A brief history of the Gulf Cartel.
Created by insightcrime on Oct 21, 2010
Last updated: 07/14/12 at 04:19 PM
Tags: InSight Mexico Gulf Cartel Zetas
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Despite the Gulf Cartel’s attempts to blame the Zetas for the dumping of 49 mutilated corpses in Nuevo Leon, the military arrests 8 alleged cartel members over the massacre.
http://www.insightcrime.org/insight-latest-news/item/2650-mexico-arrests-8-gulf-cartel-members-over-nuevo-leon-massacre
Excelsior reports that in an attempt to hold Reynosa in its battle against the Zetas, the Gulf Cartel has turned to employing women. Female cartel members are reported hold key strategic positions in the organization.
http://www.insightcrime.org/insight-latest-news/item/2303-mexico-gang-turns-to-women-to-hold-key-city
Former Gulf plaza boss and nephew of Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, alias “Junior,” pleads guilty to drug trafficking charges in a US district court.
http://www.insightcrime.org/insight-latest-news/item/2343-gulf-cartel-plaza-boss-pleads-guilty-in-us-court
A fight between members of the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas breaks out in a Nuevo León prison, leaving 44 dead and highlighting the dangers of Mexico’s corrupt, overcrowded prison system.
http://www.insightcrime.org/insight-latest-news/item/2241-zetas-gulf-cartel-prison-fight-leaves-44-dead
Mexico’s Attorney General’s office opens an investigation into the three most recent governors of Tamaulipas for their alleged links with the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas. Some accuse the government’s decision to investigate the three PRI politicians of being “politically motivated.”
http://www.insightcrime.org/insight-latest-news/item/2164-mexico-investigates-governor-trio-in-politically-motivated-corruption-probeâ¨
Weakened by its own infighting, the Gulf Cartel has ceded control of much of its territory to the Zetas since early 2010. The group’s current head, Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez, alias “El Coss,” is the only remaining leader from cartel’s heyday in the early 2000’s.
http://www.insightcrime.org/insight-latest-news/item/2213-gulf-cartel-boss-exploits-turmoil-in-northeast-mexico
Alleged Gulf financier Cesar Davila García, alias "El Gama," is killed, leading to increased speculation about fighting between two cartel factions. The Metros, a group loyal to leader “El Coss,” have clashed repeatedly with the Rojos, who once formed part of the Gulf’s armed wing.
http://www.insightcrime.org/insight-latest-news/item/1699-death-of-gulf-cartel-finance-chief-sign-of-internal-strife
Nine years after his escape from federal prison, alleged former Gulf Cartel chief financial officer, Manuel Alquisires García, alias “El Meme,” is recaptured by marines.
http://www.insightcrime.org/insight-latest-news/item/1555-mexico-marines-recapture-fugitive-gulf-cartel-moneyman
Following the murder of two bodyguards serving Nuevo León’s governor by suspected Gulf Cartel assassins, 26 members of Zuazua’s local police are arrested for allegedly protecting the killers.
http://www.insightcrime.org/criminal-groups/colombia/farc/item/1103-26-police-arrested-as-mexico-investigates-bodyguards-murder
Once hailed as one of the safest cities in Mexico, violence explodes in Monterrey in the wake of the split between the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas. The violence is accompanied by a sharp rise in extortion, forcing many local businesses to close.
http://www.insightcrime.org/insight-latest-news/item/1026-behind-the-battle-for-monterrey
After initial reports blamed the Gulf Cartel for the death of poet Javier Sicilia’s son, the organization releases banners denying any involvement and leaves the alleged perpetrator Rodrigo Elizalde beaten and bound for the authorities.
http://www.insightcrime.org/insight-latest-news/item/808-a-poets-son-dies-mexico-finds-answer-in-the-abyss
In an attempt to stem the violence caused by the battle between the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas, Calderón sends more military and police to Tamaulipas and Nuevo León.
http://www.insightcrime.org/insight-latest-news/item/274-mexico-sends-more-troops-to-troubled-border-area
Antonio Ezequiel Cárdenas Guillen, alias “Tony Tormenta,” is killed in a shootout with the army in Matamoros, leaving Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez in charged of the Gulf Cartel. Officials fear an increase in violence following his death.
http://www.insightcrime.org/insight-latest-news/item/230-tony-tormenta-leader-of-gulf-cartel-dies-after-6-hour-battle-in-matamoros
Federal Police announce that the Gulf Cartel has formed an anti-Zetas alliance with its former enemy La Familia Michoacana in the state of Tamaulipas.
http://www.terra.com.mx/noticias/articulo/900459/Revelan+que+cartel+del+Golfo+usa+a+La+Familia+en+Tamaulipas.htm?ref=1
Following the assassination of Sergio Peña, alias' Concord 3,' by suspected members of the Gulf Cartel, the Zetas demand that Gulf leaders hand over the culprits. When they refuse, the Zetas declare war on the Gulf Cartel and the two break definitively.
http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/03/shift-in-cartel-landscape.html
Violence drops in Tamaulipas, but it is unclear whether this is because the Gulf Cartel was successful in driving out the Sinaloans, or whether the peace came as a result of a ceasefire. Most of the violence, meanwhile, moves westwards to Juárez and Tijuana, only to return in 2010.
The armed wing of the Gulf Cartel, the Zetas, claim more independence from their former masters. The two organizations, however, continue to do business with one another, although tensions are high and Gulf Cartel leader Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez, alias 'El Coss,' refuses to meet with any Zeta leader in person.
Cárdenas is extradited to the US, where he is wanted on trafficking charges. Ismael and Gilberto Higuera Guerrero of the Tijuana Cartel and Héctor Palma Salazar, a commander in the Sinaloa cartel, are also extradited. It is one of the first signals that President Felipe Calderón is intent on maintaining his hardline stance against the drug trafficking organizations.
The Sinaloa-Gulf war descends into even more bloodshed after the assassination of Arturo Guzmán, the brother of the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, Joaquín Guzmán. He is killed in La Palma, the same maximum security prison holding Cardenas.
In an indication of Cárdenas’ continued influence and control over the Gulf Cartel even behind prison walls, police and military troops seize La Palma and install a security clampdown.
The Gulf and Sinaloa Cartels fight a brutal battle for control over one of the country's most lucrative drug corridors. An estimated 7,000 trucks cross the Nuevo Laredo border everyday.
Osiel Cárdenas is arrested following a brutal police shootout in the Gulf’s center of operations in Matamoros, Tamaulipas.
Two US Drug Enforcement Administration agents stationed in Matamoros are threatened by a caravan of eight vehicles and 15 armed men, including Cárdenas Guillén. Two years later the US State Department offers $2 million for his capture.
Ábrego’s heir, Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, recruited at least 31 former soldiers of Mexico’s Special Forces to act as security enforcers, for at least three times their previous pay. This protection unit later breaks off from the Gulf Cartel and becomes known as the Zetas.
After a bloody internal struggle, Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, a former small time dealer who owns a car repair shop, takes control of the Gulf Cartel.
Mexican authorities arrest the Gulf cartel leader in Monterrey. The FBI first included García Ábrego on their "10 Most Wanted" list in March 1995. But despite remaining a fugitive, García Ábrego enjoyed protection from some top level operatives in President Carlos Salinas' government. This includes federal and national police commanders and the deputy attorney general, Mario Ruiz Massieu. García Ábrego is deported to the US because he is a US citizen, tried in a Houston court and convicted on drug trafficking charges October 16, 1996.
Anti-narcotic agents find nine tons of cocaine stashed in a farmhouse in Harlingen, Texas, the second largest seizure in US history. Another $20 million of drug money is found later in a furniture warehouse in New York City. Another $10 million is found in a car parked at a Houston airport. A year later García Ábrego is indicted in a federal court in Dallas, then again in 1993 in Houston. Prosecutors later say that García Ábrego turned the Gulf Cartel into a $4-billion-a-year business.
The Colombians are forced to look to Mexico for new trafficking routes overland, after the US authorities crack down on maritime routes in the Caribbean. But García changes the rules of the game. García pushes for up to 50 percent of the profits on major cocaine shipments, and, more importantly, builds up his own distribution networks in the US. Two decades later, most of the profits from drug trafficking are concentrated in the hands of the Mexican Cartels.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation successfully infiltrates the Gulf Cartel with an insider who grows close to García Ábrego. The two first meet when García is living in Brownsville, Texas. As a Christmas present, García sends the informant two boxes containing $39,880. At another point the cartel leader offers the informant $100,000, packed in grocery bags, in return for acting as a mole in US law enforcement. Taped conversations between the two men will later provide crucial testimony when García is arrested and tried in Houston, ten years later.
39-year-old José García Ábrego, a marijuana trafficker and small-time car thief, orders a hit on his rival, Casimiro Espinosa, in a Mexican hospital. With Espinosa's death, García Ábrego controls the key city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, where Espinosa operated. García Ábrego successfully expands his uncle’s drug trafficking business, a relatively small-time marijuana operation, into cocaine, partnering with the Colombian cartels.
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