Gulf Cartel News

US Law Enforcement Targets Leaders of Mexican Drug Gangs

2009-07-23T11:47:00.000-07:00

U.S. federal law enforcement agencies have stepped up efforts to capture top leaders of two of the most powerful Mexican drug trafficking organizations that are now operating together under an umbrella framework they call "the Company". The United States and Mexico view these criminals as threats to their national security.

This week, the U.S. government announced a $50 million reward program aimed at the leaders of Mexico's Gulf cartel and former Mexican soldiers known as the Zetas, who officials say are in league with the Gulf cartel.

Read full article here: http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2009-07/2009-07-23-voa57.cfm?CFID=318035446&CFTOKEN=14628453&jsessionid=6630795e4a2a0f32b87aa352e687721e664f

U.S. indictments target Mexico's Gulf cartel

2009-07-21T11:35:00.000-07:00

Among those on the list is the 'triumvirate' of the drug trafficking enterprise and its enforcement arm, the Zetas. They are accused of funneling cocaine and marijuana from South America into Texas.

Federal authorities announced indictments Monday against the reputed leaders of Mexico's Gulf cartel and its paramilitary force, the Zetas, accusing them of trafficking tons of cocaine and marijuana from South America through the Texas-Mexico border.

Read full article: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-mexico-drug-war21-2009jul21,0,1531532.story

Indictments Target Gulf Cartel

2009-07-20T11:41:00.000-07:00

For more than three years, DEA agents seized millions of dollars in cash, thousands of kilograms of cocaine and marijuana, and uncovered enormous weapons caches. The work led to Monday's indictments against Antonio Ezequiel Cardenas-Guillen, Jorge Eduardo Costilla-Sanchez, Heriberto Lazcano-Lazcano and Miguel Trevino-Morales, along with 15 of their top lieutenants.

"We were able to infiltrate the communication networks of the cartel, identify their transportation networks, as well as their financial networks," said Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge of the DEA's Houston Division, Paul Craine.

Specifically, the indictment names Cardenas-Guillen, Lazcano-Lazcano and Costilla-Sanchez as the "Triumvirate" of control over the cartel.

Read full article: http://www.click2houston.com/news/20121895/detail.html

Rewards offered for Gulf Cartel, Zeta leaders

2009-07-20T11:40:00.000-07:00

The U.S. government announced $50 million in rewards Monday for information leading to the arrest of several top leaders of the Matamoros-based Gulf Cartel and their drug smuggling partners, the Zetas.

In what federal officials described as a “coordinated attack,” several other Obama administration departments also unveiled measures aimed at targeting the organizations including:

>> federal indictments in New York and Washington D.C. against members of both groups;

Read full article here: http://www.themonitor.com/articles/leaders-28703-rewards-gulf.html

Indictment describes shifts in Gulf-Zeta relationship

2009-07-04T11:49:00.000-07:00

The Gulf Cartel recruited the Zetas in the 1990s to help muscle its way into a highly competitive Mexican drug market.

But over the past three years, the paramilitary organization - made up of former special operations soldiers and rural street thugs - has grown in stature, engaged in independent criminal endeavors and has become an equal partner in the business once dominated by its creator.

An uneasy truce now exists in smuggling corridors from Nuevo Laredo to Matamoros, according to recently unsealed court documents.

Read full article: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/gulf-99621-indictment-cartel.html

Criminal cooperation

2009-07-02T11:42:00.000-07:00

The Gulf Cartel recruited the Zetas in the 1990s to help muscle its way into a highly competitive Mexican drug market.

But over the past three years, the paramilitary organization - made up of former special operations soldiers and rural street thugs - has grown in stature, engaged in independent criminal endeavors and has become an equal partner in the business once dominated by its creator.

Read full article: http://www.themonitor.com/articles/mexican-28169-criminal-trafficking.html

Hitmen's bloody reign all about logic, trafficker says

2009-04-15T11:43:00.000-07:00

CAMARGO, Mexico (CNN) -- There are no welcome signs on the approach to Camargo.

It's a hardscrabble Mexican border town and home turf for "Los Zetas," a gang of hitmen and corrupt former special forces cops on the bankroll of the Gulf Cartel.

Local journalists explained if we went there we'd be getting "tangled up in the hooves of the horse." They said Zeta gunmen recently smashed one reporter's fingers with a hammer as a warning to the media to stay away.

Read full article here: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/04/15/mexico.gangs/index.html#cnnSTCText

Police: U.S. teens were hit men for Mexican cartel

2009-03-13T11:44:00.000-07:00

LAREDO, Texas (CNN) -- Rosalio Reta sits at a table inside a Laredo Police Department interrogation room. A detective, sitting across the table, asks him how it all started.

Reta, in Spanish street slang, describes his initiation as an assassin, at the age of 13, for the Mexican Gulf Cartel, one of the country's two major drug gangs.

"I thought I was Superman. I loved doing it, killing that first person," Reta says on the videotape obtained by CNN. "They tried to take the gun away, but it was like taking candy from kid."

Read full article: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/12/cartel.teens/index.html#cnnSTCText

Mexican Cops Accused of Working for Drug Cartel

2009-02-19T11:46:00.000-08:00

MEXICO – Seven police, including several senior officers, were arrested in the southeastern state of Tabasco on charges they collaborated with the Gulf drug cartel, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office said Friday.

All seven were members of the Tabasco state police.

The arrests followed an investigation by the AG office’s organized-crime unit, federal prosecutors said.

Read full article here: http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=339467&CategoryId=14091