Arturo Guzmán Decena (13 January 1976 – 21 November 2002), also known by his code name Z-1 , was a Mexican Army Special Forces officer and high-ranking member of Los Zetas , a criminal group based in Tamaulipas . He defected from the military in 1997 and formed Los Zetas, the Gulf Cartel's former paramilitary wing, under the leadership of the kingpin Osiel Cárdenas Guillén .
144-771: Rolando López Salinas (1948/1953 – September 2018), also known as El Rolis , was a Mexican suspected drug lord and former high-ranking member of the Gulf Cartel , a criminal group based in Tamaulipas , Mexico. López Salinas started his criminal career as the right-hand man of his cousin Edelio López Falcón and was in charge of his security services, and later became involved in drug trafficking operations. During his criminal career, López Salinas survived two assassination attempts—one in 1999 and another in 2000—which were reportedly triggered by his differences with Gilberto García Mena ,
288-464: A U.S. citizen because he also had an American birth certificate, although Mexican authorities claimed the certificate was "fraudulent." He also had an official birth certificate that claimed García Ábrego was indeed born in Mexico. 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
432-591: A US$ 2 million bounty for his arrest. 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. He was one of the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives , which was offering $ 2 million for his capture. According to government archives, this six-month military operation
576-415: A black plastic bag. On a fence at the scene, his assassins had hung a written message warning other members of his criminal group they would also be killed if they did not surrender. Authorities stated that López Salinas' corpse had visible signs of torture and three gunshot wounds to the head. He suffered asphyxia and had multiple cuts and bruises on his face, neck, legs, and back. After disposing of his body,
720-539: A bullet into Gómez Herrera's head. Investigators later found Herrera's decaying dead body at the outskirts of the city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas . For killing Gómez Herrera, Cárdenas Guillén earned his nickname, the Mata Amigos ("Friend Killer"), and Guzmán Decena, the trust of his boss. Guzmán Decena was shot dead by Mexican soldiers inside a restaurant on 22 November 2002 in Matamoros , Tamaulipas after being spotted by
864-501: A corridor through which García Mena primarily smuggled marijuana . García Mena sought support from Osiel Cárdenas Guillén , the leader of the Gulf Cartel, to try to oust both López Salinas and López Falcón, both of whom sought the support of rival organized crime groups. In mid-2000, López Salinas and López Falcón met with members of the Sinaloa Cartel and brokered a drug deal without the Gulf Cartel's approval. Both men eventually left
1008-559: A drug cartel based in Matamoros, Tamaulipas , Mexico, was founded in the 1930s by Juan Nepomuceno Guerra . Originally known as the Matamoros Cartel (Spanish: Cártel de Matamoros ), the Gulf Cartel initially smuggled alcohol and other illegal goods into the U.S. Once the Prohibition era ended, the criminal group controlled gambling houses, prostitution rings, a car theft network, and other illegal smuggling. It grew significantly in
1152-580: A fake rumor that López Salinas and López Falcón were part of a new Nuevo León-based criminal group known as the Monterrey Cartel (Spanish: Cártel de Monterrey ) to the national press in mid-2001. This media strategy was also used to help ease the increasing law enforcement pressure the Gulf Cartel was experiencing in Tamaulipas following the arrest of García Mena and to help refocus their efforts against Cárdenas Guillén's turf competitors. The rumors prompted
1296-476: A former cartel boss. After López Falcón came into conflict with the cartel's leadership, both he and López Salinas broke ties with the cartel and forged alliances with rival criminal groups. López Salinas eventually joined the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel , a criminal group that arose from the remnants of the Sinaloa Cartel , and became one of its senior members. In 2015, law enforcement agencies identified him as
1440-477: A gas tank, causing an explosion that killed several people inside. Guzmán Decena and Lazcano fled the scene shortly thereafter. González Ruiz suffered a gunshot wound on his jaw. According to a government protected witness, multiple gunmen died inside the house but he stated that the Tamaulipas State Police covered up the incident. The Gulf Cartel failed to reach López Salinas, their intended target. After
1584-591: 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. 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. Humberto García Ábrego, brother of Juan García Ábrego, tried to take
SECTION 10
#17328838933391728-650: A large part of the deserters. The members were given a codename with the letter Z , starting with Guzmán Decena with Z-1. Within some months, Guzmán Decena commanded a mercenary army of 38 defected soldiers enticed by salaries substantially higher than those paid by the Mexican government. The GAFE soldiers that went to work with the Gulf cartel took with them a number of the Mexican Army's most sophisticated machine guns, assault rifles, pistols, bazookas, grenades, and telecommunications and surveillance equipment. The role of Los Zetas
1872-479: A massive law enforcement effort to crackdown on 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. The FBI and the DEA mounted numerous charges against him and issued
2016-661: A memo to the PGR and the Monterrey-based newspaper El Norte with pictures of López Salinas and López Falcón; the memo accused López Salinas of being in public places in Miguel Alemán with armed men and that local authorities reportedly did nothing to stop him. Authorities suspect this memo was submitted by López Salinas' rivals. To increase law enforcement and media attention against López Salinas and several of his accomplices, Cárdenas Guillén's lawyer Juan Jesús Guerrero Chapa leaked
2160-475: 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. Between 2001 and 2008, the organization of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas was collectively known as La Compañía ( The Company ). 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
2304-424: A number of firearms but the bullet-proof windows prevented any gunshots from penetrating it. López Salinas and Arias then lowered their side windows and fired back. During this exchange, Arias was shot on the elbow. Both of them were able to drive away from the scene shortly thereafter. To protect himself from future attacks, López Salinas hired six assassins from the state of Sinaloa . On 27 September 2000, however,
2448-458: A ranch in Monterrey, Nuevo León . 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. Jurors also ordered the seizure of $ 350 million of García Ábrego's assets — $ 75 million more than what was previously planned. Juan García Ábrego
2592-614: A search to kill him and those aligned with his faction. About a month after the arrest, López Falcón was subject to an assassination attempt in Guadalupe, Nuevo León. On 13 May 2001, several gunmen from Los Zetas stormed into a cockfighting arena and music concert that López Falcón was attending. He left the arena unharmed by merging with the rest of the concert-goers, but the incident spawned national headlines and catapulted López Falcón to fame. Both he and his cousin became top priorities for law enforcement. In June 2001, an anonymous citizen issued
2736-632: A source within Mexico's organized investigatory agency SEIDO , López Salinas was referred to by his code name "El 8" in the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel. In San Pedro Garza García, the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel also had a lieutenant known as Eleazar Palomo Castillo ("El Cochi"), who reportedly worked under López Salinas. On 4 September 2018, López Salinas was kidnapped at the intersection of San Agustín and Monte Everest streets in San Pedro Garza García. Municipal authorities were unsure whether he lived in
2880-456: A turf war with Los Zetas in the city of Ciudad Mier, Tamaulipas , resulting in the exodus of more than 95% of its population. Banners written by Los Zetas, the Gulf Cartel's former armed wing, appeared all across Mexico, celebrating the death of Cárdenas Guillén. United States President, Barack Obama , called the President of Mexico, Felipe Calderón, congratulating him and the Mexican forces for
3024-713: 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. 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 . Upon
SECTION 20
#17328838933393168-511: Is currently serving 11 life terms in a maximum security prison in Colorado, U.S. 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. García Ábrego's arrest
3312-407: Is still unclear why Guzmán Decena defected from the army to become a "narco-mercenary." A common explanation is that Guzmán Decena left the military in search of a higher payment, seeing that many cartel members lived ostentatiously and earned more in a year than a GAFE member earned in a lifetime. Nonetheless, he would have also lived comfortably as a successful GAFE member in the army. And by joining
3456-407: 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. Some sources reveal that as a result of the supremacy of Los Zetas, the Gulf Cartel felt threatened by
3600-472: The Gulf Cartel . But in mid-1999, Osiel Cárdenas Guillén , after his daughter's baptism ceremony, ordered Guzmán Decena to execute Gómez Herrera, the godfather of Cárdenas Guillén's baby. Gómez Herrera was cordially invited to ride in Cárdenas Guillén's Dodge Durango after the ceremony. They exchanged laughs and talked for a few minutes. Guzmán Decena, who was riding in the back seat of the truck, fired
3744-563: The Juárez Cartel , the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel and the Tijuana Cartel. 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. The death of Antonio allowed for Costilla Sánchez to become the co-leader of the Gulf Cartel and head of the Metros, one of
3888-587: The Mexican Army Special Forces in the border city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas . Guzmán Decena was born in a poor village in Puebla , Mexico on 13 January 1976, and finished middle school and high school before joining the Mexican military to escape poverty. His talents and aggressive behavior earned him a position with an elite Mexican military group called Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales (GAFE), originally trained in counter-insurgency tactics for
4032-604: The Mexican Army 's elite Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales (GAFE) to form part of the cartel's armed wing. 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. 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
4176-482: The Reynosa plaza; Arturo Basurto Peña, alias El Grande , and Iván Velázquez-Caballero alias El Talibán took control of Quintana Roo and Guerrero ; Alberto Sánchez Hinojosa, alias Comandante Castillo , took over Tabasco . 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. In 2007, Cárdenas
4320-552: The U.S. Special Forces and the Israel Defense Forces . He began to take bribes from the Gulf Cartel while still serving in the military, but eventually defected to work full-time for the criminal organization in 1997. For years he recruited other members of the Mexican Armed Forces to form Los Zetas. He served as the right-hand man of Cárdenas Guillén until 21 November 2002, when he was gunned down and killed by
4464-503: The Zapatista uprising in 1994 and for locating and apprehending members of Mexico's drug trafficking organizations. Guzmán Decena reportedly received military training from the Israeli special forces . His training came into practice after more than 3,000 Zapatista rebels seized several towns across the southern state of Chiapas in 1994. The rebellion was a symbolic rising against poverty and
Rolando López Salinas - Misplaced Pages Continue
4608-628: The supermax prison he is in. Nearly $ 30 million of the former drug lord's assets were distributed among several Texan law enforcement agencies. In exchange for another life-sentence, Cárdenas agreed to collaborate with U.S. agents in intelligence information. 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. Both of them were bought from "drug proceeds". It
4752-601: The 1970s under the leadership of kingpin Juan García Ábrego . 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 , García Ábrego was able to secure 50% of the shipment out of Colombia as payment for delivery, instead of
4896-482: The Armed Forces and brought more than 30 army deserters to form part of Cárdenas' new criminal paramilitary wing. They were enticed with salaries much higher than those of the Mexican Army. Among the original defectors were Jaime González Durán , Jesús Enrique Rejón Aguilar , and Heriberto Lazcano , who would later become the supreme leader of the independent cartel of Los Zetas. The creation of Los Zetas brought
5040-515: The English language. 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. 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
5184-533: The GAFE, Guzmán Decena was sent to the northern state of Tamaulipas . While operating as the security chief in the city of Miguel Alemán, Tamaulipas , he was recruited by Cárdenas Guillén's cartel. Investigators say that Guzmán Decena first worked with the Gulf Cartel by taking bribes from Osiel Cárdenas Guillén and turning a blind eye on the drug shipments of the cartel. Such payments were typical among military commanders, but while soldiers had often accepted bribes from
5328-516: The Gulf Cartel after Cardenas' extradition. 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 ; Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez in Matamoros; Héctor Manuel Sauceda Gamboa , nicknamed El Karis , took control of Nuevo Laredo; Gregorio Sauceda Gamboa, known as El Goyo , along with his brother Arturo, took control of
5472-466: The Gulf Cartel and formed an alliance with the Sinaloa Cartel, which promised them larger profits in exchange for allowing them to smuggle drugs in Tamaulipas. This prompted García Mena and the Gulf Cartel to fully cut ties with López Salinas and his group. At that time, the Sinaloa Cartel operated as a triangle organization and had an alliance with the Milenio and Juárez Cartels, criminal groups that rivaled
5616-475: 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. 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. The Gulf Cartel has important cells operating inside
5760-530: The Gulf Cartel has with the prison gangs in the United States have also raised concern to American officials. Reports mention that Mexican drug cartels operate in more than 1,000 cities in the United States. 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. 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
5904-430: The Gulf Cartel to end the war with Los Zetas, and bring back the "old school" ways when they were together. In June 2020, InSight Crime journalist Victoria Dittmar claimed that the Gulf Cartel had undergone "fragmentation" at some point in time. Los Pelones emerged as an independent cartel during this fragmentation as well. However, remnants still exist in Tamaulipas. Arturo Guzm%C3%A1n Decena Guzmán Decena
Rolando López Salinas - Misplaced Pages Continue
6048-475: 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. Consequently, Los Zetas joined forces with the Beltrán Leyva Cartel and the Tijuana Cartel to counterattack the opposing cartels. On 10 November 2014, a document from the Mexican government
6192-592: The Gulf Cartel. In 2001, López Salinas was accused of collaborating with three military personnel based in Tamaulipas: General Ricardo Martínez Perea , Infantryman Javier Antonio Quevedo Guerrero, and Captain Pedro Maya Díaz. The investigation against López Salinas began in January 2001, when residents from Miguel Alemán complained to federal authorities that several drug traffickers based in
6336-529: The Gulf Cartel. They began to organize kidnappings ; impose taxes, collect debts, and operate protection rackets ; control the extortion business; securing cocaine supply and trafficking routes known as plazas (zones) and executing its foes, often with grotesque savagery. In response to the rising power of the Gulf Cartel, the rival Sinaloa Cartel established a heavily armed, well-trained enforcer group known as Los Negros . The group operated similar to Los Zetas, but with less complexity and success. There
6480-445: The Gulf cartel, he was becoming a fugitive and increasing his chances of being arrested or killed. Hence, a crucial factor in his defection may have been the seismic change of Mexico's transition to democracy and the tearing rule of the PRI. The "new Mexico" and the democracy that came with it was feared by many soldiers who had made abuses during the old regime. Mounting pressures arose from
6624-632: 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. 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
6768-607: The Lobos (The wolves) were established in Laredo. 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
6912-521: The Mexican Army Special Forces to become the military armed-wing of the Gulf Cartel. 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. Among his first contacts was Arturo Guzmán Decena , an Army lieutenant who was reportedly asked by Cárdenas to look for the "best men possible." Consequently, Guzmán Decenas deserted from
7056-473: The Mexican drug cartels are believed to have deals with the mafia groups of Europe. The Gulf Cartel and other Mexican drug trafficking groups are active in the northern and western parts of Africa. 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
7200-410: The Mexican government forces on 5 November 2010, in the border city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas. 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. Other sources mention that one news reporter was also killed in the crossfire. This military-led operation
7344-566: The Mexican government to capture him. In 2010 he was finally sentenced to 25 years in prison after being charged with 22 federal charges ; the courtroom was locked and the public prevented from witnessing the proceeding. The proceedings took place in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas in the border city of Brownsville, Texas. Cárdenas has been isolated from interacting with other prisoners in
SECTION 50
#17328838933397488-543: The Mexican military captured the Gulf cartel's kingpin, Osiel Cárdenas Guillén , on 14 March 2003. The second-in-command in Los Zetas, Rogelio González Pizaña (a.k.a.: Z2 ), was captured in October 2004 and so Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano (a.k.a.: Z3 ) ascended to the leadership of the paramilitary gang, and who will become the infamous ruthless leader of the, now independent, Zetas Drug Cartel. The death of Guzmán Decena marked
7632-409: The Mexican military. Another account written by Jesús Blancornelas indicates that Guzmán Decena went to a restaurant, had a few strong drinks, snorted a line of cocaine, and then decided to visit his mistress Ana Bertha González Lagunes, who lived a few blocks away. In order to not be interrupted, Guzmán Decena reportedly ordered his henchmen to block the street and direct traffic. Nonetheless, one of
7776-501: 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
7920-758: The PGR to investigate López Salinas' links with members of the PJF and the Nuevo León State Police . Federal and state officials later stated that the Monterrey Cartel did not exist. On 31 July 2001, the Specialized Unit Against Organized Crime (UEDO), one of the PGR's former branches, carried out a joint operation with the Mexican military to arrest López Salinas in Miguel Alemán and Camargo. Security forces believed López Salinas and his associate Mario Ramírez ("La Gata") were trying to become
8064-479: The U.S. border from Brownsville, Texas . 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. Besides drug trafficking, the Gulf Cartel operates through protection rackets , assassinations, extortions , kidnappings , and other criminal activities. The members of the Gulf Cartel are known for intimidating
8208-511: 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
8352-627: The United States each month. His luck ended in November 2000 when he was captured in Tampico , Tamaulipas and imprisoned in La Palma . 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. The next in line was Sergio Gómez alias El Checo , however, his leadership
8496-429: The United States, approved executions, and signed forms to allow the purchase of police forces. 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. 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
8640-410: 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 . Through his violence and intimidation, Heriberto Lazcano took control of both Los Zetas and
8784-474: 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. 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
SECTION 60
#17328838933398928-531: The United States. The Gulf Cartel is believed to have ties with the 'Ndrangheta , an organized crime group in Italy that also has ties with Los Zetas. Reports indicated that the Gulf Cartel was using the BlackBerry smartphones to communicate with 'Ndrangheta, since the texts are "normally difficult to intercept". In 2009, the Gulf organization concluded that expanding their market opportunities in Europe, combined with
9072-474: 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. It also became known that, in addition to
9216-480: The United States—in Mission , Roma , and Rio Grande City —for example, and their presence is expanding. 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. The U.S. National Drug Threat Assessment mentioned that
9360-487: 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. Also, Los Zetas mentioned that the Gulf Cartel also kills innocent civilians, and then blames them for their atrocities. Nevertheless, other sources also reveal that Antonio Cárdenas Guillén, brother of Osiel and one of
9504-466: The area were receiving protection from the Mexican Armed Forces . An anonymous fax was sent to the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA); the fax provided details of the Gulf Cartel's use of the military for their drug-trafficking activities. López Salinas was accused of receiving information to prevent his drug shipments from being seized he was notified of the movements of law enforcement personnel in
9648-469: The area. The Mexican military sent undercover troops to the area to investigate the incident. Upon gathering information from Miguel Alemán residents, they were made aware that López Salinas reportedly owned a health clinic in the city and that Quevedo, Maya, and other military officials were hospitalized there sometime between June and July 2000 after overdosing on cocaine. In February 1999, Cárdenas Guillén met with his enforcer Arturo Guzmán Decena ("Z-1"),
9792-475: The armed wing of the entire Gulf organization. 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. However, his brother Osiel Cárdenas Guillén disapproved
9936-474: The arrest of García Ábrego. 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. Upon his capture outside the city of Monterrey, Nuevo León,
10080-700: 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. Los Zetas began to grow independently from the Gulf Cartel, and eventually a rupture occurred between them in early 2010. 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
10224-531: The assassins were captured driving away by two municipal surveillance cameras. The police did not reveal the car's description to the press. Initially, authorities were uncertain the deceased was López Salinas; preliminary reports identified the man as an "old-school" crime boss from Miguel Alemán and a border area known as La Ribereña . His body was taken to a hospital in Monterrey without being fully identified. His family officially confirmed his identity upon viewing
10368-423: The attack occurred. As they turned at a street corner, they noticed two vehicles with their hoods raised as though they had engine problems blocking the road. Arias put the vehicle into reverse but two more vehicles corralled behind them to prevent them from escaping. Arias and López Salinas reached for their weapons as they saw several gunmen exiting their vehicles. The assailants fired at López Salinas' vehicle using
10512-414: 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. Los Escorpiones, also called Grupo Escorpios, ( The Scorpions ), was believed to be the mercenary group that protected Antonio Cárdenas Guillén , the former leader of the organization. According to reports by the Mexican government, Los Escorpiones
10656-408: The city. According to eye-witnesses, the abductors arrived at the scene in three vehicles and forcibly took López Salinas and the car he was driving. López Salinas remained missing for several days. His body was found at around 2:15 a.m. on 15 September after state authorities discovered an abandoned corpse at a parking lot in the neighborhood Colonia Fuentes del Valle. His body was found wrapped in
10800-410: 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. Soon after his death, Los Zetas demanded the Gulf Cartel to hand over the killer, but they didn't, and observers believe that triggered
10944-415: The control of San Pedro Garza García. He also said it was probably linked to changes in the municipal government because it was his last month as mayor, which possibly provoked the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel into reorganizing its leadership structure and to kill López Salinas. He expected the city would likely experience more drug-related violence under the new administration. Fernández declined to give details about
11088-607: The corpse. López Salinas was between 65 and 70 years old when he was killed. The police suspected López Salinas was murdered as a result of a turf dispute between cells of the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel in San Pedro Garza García. The message his killers left at the scene identified López Salinas as a member of the faction headed by the cartel leaders Huerta Ríos and Jorge Barrera Lozano ("El Izquierdo"). The message also mentioned several other suspected cartel members, including Ray García, Jaime Garza, and three people referred to by their aliases; "El Negro", "El Veneno", and "El Sonrics". According to
11232-497: The drug corridors of Tamaulipas with the Gulf Cartel in 2003. 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. Once Cárdenas consolidated his position and supremacy, he expanded the responsibilities of Los Zetas, and as years passed, they became much more important for
11376-405: The drug lord Gilberto García Mena ("El June"), to whom both reported. López Falcón allowed this because he preferred to not be linked to that part of the business. In the late 1990s, however, López Falcón and García Mena entered into conflict with one another. The conflict started after López Falcón began diversifying the Gulf Cartel's portfolio and smuggling cocaine to the U.S. from Tamaulipas,
11520-452: The drug lord was flown to Mexico City where U.S. federal agent took him on a private plane to Houston , Texas. 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. His prosecutors, however, tried García Ábrego as
11664-470: The drug lords, it was not common for them to defect from the army and join their ranks. Bribes were seen by soldiers as "benefits" to their job, and officers stood firm to the idea that they were protectors of the Mexican people. Guzmán Decena, however, shattered that model and left the military in 1997 to work full-time with a drug trafficking organization. According to the British journalist, Ioan Grillo , it
11808-460: 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. 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 . The strong ties
11952-522: 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. Along with the market in the United States, the drug market in Europe is among the most lucrative in the world, where
12096-846: 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. 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 . The arrests of Marco Antonio Cortez Rodríguez alias Escorpión 37 and of Josué González Rodríguez alias Escorpión 43 —the two who were hospitalized after
12240-485: The families of the "disappeared" who made marches in Mexico City , and many military officers were found guilty in courts-martial for human right abuses and corruption. For years, some military generals took bribes from the cartels; amid the turmoil, Guzmán Decena acknowledged that he was better off outside the system and as a leader of Los Zetas . Cárdenas Guillén then asked Guzmán Decena to help him recruit and set up
12384-553: The following: "You will always be in our hearts. From your family, Los Zetas ." Similarly, memorials were placed in the state of Oaxaca to venerate Guzmán Decena. In an apparent revenge for Guzmán Decena's assassination, four members of the Office of the General Prosecutor were abducted and murdered near Reynosa, Tamaulipas in early 2003, allegedly by Cárdenas Guillén's men. Less than four months after Guzmán Decena's death,
12528-495: The growing force of their enforcer group and decided to curtail their influence, but eventually failed in their attempt, instigating a war. 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. Unwilling to stand for such abuse, Los Zetas responded and countered
12672-464: The gunfights. 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. The death of Antonio Cárdenas Guillen also caused a spiral of violence in Reynosa, Tamaulipas a number of days after he was killed. Moreover, his death also generated
12816-538: The gunmen for their alleged involvement in the homicide of three people in Apodaca on 22 September. After waiting several days for a warrant, judge María Guadalupe Gómez Núñez granted the Mexican Army and the Federal Judicial Police (PJF) permission to raid López Salinas' home in Miguel Alemán on 30 September 2000. Security forces suspected his house was being used as a safe house for the cartel's operations. At
12960-502: The head of the Gulf Cartel's former paramilitary group Los Zetas , at a safe house in Reynosa and ordered him to gather twenty of his henchmen to kill López Salinas. Cárdenas Guillén and López Salinas had been friends but the former wanted to kill him because of his conflict with García Mena. According to government files, Cárdenas Guillén's gunmen arrived at López Salinas' home in Miguel Alemán and surrounded it. Only Guzmán Decena and his associate Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano ("Z-3") entered
13104-478: The head of the cartel in Monterrey and San Pedro Garza García . On 4 September 2018, gunmen kidnapped López Salinas in San Pedro Garza García; his corpse was found a few days later, bearing visible signs of torture. His assassins left a sign at the crime scene warning other cartel members that they would be killed if they did not surrender. Investigators suspect he was murdered by members of his own cartel. Rolando López Salinas, also known by his nickname "El Rolis",
13248-583: The hitmen were arrested at Colonia Infonavit Rinconada in Miguel Alemán; they initially resisted arrest and fired at the police officers when confronted but they surrendered after the Tamaulipas State Police surrounded them and ordered them to turn themselves in. According to police reports, the gunmen were posing as state policemen and were arrested after authorities received an anonymous tip. In their confession, they stated they were in Tamaulipas to protect López Salinas, and that their center of operations
13392-729: The increasingly lucrative European illegal drug market. 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. The clash between these two groups first happened in Reynosa, Tamaulipas and then expanded to Nuevo Laredo and Matamoros. The war then spread out through 11 municipalities of Tamaulipas, 9 of them bordering
13536-403: The infighting could have been caused by the suspicions that the Rojos were "too soft" on the Gulf cartel's bitter enemy, Los Zetas. 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. InSight Crime explains that the fundamental disagreement between the Rojos and the Metros
13680-493: 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. 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
13824-481: The lead of the Gulf Cartel, but ultimately failed in his attempt. 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. He was to be replaced by Óscar Malherbe de León and Raúl Valladares del Ángel, until their arrest a short time later, causing several cartel lieutenants to fight for
13968-512: The leadership of their current head, Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano. 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. 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. Other sources mention that what initiated
14112-457: The leadership. Malherbe tried to bribe officials $ 2 million for his release, but it was denied. 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. He was one of the top officials of the cartel for more than 40 years, trafficking about 20 tons of cocaine to
14256-514: The leading cocaine traffickers in the area. Both López Salinas and Ramírez reportedly formed an alliance to defend themselves from the Gulf Cartel in the border area known as La Frontera Chica . They said this was due to the leadership void resulting from García Mena's arrest and López Falcón's assassination attempt, which forced him to leave Tamaulipas. The UEDO carried out this operation after U.S. authorities seized two tons of cocaine that were reportedly owned by López Salinas and Ramírez. The military
14400-555: The mid-1970s to the mid-1990s, and García Ábrego was given eleven life sentences in prison. 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 . In addition, it
14544-529: The millions. 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. 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." García Ábrego's ties extended beyond the Mexican government corruption and into
14688-401: The mobilization of the soldiers, marines, and federal police forces. 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. When the Mexican authorities reached the spot where Antonio Cárdenas ( Tony Tormenta )
14832-452: The most ferocious hit squad possible for his cartel. Mexican federal agents later released the conversation between the two after an informant passed on the information of the new unit: Cárdenas Guillén – "I want the best men. The best." Guzmán Decena – "What type of people do you need?" Cárdenas Guillén – "The best armed men that there are." Guzmán Decena – "These are only in the army." Cárdenas Guillén – "I want them." Following
14976-444: The murder. The mayor-elect Miguel Bernardo Treviño de Hoyos declined to speak to the press about the murder and its possible aftermath. Gulf Cartel The Gulf Cartel (Spanish: Cártel del Golfo , Golfos , or CDG ) is a criminal syndicate and drug trafficking organization in Mexico, and perhaps one of the oldest organized crime groups in the country. It is currently based in Matamoros, Tamaulipas , directly across
15120-407: The neighbors called an anti-organized crime agency which called on the Mexican Army . When the soldiers arrived, Guzmán Decena was unable to defend himself and was shot to death. After his death, flowers in his honor were placed on the sidewalk outside the restaurant and at his gravesite. According to the photos published by the local newspapers in Matamoros, a note accompanied the flowers and read
15264-450: The operation in Matamoros, and reiterated his effort against organized crime. 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. Others explained how his death allowed Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez to take full directive of
15408-405: The operation, the gunmen returned to the safe house in Reynosa and notified Cárdenas Guillén of what occurred. After learning of López Salinas' defection from the Gulf Cartel, García Mena plotted to kill him. On 22 September 2000, López Salinas was nearly killed in a drive-by ambush in Miguel Alemán. He was traveling in an armored Escalade vehicle with his chauffeur and bodyguard Héctor Arias when
15552-543: The operations of the Gulf Cartel. 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. The standoff triggered
15696-474: The orders, Guzmán Decena recruited dozens of soldiers from the Mexican military . Some media outlets report that the formation of Los Zetas was the result of a "mass defection" of a single army unit. But military records show that this claim is false and inaccurate. Soldiers left their ranks and joined Los Zetas over some months and were from a number of different military units, but a number of GAFE soldiers made up
15840-408: The police, the murder was likely ordered by José Rodolfo Villarreal Hernández ("El Gato"), another cartel leader and rival to López Salinas' faction. The city's mayor Mauricio Fernández Garza spoke to the press the following day and expressed his opinion of the incident. He warned the press López Salinas' murder was likely the start of a turf dispute between factions of the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel for
15984-475: The population and for being particularly violent. 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, 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 . The Gulf Cartel,
16128-400: The premises. The rest of the henchmen, including Juan Carlos de la Cruz Reyna ("Z-36"), Braulio Arellano Domínguez ("Z-20"), Hugo Ponce Salazar ("Z-4"), Mateo Díaz López ("Z-10"), Rogelio García García ("El Roger"), and Baldomero González Ruiz ("El Viejo Fox"), remained outside. A shootout between them and López Salinas' gunmen broke out at the property. During the shootout, Lazcano shot at
16272-464: The remnants of the Sinaloa Cartel. In 2015, authorities suspected López Salinas had been appointed as head of the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel in Monterrey and San Pedro Garza García by his boss Héctor Huerta Ríos ("La Burra"). He was reportedly appointed to the position to help defeat the forces of Eleazar Medina Rojas ("El Chelelo"), a leader of the Northeast Cartel faction of Los Zetas. According to
16416-439: The scene, authorities found six AK-47s, two handguns, 871 rounds of ammunition, a grenade, and twenty packages of marijuana weighing 157 kg (346 lb). They also seized two vehicle air bags, which investigators suspected López Salinas removed from his vehicles to hide grenades. The grenades were intended to be used during shootouts and were retrieved by operating a sophisticated electronic system. Authorities also confirmed
16560-444: The shootout of 5 November 2010—allowed for the Mexican forces to understand the structure of Los Escorpiones. 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. 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
16704-408: The shootout that day. And even after the drug lord was killed, the roadblocks continued throughout the rest of the day. 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
16848-574: The single-party rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and many rebels took arms; the Mexican government, however, sent in the GAFE to put down the Zapatistas. Within hours, 34 rebels were killed and three others were captured by Guzmán Decena's counter-insurgency group. Their bodies were then disposed on a riverbank – with their ears and noses sliced off. Now one of the brightest, highly trained, and bloodiest members in
16992-500: The situation was clear through the background noises of grenade explosions and automatic gunfire. A news video from Televisa , also on YouTube, shows images from the confrontations of that day. Moreover, several bystanders also recorded the shootouts. 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
17136-471: The six gunmen arrested days prior had been staying in this house and that they were probably preparing for an attack against López Salinas' rivals. On 9 April 2001, the Mexican Army arrested García Mena after a week-long manhunt in Guardados de Abajo , Camargo . The Gulf Cartel suspected López Falcón plotted against García Mena and informed Mexican authorities on his whereabouts. The Gulf Cartel thus carried out
17280-411: The state of Texas. Soon, the violence generated between these two groups had spread to Tamaulipas' neighboring states of Nuevo León and Veracruz . Their conflict has even occurred on U.S. soil, where the Gulf Cartel killed two Zeta members in Brownsville, Texas on 5 October 2010. In the midsts of violence and panic, local authorities and the media tried to minimize the situation and claim that "nothing
17424-435: 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. 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
17568-450: The two factions within the Gulf Cartel. 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. Costilla was often viewed as the "strongest leader" of the two, but collaborated with Antonio Cárdenas, who acted as representative of his jailed brother. However, Antonio died in an eight-hour shooting with
17712-400: The war. 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. Consequently, Los Zetas allied with
17856-422: Was a result of more than six months of intelligence work. 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. The confrontations started around 10:00 am, and extended to 06:00 pm, around the time Cárdenas Guilén
18000-464: Was born in Tamaulipas, Mexico between 1948 and 1953. In the 1990s, he was reportedly a member of the Gulf Cartel , a criminal group based in Tamaulipas, and worked under his cousin Edelio López Falcón ("El Yeyo") as his top enforcer and his personal bodyguard, and was responsible for managing his security services. Although López Salinas reported directly to his cousin, murder operations conducted by López Salinas and his faction were ordered directly by
18144-507: Was born in a poor family in Puebla and joined the military as a teenager to escape from poverty. While in the military, he was a talented and bright soldier, earning a position in the Special Forces of the Mexican military by the mid-1990s. During his military career, Guzmán Decena received counter-insurgency training, acquired skills in explosives, and learned how to track down and apprehend his enemies from an elite combat group trained by
18288-572: 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. Two men from the Rio Grande Valley were charged before the drug lord's arrest for laundering more than $ 30 million for García Ábrego. He was also held responsible in 1984 for the massacre of 6 people in La Clínica Raya,
18432-407: 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 . After the rupture between the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas (which until then had served as the cartel's armed wing), Los Escorpiones became
18576-405: 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
18720-427: 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. 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
18864-490: Was given to Samuel Flores Borrego , suggesting that the Metros were above the Rojos. 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. 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. Other sources indicate that
19008-533: Was in Nuevo León . The police suspected López Salinas was planning to use the gunmen to carry out an attack against García Mena's forces. After learning the gunmen were working for López Salinas, the PGR confirmed they were joining state officials in the investigation. Two agents and a commander from the Tamaulipas State Police were under investigation for allegedly providing support to López Salinas and his gunmen. In addition, Nuevo León authorities were also investigating
19152-485: Was killed. The intense shootings provoked the temporary closure of three international bridges in Matamoros, along with the University of Texas at Brownsville , just across the border. 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
19296-472: Was murdered by two gunmen inside a restaurant in Guadalajara, Jalisco . According to investigators, the attack was likely carried out by Los Zetas under Cárdenas Guillén's orders. The police stated that López Salinas was the natural successor to his cousin but that he was at risk of a similar fate. After leaving the Gulf Cartel, López Salinas sided with the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel , a criminal group that formed from
19440-520: Was occurring", but the facts were impossible to cover up. Confrontations between these two groups have paralyzed entire cities in broad daylight. 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". The bloodbath in Tamaulipas has caused thousands of deaths, but most of shootings and body counts often go unreported. The complexity and territorial advantage of Los Zetas forced
19584-454: 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. 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. When the Rojos turned on the Metros,
19728-538: 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. After his capture, Cárdenas was sent to the federal, high-security prison La Palma. However, it was believed that Cárdenas still controlled the Gulf Cartel from prison, and was later extradited to
19872-477: 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. La Jornada newspaper mentioned that over 80 SUV's packed with gunmen fought to protect Cárdenas Guillén, and over 300 grenades were used in
20016-503: 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
20160-509: 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. 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. On 14 January 1996, García Ábrego was arrested outside
20304-599: Was short-lived when he was assassinated in April 1996 in Valle Hermoso , Tamaulipas. 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). As confrontations with rival groups heated up, Osiel Cárdenas Guillén sought and recruited over 30 deserters of
20448-828: Was soon expanded by "collecting debts, securing cocaine supply and trafficking routes known as 'plazas,' and executing its foes – often with grotesque savagery." Once Juan García Ábrego , the founder of the Gulf cartel, was imprisoned in 1996, Ángel Salvador Gómez Herrera (a.k.a. El Chava ) sought to take over the assets of the criminal organization along with Cárdenas Guillén. At first, both of them functioned well together: they bought off police officers, bribed politicians and soldiers, and managed to take control of major drug shipments coming in from Guatemala . Although supposedly Cárdenas Guillén's equal, Gómez Herrera's manipulative personality annoyed Guillén, especially after Herrera's constant requests for money loans. Such behavior offended Cárdenas Guillén, who assembled his own faction within
20592-549: Was targeted. On 1 October, security forces raided another of López Salinas' properties in Rancherías, a rural community in Camargo. The property was described as a field house and had a football field. Authorities seized a grenade, six rifles, two handguns, and slightly over 550 kg (1,210 lb) of marijuana inside. The PGR did not dismiss the possibility of raiding more properties owned by López Salinas. On 3 May 2003, López Falcón
20736-468: Was withdrawn from the area on 28 July. On 4 August, a shootout between López Falcón's and López Salinas' gunmen broke out outside a cockfighting arena in Reynosa. According to police reports, the gunmen argued in the arena's parking lot following a Bobby Pulido music concert. Three people were injured in the attack. Authorities drew similarities with the shootout in Nuevo León months prior when López Falcón
#338661