[144] Moreover, several bystanders also recorded the shootouts. Drug Wars: Narco Warfare in the twenty-first century. "[229] Luebbert Gutiérrez later recognized the work of the federal troops and acknowledged that his city was experiencing "an escalation in violence. [21], 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. 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. Two such sectors are the Rio Grande Valley and West Texas, near the El Paso–Juárez metropolitan area. Flemming, Gary. [86] 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. [238] Authorities are still trying to understand how the prisoners escaped. officials. 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. [106] Cárdenas has been isolated from interacting with other prisoners in the supermax prison he is in. [329] 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. [227] 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. 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. [137] 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. Their network is international, and are believed to have dealings with crime groups in Europe, West Africa, Asia, Central America, South America, and the United States. [126][127] 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. The incident escalated as Cárdenas Guillén threatened to kill them if they di… 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. Garcia Abrego brokered a deal with the Cali Cartel, the Colombian mega-structure that was looking for new entry routes into the US market after facing a clampdown on their Caribbean routes by US law enforcement. [347], 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. [234] Cabeza de Vaca is accused by a Bloomberg/El Financiero of having a big and unexplained wealth of 951 million pesos. 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. [81], The standoff triggered a massive law enforcement effort to crackdown the leadership structure of the Gulf Cartel. The main areas of demand and drug consumption are in Eastern Europe, the successor states of the Soviet Union. After Samuel Flores Borrego was killed, the Gulf Cartel had lost many of its drug loads to rival groups and its own members, so when the new leader was appointed, "one of the first directives issued was to recuperate its losses.". [177], 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. [173] 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. In Western Europe, the primarily increase has been in the use of cocaine. [315], Bribery [204] 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". [109] 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". Former Gulf Cartel leader Jorge Eduardo Costilla-Sanchez, alias “El Coss,” pleaded guilty in a US federal court on September 26 to drug trafficking charges and two counts of assault, according to a US Justice Department press release. In addition, he was under observation and was widely known, since his surname meant more of the same. [175] 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. [338], Prostitution network [199] Soon, the violence generated between these two groups had spread to Tamaulipas' neighboring states of Nuevo León and Veracruz. [324] 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. [235] Cabeza de Vaca is accused of not reporting its total wealth and having properties both in Texas, Tamaulipas, and Mexico City. Organized crime groups opt for protection racketeering in an effort to control markets and "maintaining internal order. He is wanted in both Mexico and the United States. [33] 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. "[252] They also reported that in Aguascalientes, a state where violence levels are much lower, policemen are paid five times more than in Tamaulipas. [195][196], 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. [22][23], García Ábrego's business had grown to such length that the FBI placed him on the Top Ten Most Wanted in 1995. [352] Apart from using these common ways, once the product is across the border, common cars and trucks are utilized for faster distribution in different cities. [254], 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. The buses made great transportation, as Antonio Ortiz noted since they were never stopped at the border. [187] 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[188] 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. 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. 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. 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. [358], On 30 June 2019, Mario Alberto Cárdenas Medina, the son of Osiel's brother Mario, was arrested in the state of Mexico. [273] 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. [285], Protection racketeering [223] 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. In June 2019, Carlos Abraham Ríos Suárez, also known as El Oaxaco, was arrested. Gulf Cartel Leader 'El Diablo' Arrested in Cameron County - Duration: 1:15. [60] In response to the rising power of the Gulf Cartel, the rival Sinaloa Cartel[74] established a heavily armed, well-trained enforcer group known as Los Negros. 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. 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. [333][334][335] Nonetheless, there are indeed circles within the Gulf Cartel that coordinate the arms trafficking routes inside Mexico. Narcotics are also smuggled through the railroads that connect the U.S. and Mexico. [215] 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. The two agents traveled to Matamoros with an informant to gather intelligence on the operations of the Gulf Cartel. [289] 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.[290]. [247] 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. [162][163] 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. [232] While his election did not had 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. [47] He was to be replaced by Óscar Malherbe de León and Raúl Valladares del Ángel, until their arrest a short time later,[48] causing several cartel lieutenants to fight for the leadership. Cárdenas Guillén demanded the agents and the informant to get out of their vehicle, but they refused to obey his orders. In fact, they are paid around $3,618 pesos (about US$260) a month in all of Tamaulipas. [274] Below is the basic structure of the cartel: It's worth noting that there are other operating groups within the drug cartels. 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. [287] 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. [206] 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. [314] --> A lock ( The rupture from Los Zetas left Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez and Antonio Cárdenas Guillén in full control of the Gulf Cartel. 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. "Prosecutors Claim Brother of Ex-President had Ties with Garcia Abrego" Reforma May 22, 1996. [46] He did not have the leadership skills nor the support of the Colombian drug-provisioners. [128][129], Costilla was often viewed as the "strongest leader" of the two, but collaborated with Antonio Cárdenas, who acted as representative of his jailed brother. CBS 4 News Rio Grande Valley 8,922 views. [112] 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. [191] 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. [339] Prostitutes are also used as informants and spies, and provide their sexual favors to extract information from certain targets. [57], 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. On 18 August 2013, Gulf Cartel leader Mario Ramirez Trevino was captured. [110], It is unclear which of the two – the Gulf Cartel or Los Zetas – started the conflict that led to their break up. [266] 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;[267] the other faction integrated by the Gulf Cartel, Sinaloa Cartel, La Familia Cartel (now extinct) and the Knights Templar Cartel.[268][269]. [113] Unwilling to stand for such abuse, Los Zetas responded and countered the accusations by posting their own banners throughout Tamaulipas. [183] 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. 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. 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. [77], 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 greater within the organization. [35] 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. [145][146][147], 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. [26] Jurors also ordered the seizure of $350 million of García Ábrego's assets — $75 million more than what was previously planned. Although its founder Juan Nepomuceno Guerra smuggled alcohol in large quantities to the United States during the Prohibition era,[11] it was not until the 1980s that the cartel was formed and shifted to drug trafficking—primarily cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin—under the command of Juan Nepomuceno Guerra and Juan García Ábrego. [166], Los Escorpiones, also called Grupo Escorpios,[167] (The Scorpions), was believed to be the mercenary group that protected Antonio Cárdenas Guillén, the former leader of the organization. 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. [184] 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. [40] Two men from the Rio Grande Valley were charged before the drug lord's arrest for laundering more than $30 million for García Ábrego. [297], In the United States, the Gulf Cartel has been responsible for several kidnappings, primarily in the McAllen metropolitan area. [83] The FBI and the DEA mounted numerous charges against him and issued a US$2 million bounty for his arrest. [103] In 2010 he was finally sentenced to 25 years in prison after being charged with 22 federal charges;[104] the courtroom was locked and the public prevented from witnessing the proceeding. 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. [219][220] 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". [79][80], 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. You are not authorized to access this page. [75] The group operated similar to Los Zetas, but with less complexity and success. [108] In exchange for another life-sentence, Cárdenas agreed to collaborate with U.S. agents in intelligence information. [294][295] Omar Ortiz, best known for his nickname El Gato, was a former soccer star from C.F. [58] His goal was to protect himself from rival drug cartels and from the Mexican military, in order to perform vital functions as the leader of the most powerful drug cartel in Mexico. [239] The authorities mentioned that the incident is "under investigation," but did not give further information. The incident escalated as Cárdenas Guillén threatened to kill them if they did not comply and as his gunmen prepared to shoot. [12] However, remnants still exist in Tamaulipas. 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,[356][357] while the U.S. State Department announced rewards totaling US$50 million for information leading to their capture. [121][122] Consequently, Los Zetas allied with the Juárez Cartel, the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel and the Tijuana Cartel. "El Contador," has been apprehended. [345] 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. Se Busca Informacion Show More Show Less 2 of 63. [242] 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. [182] 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. [330] Bank accounts inside the United States also launder millions of dollars for the drug lords of the Gulf Cartel. The once mighty Gulf Cartel has declined significantly in recent years, losing ground to rival organizations along with a number of key leaders. [25] He was quickly extradited to the United States where he stood trial eight months after his arrest. The Vaquero is believed to be Evaristo Cruz, the suspected leader of the Gulf Cartel in Tamaulipas. 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, turned the war on drugs into a trilateral war. This week, the Tamaulipas government announced a cash reward of $2 million pesos or $100,000 USD for information leading to the arrest of Evaristo “El Vaquero” Cruz, the current leader of the Matamoros faction of the Gulf Cartel, aka “Los Escorpiones.” García Ábrego was apprehended on 14 January 1996, and Mexico shortly after received certification on 1 March. In addition to trafficking drugs, García Ábrego would ship cash to be laundered, in the millions. [175] 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. [41] 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. REYNOSA, Tamaulipas – Two local leaders of the Gulf Cartel control the smuggling of migrants and asylum seekers into Texas for profit. [133] This military-led operation was a result of more than six months of intelligence work. [170] 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. [118] 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. 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. The Gulf cartel is one of Mexico's oldest, dating back to the Prohibition era. Read the DEA background on this cartel. [9] The members of the Gulf Cartel are known for intimidating the population and for being particularly violent.[10]. [210] The massacre of the 72 migrants and the clandestine mass graves with more than 250 bodies in San Fernando, Tamaulipas,[211][212] mounted with the assassination of the state candidate Rodolfo Torre Cantú (2010),[213] 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. [221] PRI's main opposition party, the PAN, claimed that government elections in Tamaulipas are likely to encounter an "organized crime influence. "[60] Consequently, Guzmán Decenas deserted from the Armed Forces and brought more than 30 army deserters to form part of Cárdenas' new criminal paramilitary wing.
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