MEXICO: Gulf Cartel leader Mario Cardenas captured

Record ID: 184437

  • Title: MEXICO: Gulf Cartel leader Mario Cardenas captured
  • Date: 4th September 2012
  • Summary: ***CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (SEPTEMBER 04, 2012) (REUTERS) GULF CARTEL LEADER MARIO CARDENAS ESCORTED TO MEDIA PRESENTATION BY MARINES VARIOUS OF CARDENAS BEING PRESENTED TO JOURNALISTS CARDENAS ESCORTED FROM NEWS CONFERENCE ITEMS SEIZED FROM CARDENAS DURING ARREST GENERAL VIEW OF REAR ADMIRAL JOSE LUIS VERGARA AT PODIUM (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) REAR ADMIRAL JOSE LUIS VERGARA, NAVY SPOKESMAN, SAYING: "Whom we know and has admitted to being Mario Cardenas Guillen, aka. "M1" and or "El Gordo" (The Fat One), alleged leader of the Gulf Cartel and brother of Osiel Cardenas Guillen. This arrest took place after an operation carried out yesterday by marines in Altamira, Tamaulipas while he was armed at the entrance to a building." JOURNALISTS DURING NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) REAR ADMIRAL JOSE LUIS VERGARA, NAVY SPOKESMAN, SAYING: "Intelligence sources indicate that together with his brother Antonio Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen, aka "Tony Tormenta", they took control over the Gulf Control and he became one of the leaders of that criminal group after his brother's death." VERGARA AT END OF SPEECH
  • Embargoed: 19th September 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mexico
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVA38TFTFH2FP1Y2PDEB0XIOQSF8
  • Story Text: Mexican marines presented the leader of the country's Gulf Cartel, Mario Cardenas, to journalists on Tuesday (September 4) in one of the highest-profile arrests in months in President Felipe Calderon's war on drug gangs.
    Cardenas, who has run the notorious cartel since 2010, was captured in the north-eastern state of Tamaulipas on Monday (September 03) during a marine operation in the drug-ravaged area.
    "Whom we know and has admitted to being Mario Cardenas Guillen, aka "M1" and or "El Gordo" ("The Fat One"), alleged leader of the Gulf Cartel and brother of Osiel Cardenas Guillen. This arrest took place after an operation that took place yesterday by marines in Altamira, Tamaulipas when he was armed at the entrance to a building," said Rear Admiral Jose Luis Vergara.
    Cardenas inherited control over the drug gang after his brother and former leader Antonio Cardenas or "Tony Tormenta," was killed in a 2010 gunfight with the Mexican government.
    "Intelligence sources indicate that together with his brother Antonio Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen, aka "Tony Tormenta", they took control over the Gulf Control and he became one of the leaders of that criminal group after his brother's death," added Vergara.
    The Gulf Cartel's power has waned in recent years in a feud with Mexico's most brutal gang, the Zetas, which began life providing protection to its operations in north-eastern Mexico.
    In recent weeks, violence between the Zetas and their rivals, Gulf and Sinaloa cartels of traffickers, has intensified in several parts of Mexico.
    In total, around 55,000 people have died in drug related violence and more than 5,000 have disappeared in Mexico since Mexican President Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006.
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