that there were 71 fugitives but the correct figures were later released 246 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 247 In Nuevo Laredo on 17 December 2010 about 141 inmates escaped from a federal prison At first estimates mentioned that 148 inmates had escaped but later counts gave the exact figures 248 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 249 A confrontation inside a maximum security prison in Nuevo Laredo on 15 July 2011 left 7 inmates dead and 59 escaped 250 The 5 guards that were supposed to supervise have not been found and the Federal government urged the state and municipal authorities to strengthen the security of their prisons 251 Consequently the federal government did not hesitate to assign the Mexican Army and the Federal Police to vigilate the prisons until further notice they were also left in charge of searching for the fugitives 252 CNN mentioned that the state government of Tamaulipas later recognized their inability to work with the federal government 253 In a prison in the state of Zacatecas on 16 May 2009 an armed commando liberated 53 Gulf Cartel members using 10 trucks and even a helicopter 254 According to CNN more than 400 prison inmates escaped from several prisons in Tamaulipas from January 2010 to March 2011 due to corruption 255 Police corruption Edit The Excelsior newspaper mentioned that the police forces in the state of Tamaulipas are the worst paid in Mexico despite being one of the states hardest hit by violence 256 They also reported that in Aguascalientes a state where violence levels are much lower policemen are paid five times more than in Tamaulipas In fact they are paid around 3 618 pesos about US 260 a month in all of Tamaulipas 257 As a result most of the police forces in Tamaulipas are believed to be corrupt due to their low wages and the presence of organized crime who can easily bribe them 258 On 9 May 2011 the Mexican government along with Sedena disarmed all police forces in the state of Tamaulipas beginning with the cities of Matamoros and Reynosa 259 In June 2011 the state government of Tamaulipas requested the federal government to send in troops to combat the drug cartels in the area to consolidate actions on public safety and strengthen the capacity of their institutions 260 The Joint Operation Nuevo Leon Tamaulipas issued in 2007 along with several other military led operation by the federal government have brought thousands of troops to restore order in Tamaulipas 261 CNN mentioned that the troops replaced half of the policemen in the state of Tamaulipas 262 On 7 November 2011 about 1 660 policemen were released from their duties because they had either failed their control tests or refused to take them 263 Although there have been efforts by the federal government to wipe out police corruption Terra Networks published an article of a witness who said that the police forces in Matamoros work as informants for the Gulf Cartel and report on the activity of the Mexican military and even wave at the cartel members when they see them in the streets 264 El Universal released an article which said that the National Public Security System SNSP has condemned the cops salaries and demanded the state and municipal authorities to create better paying programs for the policemen so they can have a just wage for themselves and their families 265 The federal government is also constructing three military bases in Tamaulipas in Ciudad Mier San Fernando and Ciudad Mante 266 Alliances EditIn 2003 the arrest of several high profile cartel leaders including the heads of the Tijuana Cartel and Gulf Cartel Benjamin Arellano Felix and Osiel Cardenas Guillen turned the war on drugs into a trilateral war While in prison Cardenas and Arellano formed an alliance to defend themselves from the Sinaloa and Juarez Cartels 267 who had also allied with each other and were planning to take over the smuggling routes and territories of the Gulf and Tijuana Cartel 268 After a dispute however Cardenas ordered Arellano beaten and the Gulf Tijuana alliance ceased to exist at that point It was reported that after the fallout Cardenas ordered Los Zetas to Baja California to wipe out the Tijuana Cartel 269 The Sinaloa Juarez alliance ceased to exist as well due to an unpaid debt in 2007 and now the Sinaloa and Juarez Cartel are at war against each other 270 Since February 2010 the major cartels have aligned in two factions one integrated by the Juarez Cartel Tijuana Cartel Los Zetas and the Beltran Leyva Cartel 271 the other faction integrated by the Gulf Cartel Sinaloa Cartel La Familia Cartel now extinct and the Knights Templar Cartel 272 273 Structure Edit Gulf Cartel hierarchy The rupture from Los Zetas left Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez and Antonio Cardenas Guillen in full control of the Gulf Cartel However Ezekiel died in a shooting with the Mexican Marines in Matamoros Tamaulipas in 2010 274 and Costilla Sanchez became the sole head of the cartel until his arrest in September 2012 275 Mario Cardenas Guillen brother of both Osiel and Antonio became one of the top lieutenants in the organization after his release from prison in 2007 276 In addition within the Gulf Cartel there is believed to be two groups the Rojos and the Metros 277 The modus operandi mode of operation of the Gulf Cartel changes whenever the United States attempts to strengthen their domestic policy in reinforcing the borders When drug trafficking tightens they usually invest in more sophisticated methods to smuggle drugs recruit new members corrupt more officials seek new ways to remove obstacles that impede the immediate success of the organization along with many others 278 Below is the basic structure of the cartel Falcons Halcones Considered the eyes and ears of the streets the falcons are the lowest rank position in any drug cartel They are responsible for supervising and reporting on the activities of the Mexican military and of their rival groups 279 Hitmen Sicarios They are the armed group within the drug cartel they are responsible for carrying out assassinations kidnappings thefts extortions operating protection rackets and defending their plaza from the rival groups and the military 280 281 Lieutenants Lugartenientes The second highest position in the drug cartel organization they are responsible for supervising the sicarios and halcones within their territory They are allowed to carry low profile executions without permission from their bosses 282 Drug lords Capos This is the highest position in any drug cartel they are responsible supervising the entire drug industry appointing territorial leaders making alliances and planning high profile executions 283 It s worth noting that there are other operating groups within the drug cartels For example the drug producers and suppliers 284 although not considered in the basic structure are critical operators of any drug cartel along with the financers and money launderers 285 286 287 In addition the arms suppliers operate in a completely different circle 288 and are technically not considered part of the cartel s logistics In June 2019 Carlos Abraham Rios Suarez also known as El Oaxaco was arrested He served as head of cartel s operations in Oaxaca 289 Modus operandi EditProtection racketeering Organized crime groups opt for protection racketeering in an effort to control markets and maintaining internal order 290 It is generally seen as a way where criminals change the legal face of security and provide their own form of insurance 291 This practice of extorting money from people is also seen in the human trafficking business in Mexico the cartels threaten smugglers to pay a fee for using the corridors and if they refuse to pay drug traffickers respond in a deadly form 292 The Gulf Cartel operates in a similar way and often extorts businesses for protection money in the areas where it operates pledging to kill those who do not agree to pay the fee 293 In addition the Mexican drug cartels also tax several Mexican businesses inside the United States and threaten them with property damage and murder if they do not comply 294 Kidnappings The Gulf Cartel along with their rival group Los Zetas have been the two drug cartels with the most kidnappings in all of Mexico and more than half of the country s kidnappings are attributed to them 295 And there are several kidnapping rings of the Gulf Cartel throughout several parts of Tamaulipas 296 The Mexican military mentioned that in the states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon where the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas fight for territory abductions are carried out very commonly An intelligence agency mentioned that the Gulf Cartel kidnaps for three reasons To increase the ranks of their cartel after the deaths or arrests of their members To exterminate members of their rival gangs To kidnap people for money and other ransom 297 In April 2011 in the border city of Reynosa Tamaulipas 68 kidnapped victims from different parts of Mexico and Central America were found in a safe house of the Gulf Cartel 298 299 Omar Ortiz best known for his nickname El Gato was a former soccer star from C F Monterrey who was arrested in January 2012 for working in a kidnapping ring within the Gulf Cartel 300 The Mexican Lucha libre wrestler Lazaro Gurrola known as the Estrella Dorada Golden Star was also arrested for kidnapping people for the Gulf Cartel 301 In the United States the Gulf Cartel has been responsible for several kidnappings primarily in the McAllen metropolitan area 302 303 304 Investigators believe that more unreported kidnappings have occurred in nearby locations 305 When victims are kidnapped by the drug cartels on American territory kidnappers usually hide them in the trunk of a car and take them to Mexico 306 FBI investigators said that victims are kidnapped threatened assaulted drugged and transported into Mexico to meet with Cartel members 307 Reports indicated that kidnappers working for the Gulf Cartel train with paintball equipment to practice simulated kidnapping schemes in order to prepare for the actual kidnapping they intended to commit 308 In one reported incident Isaac Sanchez Gutierrez a man from Palmview Texas said he faced an ultimatum pay 10 million to the Gulf Cartel or transport 50 drug loads from Mexico into the U S in order to free his kidnapped brother 309 Human trafficking See also Human trafficking in Mexico Before 2010 it was not clear whether the Gulf Cartel controls the human trafficking business in its territory or whether it simply taxes operators for using their smuggling corridors 310 La Jornada mentioned that before the rupture with Los Zetas in 2007 the corridor of Reynosa Tamaulipas was often used for human smuggling 311 People smuggling is currently controlled by a cell within the Gulf Cartel known as Los Flacos dedicated to the kidnapping and smuggling of undocumented migrants as far as South America to the United States 312 It operates primarily on the Tabasco Veracruz Tamaulipas corridor 313 Human trafficking in the Rio Grande Valley has become ground zero and was considered the new Arizona in December 2011 by the Homeland Security Today 314 A U S agent mentioned that the drug cartels that operate on the Mexico United States border and principally across from Texas are in control of not only the narcotrafficking but also the human smuggling 315 Extortion In August 2007 La Mana gang an alleged sub group of the criminal group Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel was reported to have controlled the extortion business in Matamoros Tamaulipas 316 The newspaper La Vanguardia mentioned that the Gulf Cartel receives large sums of money by extorting businesses all around Tamaulipas 317 Many of the extortions are first carried out on the phone 318 gt Critics say that the strategy of capturing drug kingpins often resulted in the increase in extortion as the cartels look for other sources of money 319 Bribery When the Gulf Cartel was moving tons of cocaine to the United States and moving millions of dollars in cash along the border in the 1970s Juan Garcia Abrego decided that he needed more protection Court documents indicated that Garcia Abrego was bribing several law enforcement officials prosecutors and politicians on both sides on the border to keep himself impune and untouched 320 His former friends and associates mentioned that the drug lord was paying one of Carlos Salinas de Gortari s deputy attorneys general more than 1 5 million a month for his protection 321 He is allegedly reported to have been protected by a large private army of gunmen 322 A retired FBI agent and expert in drug trafficking explained that the Gulf Cartel relied on bribery to build its drug empire and consolidate its prominence 323 FBI agents have claimed that the Gulf Cartel moves millions of dollars in cash through the Rio Grande Valley each month a tempting amount for many U S officials 324 Much of the money stays in the area which has caused several officials both federal and state to succumb to the easy money aspect the drug money has to offer 325 The Gulf Cartel also bribes journalists to persuade them not to mention any violent incidents in the media 326 In addition due to the low paying salaries of many policemen the Gulf Cartel often buys many law enforcement officers in Mexico 327 Theft Stealing oil from PEMEX and selling it illegally has been one of the many funding activities of the Gulf Cartel 328 They were reported to have stolen around 40 of the oil products in 2011 in northern Mexico and then selling it illegally in Mexico and in the American black market 329 One leader of the Gulf Cartel confessed after his apprehension that drug trafficking is their main business but due to the difficulties they have been encountering oil theft has been an important financial cushion for the cartel 330 They have also been reported to steal vehicles 331 Money laundering Some of the revenue of the Gulf Cartel is often laundered in several bank accounts properties vehicles and gasoline stations 332 Bars and casinos are often the hubs for money laundering of the drug cartels 333 Top leaders of the Gulf organization like Juan Garcia Abrego Osiel Cardenas Guillen Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez and Antonio Cardenas Guillen among others have been charged by the U S government for laundering millions of dollars 334 Bank accounts inside the United States also launder millions of dollars for the drug lords of the Gulf Cartel 335 The Economist mentioned in 1997 that the drug money from the Gulf Cartel in the Rio Grande Valley was perhaps moving about 20 billion and that around 15 of the retailers gains were from drug money 336 Arms trafficking For the most part the arms trafficking circles of the Gulf Cartel operate directly across the border in the United States just like most of the criminal groups in Mexico 337 338 339 Nonetheless there are indeed circles within the Gulf Cartel that coordinate the arms trafficking routes inside Mexico 340 Arms trafficking from the U S to Mexico however is often carried out individually and there is no criminal group in Mexico or an international organization that is solely dedicated to this activity 341 Jesus Enrique Rejon Aguilar a top tier Los Zetas boss was caught on 3 July 2011 and claimed in an interview that was aired on national television that the Gulf Cartel unlike Los Zetas has an easier and quicker access to arms in the United States and probably works with some people in the government to traffic weapons south of the U S border 342 Prostitution network Prostitution circles are believed to be used by the Gulf Cartel to persuade journalists to favor them in the media 343 Prostitutes are also used as informants and spies and provide their sexual favors to extract information from certain targets 344 Counterfeiting The Mexican criminal organizations like the Gulf Cartel launder money through counterfeiting since they are free from taxes and more accessible to people who cannot buy original products 345 The products sold can be clothing TVs video games music computer programs and movies 346 In 2008 in the state of Michoacan the Gulf Cartel was reported to have controlled the counterfeit business where it produced and sold millions of fake CDs and movies 347 Police impersonation Reports indicate that gunmen from the Gulf Cartel often impersonate law enforcement officers using military uniforms to confuse rival drug gangs and move freely through city streets 348 Transportation Due to the Gulf Cartel s territory in northern Tamaulipas primarily in the border cities of Reynosa and Matamoros they have been able to establish a sophisticated and extensive drug trafficking and distribution network along the U S Mexico border in South Texas 349 The Mexican drug cartels that operate in the area are currently employing gang members to distribute drugs and conduct other criminal activities on their behalf 350 Among these gangs that range from street gangs to prison gangs are the Texas Syndicate the Latin Kings the Mexican Mafia Puro Tango Blast Vallucos the Hermandad de Pistoleros Latinos and the Tri City Bombers all based in the Rio Grande Valley and Webb County Texas 351 A narco submarine seized in Ecuador in July 2010 While the entire Mexico United States border has experienced high levels of drug trafficking and other illegal smuggling activities for decades this activity tends to be concentrated in certain sectors within Texas Two such sectors are the Rio Grande Valley and West Texas near the El Paso Juarez metropolitan area The high level of legitimate travel and movement of goods and services between border cities in the U S and Mexico facilitates the drug business in the area The majority of the commerce between the United States and Mexico passes through the state of Texas 352 Due to its multifaceted transportation networks and proximity to major production areas right across the border in Mexico Texas is a major hub for drug trafficking According to the National Drug Intelligence Center drug traffickers commonly use private vehicles and commercial trucks to traffic narcotics throughout the state The drug organizations usually use the Interstates 10 20 25 30 and 35 as well as U S Highways 59 77 83 and 281 353 The Gulf of Mexico also presents a danger to the flow of drugs to Texas the Port of Houston and the Port of Brownsville enable traffickers to use small vessels and pleasure craft to transport illicit drugs into and from southern Texas 354 Illicit drugs also are smuggled into and through Texas via commercial aircraft cars buses passenger trains pedestrians and package delivery services Narcotics are also smuggled through the railroads that connect the U S and Mexico Moreover the Mexican drug traffickers often use small boats to transport drugs through the coastal areas of South Texas usually operating at night to prevent them from being spotted by law enforcement officials 355 Another avenue that they have implemented is to construct tunnels to get their product across the border By constructing a tunnel the cartel can get their product across the tight border security with the possibility of no detection 356 Apart from using these common ways once the product is across the border common cars and trucks are used for faster distribution in different cities To use the seas the cartel also implemented the use of narco submarines 357 358 359 Indictments EditOn 21 July 2009 the United States DEA announced coordinated actions against the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas drug trafficking organizations Antonio Cardenas Guillen Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano and 15 of their top lieutenants have been charged in U S federal courts with drug trafficking related crimes 360 361 while the U S State Department announced rewards totaling US 50 million for information leading to their capture 360 In May 2013 Aurelio Cano Flores alias El Yankee was sentenced to 35 years in prison for conspiring to import multi ton quantities of marijuana and cocaine into the United States Cano Flores also known as Yeyo was a former Mexican police officer and is the highest ranking Gulf Cartel member to be convicted by a U S jury in 15 years 362 On 30 June 2019 Mario Alberto Cardenas Medina the son of Osiel s brother Mario was arrested in the state of Mexico 363 364 He was arrested with a female companion identified as Miriam M and is accused of being responsible for recent violence in Tamaulipas 365 In popular culture EditIn Sicario Day of Soldado 2018 the CIA framed the Matamoros Cartel for killing the antagonist s men to intentionally start a cartel war between rivals The Gulf Cartel during the late 1980s and early 1990s era is briefly portrayed in Netflix s Narcos Mexico series 2018 2021 with Mexican actor Jesus Ochoa playing Juan Nepomuceno Guerra and Flavio Medina playing 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journal cite journal a Cite journal requires journal help Kushner David 23 April 2009 Drug Sub Culture The New York Times Retrieved 25 April 2009 a b Somerville Glenn 20 July 2009 U S launches drive against Mexican drug cartel Reuters Retrieved 18 August 2009 Alleged Mexican Cartel Leaders Associates Targeted in Newest Effort to Combat Drug Trafficking Organizations Drug Enforcement Administration 20 July 2009 Archived from the original on 14 January 2012 Retrieved 14 December 2011 CDG s El Yankee Sentenced in D C to 35 Years Borderland Beat Press release DEA DOJ Google Translate Vicenteno David 30 June 2019 Cae en Naucalpan El Betito sobrino de Osiel Cardenas Excelsior Retrieved 20 December 2020 Police arrest ex drug lord s nephew blamed for Tamaulipas violence July 2019 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gulf Cartel PBS Frontline The Gulf Cartel PBS 1997 Cartel Wars by Michael Deibert Truthdig 16 May 2011Bibliography EditDrug Wars Narco Warfare in the twenty first century Flemming Gary Booksurge 2008 Correa Cabrera Guadalupe 2017 Los Zetas Inc Criminal Corporations Energy and Civil War in Mexico University of Texas Press ISBN 978 1477312773 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Gulf Cartel amp oldid 1130206296, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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