40 Facts About Gulf Cartel

Gulf Cartel is a criminal syndicate and drug trafficking organization in Mexico, and perhaps one of the oldest organized crime groups in the country.

Besides drug trafficking, the Gulf Cartel operates through protection rackets, assassinations, extortions, kidnappings, and other criminal activities.

The members of the Gulf Cartel are known for intimidating the population and for being particularly violent.

Originally known as the Matamoros Cartel, the Gulf Cartel initially smuggled alcohol and other illegal goods into the U S Once the Prohibition era ended, the criminal group controlled gambling houses, prostitution rings, a car theft network, and other illegal smuggling.

Around 1994, it was estimated that the Gulf Cartel handled as much as "one-third of all cocaine shipments" into the United States from the Cali Cartel suppliers.

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Gulf Cartel was quickly extradited to the United States where he stood trial eight months after his arrest.

Gulf Cartel was held responsible in 1984 for the massacre of 6 people in La Clinica Raya, a hospital where rival drug members were being treated, and was blamed for the massacre of the Cereso prison in 1991, where 18 prisoners were slain—both in Matamoros, Tamaulipas.

Gulf Cartel did not have the leadership skills nor the support of the Colombian drug-provisioners.

Gulf Cartel was to be replaced by Oscar Malherbe de Leon and Raul Valladares del Angel, until their arrest a short time later, causing several cartel lieutenants to fight for the leadership.

Gulf Cartel was one of the top officials of the cartel for more than 40 years, trafficking about 20 tons of cocaine to the United States each month.

Gulf Cartel's luck ended in November 2000 when he was captured in Tampico, Tamaulipas and imprisoned in La Palma.

In 1997 the Gulf Cartel began to recruit military personnel whom Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, an Army General of that time, had assigned as representatives from the PGR offices in certain states across Mexico.

Gulf Cartel's goal was to protect himself from rival drug cartels and from the Mexican military, to perform vital functions as the leader of the most powerful drug cartel in Mexico.

Some sources reveal that as a result of the supremacy of Los Zetas, the Gulf Cartel felt threatened by the growing force of their enforcer group and decided to curtail their influence, but eventually failed in their attempt, instigating a war.

Also, Los Zetas mentioned that the Gulf Cartel kills innocent civilians, and then blames them for their atrocities.

The candidates of the Gulf Cartel were Antonio Cardenas and Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez, while Los Zetas wanted the leadership of their current head, Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano.

The first mention of Los Escorpiones on the media was in 2008, when El Universal wrote an article about some "protected witnesses" from the Gulf Cartel who denounced the alliance between the Beltran-Leyva Cartel and Los Zetas to the Mexican authorities, and that the Gulf Cartel had created Los Escorpiones to stop and balance the growing hegemony of Los Zetas.

Originally, the Gulf cartel was running smoothly, but the infighting between the two factions in the Gulf cartel triggered when Flores Borrego was killed on 2 September 2011.

Gulf Cartel has important cells operating inside the United States—in Mission, Roma, and Rio Grande City—for example, and their presence is expanding.

Thomas A Shannon, a U S diplomat and ambassador, stated that criminal organizations like the Gulf Cartel have "substantially weakened" the institutions in Mexico and Central America, and have generated a surge of violence in the United States.

The U S National Drug Threat Assessment mentioned that the drug trafficking organizations like the Gulf Cartel tend to be less structured in U S than in Mexico, and often rely on street gangs to operate inside the United States.

The strong ties the Gulf Cartel has with the prison gangs in the United States have raised concern to American officials.

Gulf Cartel is believed to have ties with the 'Ndrangheta, an organized crime group in Italy that has ties with Los Zetas.

Reports indicated that the Gulf Cartel was using the BlackBerry smartphones to communicate with 'Ndrangheta, since the texts are "normally difficult to intercept".

In 2009, the Gulf organization concluded that expanding their market opportunities in Europe, combined with the euro strength against the U S dollar, justified establishing an extensive network in that continent.

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The complexity and territorial advantage of Los Zetas forced the Gulf Cartel to seek for an alliance with the Sinaloa Cartel and La Familia Michoacana; in addition, Stratfor mentioned that these three organizations united because they hold a "profound hate" for Los Zetas.

Gulf Cartel won under the slogan "winds of change are coming" to Tamaulipas.

In goes into the extent, in a recent book called Tamaulipas; La casta de los narcogobernadores: un eastern mexicano is accused of being present while former governor Tomas Yarrington, accused of involvements with DTOs of the Gulf Cartel, received illicit money from the Gulf Cartel to finance its campaign for governor.

The Gulf Cartel operates in a similar way, and often extorts businesses for protection money in the areas where it operates, pledging to kill those who do not agree to pay the fee.

People smuggling is currently controlled by a cell within the Gulf Cartel known as Los Flacos, dedicated to the kidnapping and smuggling of undocumented migrants as far as South America to the United States.

ExtortionIn August 2007, La Mana gang, an alleged sub-group of the criminal group Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, was reported to have controlled the extortion business in Matamoros, Tamaulipas.

The newspaper La Vanguardia mentioned that the Gulf Cartel receives "large sums of money by extorting businesses" all around Tamaulipas.

BriberyWhen the Gulf Cartel was moving tons of cocaine to the United States and moving millions of dollars in cash along the border in the 1970s, Juan Garcia Abrego decided that he needed more protection.

Gulf Cartel is allegedly reported to have been protected by a large private army of gunmen.

One leader of the Gulf Cartel confessed after his apprehension that "drug trafficking is their main business, but due to the difficulties they have been encountering, oil theft has been an important financial cushion" for the cartel.

Money launderingSome of the revenue of the Gulf Cartel is often laundered in several bank accounts, properties, vehicles, and gasoline stations.

Arms traffickingFor the most part, the arms trafficking circles of the Gulf Cartel operate directly across the border in the United States, just like most of the criminal groups in Mexico.

Nonetheless, there are indeed circles within the Gulf Cartel that coordinate the arms trafficking routes inside Mexico.

In 2008 in the state of Michoacan, the Gulf Cartel was reported to have controlled the counterfeit business, where it produced and sold millions of fake CDs and movies.

Gulf Cartel was arrested with a female companion identified as Miriam "M" and is accused of being responsible for recent violence in Tamaulipas.