A gunman slapped and tried to beat up a top Gulf Cartel lieutenant, blaming him for his imminent capture after state authorities found them. Police found them, along with several other men, as they were drinking and smoking marijuana in a safehouse not far from the border with Texas.
The feared cartel lieutenant has been linked to dozens of ransom kidnappings, not only in the border city of Reynosa but also in Matamoros, Rio Bravo, and other cities in the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas.
The incident took place over the weekend in Reynosa when authorities arrested Juan Miguel “Miguelito or Metro56” Lizardi Castro — a man described as a top lieutenant with the Gulf Cartel and linked to not only dozens of ransom kidnappings but also several shootouts and mass killings.
The incident began when a group of investigators with the Tamaulipas Attorney General’s Office were carrying out an operation in the Doctores neighborhood in an attempt to track down a cell of gunmen responsible for kidnappings and carjackings in the region.
According to an incident report obtained exclusively by Breitbart Texas, when the officers were moving around the neighborhood, they began to take gunfire from a group of men in a house. The officers in the lead vehicle took the brunt of the gunfire while officers in the other cars surrounded the house and then surprised the gunmen, who tried to run away but were unable to.
Inside the house, the officers found several beer and liquor containers and reported that the men all smelled like alcohol and appeared intoxicated. The officers checked the six gunmen and found that they all had small bags of marijuana or cocaine with them.
While the officers searched the men, the leader, 33-year-old Juan Miguel “Miguelito or Metro56” Lizardi Castro, offered the officers a bribe of one million pesos or approximately $51,000 to let them go. He asked them to let him get his laptop from inside the house and said he would wire them the money immediately.
The lead investigator told them that bribery was a crime and told them to be quiet or they could face more charges. The investigator told them they would be placed under arrest and they should get an attorney. It was at that moment that 34-year-old Ernesto “El Blaky” Robles Garcia turned towards Lizardi, slapping him in the face, and then lunged at him. He hit the cartel boss several times, and the two fell to the floor.
The report states that Blaky screamed at Lizardi that it was all his fault as the two scuffled as the officers tried to pull them apart. During the scuffle, the other four gunmen tried to run, but authorities caught up with them and handcuffed them all. One of the gunmen in the group was identified as 17-year-old Joseph Alberto Tello from Weslaco, Texas, who is listed as a school dropout who had been operating with Lizardi in the Rio Bravo area and claimed to have helped in several kidnappings.
Authorities took all six cartel members to holding cells until they went before a Tamaulipas state judge to be formally charged.
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.