The US government deported drug lord Osiel Cardenas on Monday, transferring custody of the former Gulf cartel chief known to Mexican authorities in the border city of Tijuana for ultra-violent tactics, two federal government officials said. Reuters.
A source noted that the one-time cartel boss was taken to Mexico’s Almoloya prison, and is now facing three criminal charges in his home country.
The outstanding charges include one related to organized crime and another for use of ill-gotten gains, the official said.
Cardenas, 57, was released in August after spending more than two decades in a maximum-security US prison and has been detained by US immigration officials since then.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a statement that Cárdenas was “turned over to Mexican law enforcement without incident” after passing through Tijuana, the San Diego, California, port of entry.
“The successful removal of notorious international fugitive Osile Cárdenas underscores our unwavering commitment to public safety and justice,” said Samuel Olson, chief of ICE’s Enforcement and Removals Field Office in Chicago, which oversaw the deportation.
Before his capture in a 2003 gun battle, Cárdenas presided over some of the bloodiest gang violence in Mexico’s turbulent past, accused of transforming drug trafficking by embracing ultra-violent tactics, including beheadings.
The Gulf Cartel is one of Mexico’s oldest criminal gangs, with its illegal rackets dating back nearly a century, though in recent years it has been eclipsed by the powerful Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels.
Cárdenas also founded the Zetas Cartel, which became the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel made up of ex-army special forces, known for extreme violence.
The Zetas later branched off and for a time became the country’s deadliest crime group.
The group made efforts to diversify away from drug trafficking to extorting residents and businesses in areas it controlled. The Zetas also sowed terror by using kidnappings on a large scale for ransom schemes.
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