Mexico City: Mexican marines have captured Mario Cardenas Guillen, a major leader of the Gulf Cartel, one of Mexico’s notorious drug trafficking organizations, the navy said Tuesday.
Known as “El Gordo” (“The Fat One”), Cardenas Guillen was holding a “large weapon” at a building entrance when he was caught Monday in Altamira, a city in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, which borders Texas, the navy said.
He was “one of the main leaders” of the Gulf Cartel, said navy spokesman Jose Luis Vergara.
Soldiers confiscated the large weapon, three clips holding 30 bullets each, two grenades, 129,700 pesos ($9,850) in cash and four small plastic bags containing a white powder resembling cocaine, Vergara said.
The arrest deals a new blow to the Gulf Cartel, which has been weakened since it broke ties in 2010 with its hit men, the Zetas, who have since become a rival drug trafficking group.
After his release from prison in 2007, Cardenas Guillen and his brother Antonio Cardenas Guillen, or “Tony Tormenta,” took control of the Gulf Cartel, Vergara said.
But the criminal gang split into two factions after “Tony Tormenta” was killed in a shootout with Mexican troops in 2010, the spokesman said.
One side remained loyal to the Cardenas family while the other side pledged allegiance to Eduardo Costilla Sanchez, known as “El Coss.”
Another brother, Osiel Cardenas Guillen, headed the cartel until his own capture in 2003. He was extradited in 2007 to the United States, where he is serving a 25-year prison sentence.
Mario Cardenas Guillen, who was hauled before television cameras and flanked by two masked marines, was arrested back in 1995 on charges linked to organized crime and drug trafficking. He was released from prison 12 years later.
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