Report: Cartels Stand to Benefit from Mexican Border State Governor Election

The Sinaloa and Gulf Cartels stand to possibly benefit from this weekend’s gubernatorial election in Tamaulipas, with particular respect for the border state’s sea and land ports of entry.

A new report by Mexican journalist Raymundo Riva Palacio revealed that one of the candidates in the election, Americo Villarreal (ruling Morena Party) and his close relationship to a late cartel-connected fuel theft mogul named Sergio Carmona, could be the key for the Sinaloa Cartel to take control of international ports of entry.

According to Riva Palacio, Carmona financed campaigns for Morena for longer than three years. For income, Carmona would smuggle fuel from a Houston refinery into Mexico without declaring it. Carmona would bribe Mexican customs officials to let hundreds of trucks cross each week. While Carmona made between $1,500 to $4,000 per truck, the volume of vehicles built a large-scale scheme which netted more than $2.5 million. Breitbart Texas has learned that Carmona primarily used the ports of entry in the Matamoros-Brownsville area.

In his report, Riva Palacios claimed that Carmona would keep about 50 percent of the profit and use the rest to bribe Mexican officials and fund political campaigns.

Through Carmona’s influence, Morena was able to win several elections. In exchange, the fuel theft mogul was able to receive lucrative contracts and get Americo Villarreal to be chosen by Morena as a delegate in Sinaloa. During Villarreal’s term in Sinaloa, the Morena party won the gubernatorial election, but the contest was clouded by allegations that  the Sinaloa Cartel was directly involved in kidnapping opposing campaign workers, journalist and columnist Hector de Mauleon wrote in 2021.

When Villarreal became the Morena candidate for governor in Tamaulipas, Riva Palacio claimed that the Gulf Cartel, Los Zetas, and the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas took the move as a threat that the Sinaloa Cartel was moving in. Unknown gunmen killed Carmona in San Pedro, Nuevo Leon, in November 2021. The case remains open.

Mexican Senator Lilly Tellez said this week during a congressional hearing that the Morena Party had the backing of the Gulf and Sinaloa Cartels — alleging Morena was the political wing of organized crime.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com. 

Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.