In addition to trafficking drugs, Garca brego would ship cash to be laundered, in the millions. [306] FBI investigators said that victims are "kidnapped, threatened, assaulted, drugged and transported into Mexico to meet with Cartel members. The incident escalated as Crdenas Guilln threatened to kill them if they did not comply and as his gunmen prepared to shoot. It is clear, however, that after the capture and extradition of Osiel Crdenas Guilln, Los Zetas outclassed the Gulf Cartel in revenue, membership, and influence. Mexican Natioanla Guard prepare a search mission for four U . Washington McGee, Eric Williams, Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown were kidnapped on March 3 as they were driving to a medical appointment in Matamoros, Mexico. MATAMOROS, TAMAULIPAS, MEXICO Oct 23 (Reuters) - A car chase and shootout between gang members and law enforcement near Mexico's northern border, left three members of the powerful Gulf Cartel dead along with one bystander, officials said on Saturday, October 23rd. 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 Garca brego. [347], Police impersonation To use the seas, the cartel also implemented the use of narco submarines. [145], The Guardian newspaper mentioned that in a YouTube video, a convoy of SUV's filled with gunmen and pickups packed with marines were seen in a chase through the streets of Matamoros, Tamaulipas. [213] Los Pelones emerged as an independent cartel during this fragmentation as well. Drug Wars: Narco Warfare in the twenty-first century. [240] Also according to Proceso, Baltazar Hinojosa is under investigation by the United States Department of Treasury for laundering money through the Panama Papers target, the law firm Mossack Fonseca. [235] He won under the slogan "winds of change are coming" to Tamaulipas. The individuals in question never moved to intervene. October 25, 2021. [180], Originally, the Gulf cartel was running smoothly, but the infighting between the two factions in the Gulf cartel triggered when Flores Borrego was killed on 2 September 2011. 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. [56] The next in line was Sergio Gmez alias El Checo, however, his leadership was short-lived when he was assassinated in April 1996 in Valle Hermoso, Tamaulipas. [44] He was also held responsible in 1984 for the massacre of 6 people in La Clnica 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 slainboth in Matamoros, Tamaulipas. On Tuesday, Mexican and U.S. officials said two of the four U.S. citizens were found dead and two are alive. Booksurge, 2008. The high level of legitimate travel and movement of goods and services between border cities in the U.S. and Mexico facilitates the drug business in the area. However, being a border city, U.S. citizens who live in Brownsville or elsewhere in Texas frequently cross to visit family, get medical care or shop. The men then proceed to drag two people into the vehicle. [169], Los Escorpiones, also called Grupo Escorpios,[170] (The Scorpions), was believed to be the mercenary group that protected Antonio Crdenas Guilln, the former leader of the organization. [174], However, his brother Osiel Crdenas Guilln disapproved the existence of this mercenary group, since he had created Los Zetas, the parallel version of Los Escorpiones, and they had turned against the organization. [252] CNN mentioned that the state government of Tamaulipas later recognized "their inability to work with the federal government. [201] The war then spread out through 11 municipalities of Tamaulipas, 9 of them bordering the state of Texas. The agents tried to reason with him that killing U.S. federal agents would bring a massive manhunt from the U.S. government. Zalandria Brown said Zindell Brown, who lives in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and two friends were with a third friend who was going to Mexico for "tummy tuck" cosmetic surgery. [104], In 2007, Crdenas 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. [109] Crdenas has been isolated from interacting with other prisoners in the supermax prison he is in. 18 Colima - A Previously Peaceful Paradise A woman who traveled to the Mexican border with the four Americans who were kidnapped said that she warned police when the group didn't return on schedule. [117], Nevertheless, other sources also reveal that Antonio Crdenas Guilln, brother of Osiel and one of the successors of the Gulf Cartel, was addicted to gambling, sex, and drugs, leading Los Zetas to consider his leadership as a threat to the organization. [24], It also became known that, in addition to the INS bus scam, Garca brego 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. They also fought for coastal cities Acapulco, Guerrero and Cancn, Quintana Roo; the state capital of Monterrey, Nuevo Len, and the states of Veracruz and San Luis Potos. He declined to share additional information about the investigation into their abduction. In fact, they are paid around $3,618 pesos (about US$260) a month in all of Tamaulipas. Its base of power is in northeast Mexico, especially the states of Tamaulipas and . By Daniel Becerril. [30] Juan Garca brego is currently serving 11 life terms in a maximum security prison in Colorado, U.S.[31] In 1996, it was disclosed that Garca brego's organization paid millions of dollars in bribes to politicians and law enforcement officers for his protection. [317] Many of the extortions are first carried out on the phone. The intense shootings provoked the temporary closure of three international bridges in Matamoros,[139] along with the University of Texas at Brownsville, just across the border. [178] Crdenas 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 Crdenas Guilln on 5 November 2010. [300] The Mexican Lucha libre wrestler Lzaro Gurrola, known as the Estrella Dorada (Golden Star), was also arrested for kidnapping people for the Gulf Cartel. The main areas of demand and drug consumption are in Eastern Europe, the successor states of the Soviet Union. [227] On 30 January 2012, the Attorney General of Mexico issued a communiqu 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. [223][224] In addition, El Universal newspaper mentions that the narco-corruption in Tamaulipas is due to the fact the opposing political parties, the PAN and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), rarely win an election and "practically do not exist". Information and translations of Matamoros in the most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on the web. [205] In the midsts of violence and panic, local authorities and the media tried to minimize the situation and claim that "nothing was occurring", but the facts were impossible to cover up. Here is what else we know so far about the case. According to El Universal, there are several music videos on YouTube that exalt the power of this armed group through narcocorridos. -CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues contributed reporting. El reportaje revel presuntos conflictos entre las Fuerzas Armadas. The rupture from Los Zetas left Jorge Eduardo Costilla Snchez and Antonio Crdenas Guilln in full control of the Gulf Cartel. [95], The arrest and extradition of Crdenas, however, caused for several top lieutenants from both the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas to fight over important drug corridors to the United States, especially the cities of Matamoros, Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa, and Tampicoall situated in the state of Tamaulipas. 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. Unbelievable! [58], As confrontations with rival groups heated up, Osiel Crdenas Guilln sought and recruited over 30 deserters of the Mexican Army's elite Grupo Aeromvil de Fuerzas Especiales (GAFE) to form part of the cartel's armed wing. [196], The Gulf Cartel and other Mexican drug trafficking groups are active in the northern and western parts of Africa. [147] Moreover, several bystanders also recorded the shootouts. Observations indicate that the Gulf Cartel controls territories and imposes its own rulesoften violent and bloodyover the population. [291] This practice of extorting money from people is also seen in the human trafficking business in Mexico; the cartels threaten smugglers to pay a fee for using the corridors, and if they refuse to pay, drug traffickers respond in a deadly form. [41] During the four-week trial, 84 witnesses, ranging from "law enforcement officers to convicted drug smugglers", confessed that Garca brego smuggled loads of Colombian cocaine on planes and then stored them in several border cities along the MexicoUnited States border before being smuggled to the Rio Grande Valley. [325] The Gulf Cartel also bribes journalists to persuade them not to mention any violent incidents in the media. 3:33. [11][12] Besides drug trafficking, the Gulf Cartel operates through protection rackets, assassinations, extortions, kidnappings, and other criminal activities. [342], Prostitution network [39] Hours after the judge told Garca brego that he was going to spend the rest of his life in prison, the death penalty was out of the question for the prosecutors. [10] It is currently based in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, directly across the U.S. border from Brownsville, Texas . On Friday March 3, four U.S. citizens werekidnapped after a brazen attack carried out by multiple gunmen in the northern Mexico border city of Matamoros. After his imprisonment a short time later, Jorge Madrazo Cullar created the National Public Security System (SNSP), to fight the drug cartels along the U.S.Mexico border. This page was last edited on 13 March 2023, at 17:56. "All four Americans were placed in a vehicle and taken from the scene by armed men," the FBI said. After Osiel Crdenas Guilln 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. [91] However, it was believed that Crdenas still controlled the Gulf Cartel from prison,[92] and was later extradited to the United States, where he was sentenced to 25 years in a prison in Houston, Texas for money laundering, drug trafficking and death threats to U.S. federal agents. [263], Although there have been efforts by the federal government to wipe out police corruption, Terra Networks published an article of a witness who said that the police forces in Matamoros work as "informants for the Gulf Cartel" and report on the activity of the Mexican military, and even "wave at [the cartel members]" when they see them in the streets. 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