MONTERREY, Nuevo Leon – A top lieutenant with Mexico’s Gulf Cartel failed in his attempt to bribe federal police officers who caught him with drugs and weapons in his vehicle. The arrest occurred as he tried to reach the Texas border with a large quantity of cocaine.
Breitbart News has obtained exclusive information about the arrest of Juan Manuel “El Juanito” or “90” Hernandez Vasquez. The arrest took place this month near China, Nuevo Leon, along the highway that connects Monterrey and Reynosa. At the time of his arrest, Hernandez had 20 packages of cocaine in his vehicle, officials reported.
Mexican federal police arrested Hernandez as he drove a pickup truck along the highway, exclusive arrest information obtained by Breitbart News revealed. During a search of his vehicle, federal authorities found multiple drug packets. Officials said Hernandez then tried to offer a large bribe in dollars. The attempt failed. Federal and state authorities arrested Hernandez on drug and weapons charges and transported him to the prison in Cadereyta to await trial.
Intelligence information obtained by Breitbart News revealed that Hernandez Vasquez planned to have the drug shipment moved into Texas. Hernandez is originally from the border city of Matamoros in Tamaulipas. He later moved to Monterrey to head the Gulf Cartel’s operations in Monterrey.
Soon after Hernandez’s arrest, detectives with the Nuevo Leon State Investigations Agency (AEI) arrested 22 members of El Juanito’s cell in Monterrey. During raids connected to the operation, authorities seized an armored SUV, several rifles, handguns, weight scales, and several kilograms of cocaine destined for street-level sale.
While some of the Gulf Cartel operatives have been linked to numerous shootouts and executions, authorities were only able to initially charge them on drug and weapons charges.
The man known as El Juanito tried to fill the void left by Hector Adrian “La Yegua” Lucio Benavidez, a late Gulf Cartel lieutenant who headed the criminal organization’s large-scale fuel theft operation in Monterrey and some of the street level drug distribution. Rival cartel members shanked La Yegua to death inside a Tamaulipas prison late last year, Breitbart News reported. The man known as La Yegua has been arrested by AEI agents helping their Tamaulipas counterparts in connection with multiple kidnappings — including the kidnapping of a relative of the Tamaulipas governor.
Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by Tony Aranda from Nuevo Leon.
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