Top Gulf Cartel Leader Extradited to U.S. for Trial

A top-ranking Mexican drug lord who at one time headed the Gulf Cartel and is believed responsible for moving large shipments of cocaine into Houston, Texas, was extradited Thursday to face a U.S. judge.

Known in the criminal underworld as “Metro 1”, “M1”, “Gordo” or “Señor Gordo”, Mario Cárdenas Guillén is a brother of the former leader of the Gulf Cartel and founder of Los Zetas, Osiel Cárdenas Guillén. Metro 1 is also a brother to the late Antonio Ezequiel “Tony Tormenta” Cárdenas Guillén, who was killed in 2010 by the Mexican Navy in Matamoros.

This week, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office (FGR) handed Cárdenas Guillén to U.S. authorities at the Mexico City International Airport. Cardenas Guillen is named in a 2012 criminal indictment from Eastern District of Texas on a cocaine conspiracy charge. If convicted, he could face a possible life sentence in prison.

Señor Gordo was arrested in September 2012 in the border state of Tamaulipas. At the time, he was the top leader of the Gulf Cartel after inheriting control from his late brother, Tony Tormenta in 2010.

Before assuming control of the Gulf Cartel, Mario Cardenas Guillen had been deeply involved in the criminal organization and spent 12 years in Mexican prisons. From 1995 to 2007, Cardenas Guillen spent time at the federal prison in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, and then another in Puente Grande, Jalisco, for charges related to drugs and organized crime.

After his 2012 arrest, a judge in Mexico convicted Cardenas Guillen on drug charges and sentenced him to 20 years in prison. He was set to stay in a Mexican prison until 2032. However, in October 2019, a Mexican judge authorized his extradition.

Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to Mexico City and the 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 “Diego Marquez” from Sonora.