The infighting in the Gulf Cartel refers to a series of confrontations between the Metros and the Rojos, two factions within Gulf Cartel that engaged in a power struggle directly after the death of the drug lord Samuel Flores Borrego in September 2011. The infighting has lasted through 2013, although the Metros have gained the advantage and regained control of the major cities controlled by the cartel when it was essentially one organization.
Originally, the two factions were formed in the late 1990s by Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, the former leader of the criminal organization. After the drug lord's arrest and extradition in 2003 and 2007 respectively, the control of the Gulf Cartel went on to his brother Antonio Cárdenas Guillén (Tony Tormenta) and close associate Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez (El Coss). But the differences between the two factions began in 2010, when Juan Mejía González of the Rojos was overlooked as the regional boss for Reynosa, Tamaulipas during a cartel shift and appointed to a less-important territory. In the assignment, Flores Borrego of the Metros was given Reynosa, suggesting that the Metros were above the Rojos. When Antonio was killed by the Mexican marines on 5 November 2010 in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, his faction – the Rojos – perceived that the Metros had tipped the Mexican authorities to Antonio's whereabouts. Those who were more loyal to the Cárdenas drug family stayed with the Rojos, while those loyal to Costilla Sánchez stayed in the Metros.
In efforts to seek revenge for the death of their leader, Mejía González and Rafael Cárdenas Vela, the nephew of Antonio, allegedly ordered the execution of Flores Borrego, the second-in-command in the Metros faction. With his death, both two factions turned their guns against each other and went to war in the Mexican northern state of Tamaulipas, and reportedly offered information to U.S. authorities on the location of cartel members hiding in the United States. In the infighting, many high-ranking members of the Gulf Cartel have been killed or arrested. In some cases, however, the drug-related violence extended across the U.S.–Mexico border in South Texas, prompting debates on the possibility of "spillover violence" from the Mexican drug war.
The fight has forced the Rojos to barricade in Matamoros, Tamaulipas while the Metros make their final incursions to put them down. In order to do so, Costilla Sánchez of the Metros allegedly worked with the Sinaloa Cartel and Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán. Nonetheless, after the arrests of Costilla Sánchez and Cárdenas Guillén, it is difficult to predict what fate lies ahead for the Gulf Cartel and Mexico's criminal underworld.
Background
In the late 1990s, Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, the former leader of the Gulf Cartel, had other similar groups besides Los Zetas established in several cities in Tamaulipas. Each of these groups were identified by their radio codes: the Rojos were based in Reynosa; the Metros were headquartered in Matamoros; and the Lobos were established in Laredo. The infighting between the Metros and the Rojos of the Gulf Cartel began in 2010, when Juan Mejía González, nicknamed El R-1, was overlooked as the candidate of the regional boss of Reynosa and was sent to La Frontera Chica, an area that encompasses Miguel Alemán, Camargo and Ciudad Mier – directly across the U.S.–Mexico border from Starr County, Texas. The area that Mejía González wanted was given to Samuel Flores Borrego, suggesting that the Metros were above the Rojos.
Unconfirmed information released by The Monitor indicated that two leaders of the Rojos, Mejía González and Rafael Cárdenas Vela, teamed up to kill Flores Borrego. Cárdenas Vela had held a grudge on Flores Borrego and the Metros because he believed that they had led the Mexican military to track down and kill his uncle Antonio Cárdenas Guillén (Tony Tormenta) on 5 November 2010. Other sources indicate that the infighting could have been caused by the suspicions that the Rojos were "too soft" on the Gulf Cartel's bitter enemy, Los Zetas. When the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas split in early 2010, some members of the Rojos stayed with the Gulf Cartel, while others decided to leave and join the forces of Los Zetas.
InSight Crime explains that the fundamental disagreement between the Rojos and the Metros was over leadership. Those who were more loyal to the Cárdenas family stayed with the Rojos, while those loyal to Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez, like Flores Borrego, defended the Metros.
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. When the Rojos turned on the Metros, the largest faction in the Gulf Cartel, firefights broke throughout Tamaulipas and drug loads were stolen among each other, but the Metros managed to retain control of the major cities that stretched from Matamoros to Miguel Alemán, Tamaulipas. Two other factions in the cartel, Los Ciclones and Los Escorpiones, reportedly engaged in a power struggle on 1 February 2012 in Matamoros.
'Spillover' violence McAllen, Texas shooting On 27 September 2011 at around 2 a.m. in McAllen, Texas, fatal gunshots were exchanged from one vehicle to another along an expressway. A man named Jorge Zavala and a 22-year-old man were victims of an attack perpetrated by unknown shooters traveling in a dark-colored SUV from a Chevrolet Tahoe, causing them to lose control of the vehicle and crash along the expressway. The local police did not find a motive for the attack, but sources told The Monitor that Zavala had ties with a faction of the Gulf Cartel in the Mexican border cities of Matamoros and Reynosa, showing signs that his assassination was due to an "internal power struggle" in the organization. Zavala died instantly at the scene, while the other man was taken to the hospital in critical condition. The McAllen Police Department refused to comment on how many gunshots were fired, but the preliminary autopsy revealed that Zavala died of multiple gunshots, not from the crash. Public records prove that Zavala's criminal history dates back to 1995, while sources familiar with the victim stated that he was a close associate of the drug lord Gregorio Sauceda-Gamboa. A local law enforcement official who asked not to be identified stated that Samuel Flores Borrego's death and the power struggle in the organization may explain Zavala's death. Hours after Zavala's death, a series of grenade attacks prompted in Reynosa, Río Bravo, and Ciudad Victoria, while an intense gunfight took place in Matamoros, Tamaulipas.
Sheriff shot in Elsa, Texas
After Samuel Flores Borrego was killed, the Gulf Cartel had lost many of its drug loads to rival groups and its own members, so when the new leader was appointed, "one of the first directives issued was to recuperate its losses."
It is unclear how, but several Gulf Cartel members traced one of their stolen loads to a stash house of suspected dealers in Elsa, Texas on 1 November 2011. The cartel then called on an American-based prison gang to go and buy the loads to learn the location of the stash house. The gang dealers then went and bought the drugs from the dealers, but realized that it was not at the stash house where the goods were allegedly hidden. In an attempt to gain the location of the drugs from the dealers, the gang members kidnapped them, and that was when two country sheriff's deputies received an emergency call of a possible kidnapping. The deputies then spotted the gang member's Ford F-150 pickup truck and ordered the drivers to stop. While one of the deputies was speaking to the driver, the other approached the passenger window and was shot with a 9 mm gun. The deputy managed to survive because he was wearing a bullet vest. One of the gang members, however, was killed; the other was shot in the head and remained in critical condition.
Kidnappings and extortions in South Texas On Memorial Day weekend in 2011, an alleged member of the Gulf Cartel pretended to be a policeman (he was in full uniform, with a pistol, handcuffs, and an embroidered shirt) and abducted a man named Ovidio Guerrero Olivares near Alton, Texas. Guerrero has not been seen by his family members and court records indicate that he "wasn’t even the target of a Gulf Cartel-ordered kidnapping." The police learned more about the kidnapping when they arrested some cartel members in Mission, Texas; one of the detainees admitted that Guerrero Olivares was kidnapped after the cartel boss in Miguel Alemán, Tamaulipas issued a list of several people he wanted to be kidnapped in the Rio Grande Valley and sent south into Mexico for questioning after a load of cocaine was stolen. The kidnapper was sentenced to prison, while reports from within the organization state that the cartel boss of Miguel Alemán – Miguel El Gringo Villarreal – was killed in Valle Hermoso, Tamaulipas during the cartel infighting. In addition, the family of Guerrero Olivares fled and abandoned their house.
On 6 December 2011, a high-speed chase and an attempted vehicle aggression by alleged cartel members on police officers in Palmview, Texas prompted a nine-shot confrontation. Isaac Sánchez Gutiérrez, the driver of the vehicle, managed to escape the scene and avoid capture, leaving behind a partner and a Ford F-150 pick-up truck the letters "CDG" – the Spanish acronym for the Gulf Cartel – spray-painted in the inside. The authorities later discovered more than 700 pounds of cannabis hidden inside the truck. Sánchez Gutiérrez was arrested by the U.S. Border Patrol agency after a vehicle-and-foot chase incident near Abram, Texas on 20 December 2011. While in custody, he claimed that a high-ranking leader of the cartel in Reynosa, Tamaulipas had coerced him to smuggle drugs across the border. According to his account, his brother Juan Armando had been involved in the drug business but was suspected by his Reynosa superiors of stealing US$2 million. Juan Armando was kidnapped at a convenience store in Reynosa, and several cartel members went to Isaac's home in Mission, Texas threatening to torture and kill his brother if the money was not returned. They issued him an ultimatum: Either gather US$4 million, or smuggle 50 drug across the U.S.–Mexico border into Texas to free his kidnapped brother.
Reactions
The debates over whether the violence in the McAllen metropolitan area should be considered an actual "spillover" from Mexico's drug war reignited when a sheriff from Hidalgo County, Texas was wounded in a shooting on 1 November 2011 with members of the Gulf Cartel. On one side, local and federal U.S. law enforcement agents claim that the drug-related violence coming from Mexico stops at the border. The other side, made up mainly from politicians, claim that the border regions are being "overrun by drug cartels." The debate relies on exactly how both sides define a "spillover" occurrence. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security defines a spillover incident as any crime that occurs in the United States that is directly tied with the violent conflicts in Mexico, either between law enforcement officials and drug traffickers, or between rival drug trafficking organizations. The Texas Department of Public Safety, however, defines a spillover as any drug-related violence. By the DPS standards, a conflict over a drug deal between the Sicilian Mafia and the Chinese triads in New York City can fall under the spillover category. Hence, the local authorities in South Texas have concluded that although violence does occur in their region, it is not directly related to Mexico but to individuals in the United States.