Drug War Exiles: Amid Gulf Cartel infighting, leaders taken in by U.S. authorities

An internal Gulf Cartel struggle may have directly caused at least two recent kidnappings in the Rio Grande Valley, as well as an apparent exodus of lieutenants who are looking for safety on U.S. soil.

In the last two weeks of October, Rafael “El Junior” Cardenas Vela, Eudoxio “El Bocho” Ramos Garcia and Jose Luis “Comandante Wicho” Zuniga Hernandez were arrested by U.S authorities in Port Isabel, Rio Grande City and Santa Maria, respectively.

THE ARRESTS

Each man waived his right to a detention hearing and remains in custody under the care of the U.S. Marshals Service.

Cardenas Vela is reportedly the most famous of the three leaders in custody because of his family ties. The legendary Gulf Cartel kingpin Osiel Cardenas Guillen — whom the Mexican military captured after a daylong firefight in 2003 — is Cardenas Vela’s uncle. Cardenas Guillen remains in U.S. custody after entering a guilty plea to numerous drug trafficking charges.

U.S. authorities said Cardenas Vela was apprehended after an operation targeting him. The man was reportedly pulled over for a minor traffic violation before being taken into custody by federal authorities.

A source outside law enforcement familiar with Zuniga said the cartel’s Matamoros plaza boss turned himself in to U.S. authorities alongside a small group of men Oct. 28 at the Los Indios International Bridge. That area is close to his base of operations in the Mexican town of Control Ramirez. The source confirmed that the day before Zuniga went to the bridge, an intense firefight had taken place in Control Ramirez. Zuniga made a name for himself with a ruthless approach to business, a reputation immortalized in a number of narco-corridos — songs depicting epic characters and events of the drug war. And he’s identified by various sources as a close associate of Gulf Cartel leader Eduardo “El Coss” Costilla.

A similar scenario is behind Ramos Garcia’s apprehension after his area of operations — Miguel Aleman, across the border from Roma — has been the scene of several intense firefights and the trade routes used by the Gulf Cartel have fallen under heavy guard by the Mexican military. In court records, Ramos claims to be an independent drug dealer, but law enforcement officials in both Mexico and the U.S. identify him as a former plaza boss for Miguel Aleman.

INTERNAL STRUGGLE

The cartel lieutenants fled to the U.S. after the Gulf Cartel has been involved in an internal struggle for control at least since Sept. 2 when Mexican authorities found the tortured bodies of Samuel “Metro 3” Flores Borrego, the Reynosa plaza boss, and Eloy Lerma Garcia, a Tamaulipas state police officer and the plaza boss for Diaz Ordaz. The bodies had been shot execution-style and had been left in the bed of a Ford Lobo with messages taunting their associates.

Mexican authorities never confirmed it, but sources outside law enforcement said the murders were ordered by Juan “R1” Reyes Mejia and presumably Cardenas Vela.

Soon after the murders, fighting broke out inside the Gulf Cartel in what one source called an internal coup aimed at removing Costilla Hernandez from power.

During the fighting, many of the key figures in the Gulf Cartel’s structure were killed off, including the group’s chief financial officer, Cesar “Comandante Gama” Davila; Rogelio “El Guerra” Guerra Ramirez, and a man known as “El Nektar” or “XW-10,” who was a close associate of Zuniga, the Matamoros plaza boss. The violence crossed the border Sept. 27 when 32-year-old Jorge Zavala was gunned down along U.S Expressway 83 in McAllen in an apparent hit. Sources outside law enforcement point to Zavala’s involvement in organized crime in Mexico.

U.S. law enforcement officials confirm that an internal struggle has taken place but the details of who is fighting whom remain to be seen.

While the two warring factions of the Gulf Cartel — the Metros and Reyes Mejia’s R’s, or Erres — have clashed head-on with each other, a source outside law enforcement said they also have used the Mexican military by conveying well-placed tips that lead authorities straight into drug and weapons stash houses.

“The Metros tell on the Erres and the Erres tell on the Metros,” he said.

STOLEN DRUGS

As the fighting has continued, Mexican authorities have made a record amount of seizures, many larger than 2 tons, a Mexican law enforcement official said.

Because of the struggle, the Gulf Cartel is in a financial crunch and is seeking to recuperate its losses, said a source outside law enforcement familiar with the situation.

The source said Mario Armando “Mario Pelón” or “X-20” Ramirez Treviño served as the Gulf Cartel boss in Ciudad Victoria, but after the death of Flores Borrego, he moved to Reynosa and has issued explicit orders to make the plaza profitable again.

One of the loads stolen from the Gulf Cartel was traced to the Rio Grande Valley. It was linked to a kidnapping that led to a firefight Oct. 30 between gang members working for the Gulf Cartel and Hidalgo County sheriff’s deputies. One deputy was wounded; one gang member was killed.

Soon after the shooting, Sheriff Lupe Treviño said members of the Partido Revolucionario Mexicano had been tasked with recovering the load and traced one of the loads to the area. The gang members set up a false buy to find the location, but when the ruse failed they kidnapped the individuals.

In a similar fashion on Oct. 29, a man was kidnapped north of Edinburg and then found in the trunk of a compact car at the Hidalgo International Bridge as a teen driver tried to take the man to Reynosa. Hidalgo police later confirmed that the case was also tied to the Gulf Cartel’s effort to recover stolen drugs.

While Mexican cartel members have been found on U.S. soil, they typically seek a low profile in the U.S. and limit any violence to their own rivals, not targeting members of the broader public, said George W. Grayson, government professor at the College of William and Mary and author of Mexico: Narco Violence and a Failed State?

Grayson noted that the weakening of the Gulf Cartel by its internal struggle has opened the door for the Sinaloa Federation, under the leadership of Joaquin Guzman Loera, to send its gunmen into Tamaulipas.

Although under a loose pact, those two syndicates have agreed to target the Zetas — a common rival — there is no love lost between the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels, Grayson said.