Osiel Cárdenas Guillén

Osiel Cárdenas Guillén (born 18 May 1967) is a Mexican drug lord and the former leader of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas.

Originally a mechanic in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, he entered the cartel by killing Juan García Abrego's friend and competitor Salvador Gómez, after the former's arrest in 1996.

As confrontations with rival groups heated up, Osiel Cárdenas sought and recruited over 30 deserters from the Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales to form the cartel's armed wing.

Los Zetas served as the hired private mercenary army of the Gulf Cartel.

Following Juan García Abrego's 1996 arrest by Mexican authorities and subsequent extradition to the United States, his brother Humberto García Abrego tried to take over the leadership 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; his surname meant this would continue.

He was to be replaced by Óscar Malherbe de León and Raúl Valladares del Ángel, until their arrest a short time later.

This led several cartel lieutenants to fight for the leadership.

Malherbe tried to bribe officials with $2 million to obtain his release, but it was denied.

Hugo Baldomero Medina Garza, known as El Señor de los Tráilers, is considered one of the most important members of the Gulf Cartel.

He was one of the top cartel officials for more than 40 years, trafficking about 20 LT of cocaine to the United States each month.

The next in line was Sergio Gómez alias El Checo, however, his leadership was short-lived when he was assassinated in April 1996 in Valle Hermoso.

In 1997, the Gulf Cartel began to recruit military personnel that Jesús Gutiérrez Rebollo, an army general of that time, had assigned as representatives from the Attorney General of Mexico's 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 this, Cárdenas took control of the cartel in July 1999 after assassinating Salvador Gómez Herrera alias El Chava, co-leader of the Gulf Cartel and his close friend, earning his nickname Mata Amigos (Friend Killer).

After Osiel Cárdenas took full control of the Gulf Cartel in 1999, he found himself in a no-holds-barred fight to keep his notorious organization and leadership untouched, and sought out members of the Mexican Army Special Forces to become the military armed-wing of the Gulf Cartel.

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.

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 the Armed Forces and brought more than 30 army deserters with him to form part of Cárdenas’ new criminal paramilitary wing.

They were enticed with salaries much higher than those paid by the Mexican Army.

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 laundering money; this case is still open.

Between 2001 and 2008, the organization of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas was collectively known as La Compañía (The company).

The death of Arturo Guzmán Decena (2002), and the capture of Rogelio González Pizaña (2004), the second-in-line, marked the opportunity for Heriberto Lazcano to take charge of Los Zetas.

After a shootout with the Mexican military in 2003, Cárdenas was arrested and imprisoned.

One of the first missions of Los Zetas was to eradicate Los Chachos, a group of drug traffickers under the orders of the Milenio Cartel, who disputed the drug corridors of Tamaulipas with the Gulf Cartel in 2003.

This gang was controlled by Dionisio Román García Sánchez alias El Chacho, who had decided to betray the Gulf Cartel and switch his alliance to 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 to the Gulf Cartel.

They began to organize kidnappings, impose taxes, collect debts, operate protection racket, control the extortion business, secure cocaine supply and trafficking routes known as plazas (zones) and execute 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 similarly to Los Zetas, but with less complexity and success.

Upon the arrest of the Gulf Cartel boss Cárdenas in 2003, and his extradition in 2007, the actions of Los Zetas changed—they began to become synonymous with the Gulf Cartel, and their influence grew within the organization.

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.

In 2007 he was extradited to the U.S. and in 2010 he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for money laundering, drug trafficking, and for having threatened two U.S. federal agents in 1999.

His brother, Mario Cárdenas Guillén, worked for the Gulf Cartel, as did another brother, Antonio Cárdenas Guillén, who was killed by Mexican Marines on 5 November 2010.

He is currently imprisoned at USP Terre Haute with a release date of 30 August 2024.

His inmate number is 62604–079.

Among the original defectors were Jaime González Durán, Jesús Enrique Rejón Aguilar, and Heriberto Lazcano, who was killed in 2012 while he was the supreme leader of Los Zetas.

The creation of Los Zetas ushered in a new era of drug trafficking in Mexico.