Los Zetas cartel boss re-arrested in Mexico after US prison sentence

The founder of the feared Los Zetas drugs cartel has been deported to Mexico after serving a lengthy prison sentence in the United States.

Osiel Cardenas Guillen, 57, led Los Zetas until 2003, when he was surrounded by Mexican troops near his hometown of Matamoros.

Under his leadership, the group became one of the most powerful and brutal hit squads in the Mexican drug wars.

U.S. immigration officials turned Cárdenas over to Mexican police at the Otay border crossing, where he was immediately re-arrested and taken to El Altiplano maximum security prison in Mexico State.

Mexican prosecutors said he has been arrested on murder and organized crime charges against one of the most powerful drug mafias in Mexico at the time.

Cárdenas Guillén built his criminal career in the Gulf drugs cartel in the 1990s, reportedly not shying away from killing his associates to rise to the top, a practice that led him to be nicknamed “mata amigos” (“killers of friends” in Spanish. Got a nickname for “). Got a nickname for. ,

But what he became infamous for was recruiting members of Mexico’s elite special forces and using them as hitmen and enforcers for the Gulf Cartel.

Law enforcers turned contract killers became known as Los Zetas.

The brutal methods they used, such as beheading and dismembering their victims, quickly spread terror throughout the north-eastern part of Mexico, their stronghold.

By the early 2000s, Cárdenas Guillén was one of the most wanted men in Mexico.

Mexican security forces managed to capture him in his home state of Tamaulipas in 2003 after a bloody gun battle.

Aware of the gang leader’s power in the area, security forces immediately transported him to the capital, Mexico City, where he was placed in pre-trial detention.

He was extradited to America in 2007.

There, he was accused not only of smuggling tons of cocaine into the US, but also of attacking federal agents and threatening to murder.

He pleaded guilty in 2010 and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

After serving a large portion of his sentence, he was released from the federal prison in Terre Haute, Idaho in August 2024 and turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

This cleared the way for his deportation to Mexico on Monday.

Mexican prosecutors said Cardenas Guillen still had seven federal cases open against him and that if convicted on all charges he could face a total of more than 700 years in prison.