This Friday it was announced that Osiel Cardenas Guillen, former leader of the Gulf Cartelwas released from prison after spending 17 years behind bars.
The 57-year-old man was in charge of a drug trafficking empire and is even known as “El Mata Amigos”, a nickname given to him by the murder of Salvador Gómez Herrera (former leader of the Gulf Cartel).
Osiel Cardenas was arrested in 2003 and extradited to the United States in 2005, where he was wanted for the crimes of Drug trafficking, money laundering and extortion of federal agents. Charges to which he pleaded guilty in 2010 to reduce his sentence.
A drug trafficking empire
The former leader of the Gulf Cartel took command of the criminal organization in 1998and it is presumed that he allied himself with Los Zetas to act as hitmen for the cartel.
According to information from the United States Department of Police (FBI), Cárdenas Guillén oversaw “a vast drug trafficking empire” responsible for the export of thousands of kilograms of cocaine and marijuana from Mexico to the United States.
“Between July 2000 and September 2001, U.S. law enforcement seized more than two thousand kilograms of cocaine directly attributable to Cárdenas Guillén (…) Drug ledgers seized in Atlanta in June 2001 indicated that The Gulf Cartel generated more than $41 million in drug profits over a three-and-a-half-month period in the Atlanta area alone,” the FBI report said.
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Police reports too “El mata amigas” is accused of threatening a DEA agent at gunpoint and an FBI agent in November 1999 while traveling in an official vehicle in Matamoros, Tamaulipas.
“They were surrounded by Cardenas-Guillen and his gang and threatened at gunpoint. Although they were eventually allowed to leave, the agents were threatened by Cardenas-Guillen and warned not to return,” the FBI said.
Now, the ICE will determine the future of the also founder of Los Zetas.
El Mata Amigos’ family is also involved in drug trafficking
After the arrest of Osiel Cardenashis brother Mario Cardenasalso known as the “M-1”, took the reins of the cartel, although he was arrested and sentenced in 2021 to 20 years in prison.
The drug trafficker also known as “El Gordo” was found guilty of the crime of organized crime.
In 2018 too The son of “El Mata Amigos”, known as Osiel Cárdenas Jr., was arrested. by Brownsville police in Texas for carrying illegal weapons.
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In the same way, Mario Alberto Cardenas Medina, alias “El Betito”nephew of the capo Osiel Cardenas Guillen and son of the “M-1” He was also arrested in 2019 by elements of the Federal Ministerial Police, of the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), in Naucalpan, State of Mexico.