Gilberto García Mena (born 1954), also known as El June, is a Mexican convicted drug lord and former high-ranking member of the Gulf Cartel, a criminal group based in Tamaulipas, Mexico. He began his criminal career as a small-time marijuana smuggler in his teens, and later joined the Gulf Cartel under kingpin Juan García Ábrego. García Mena was arrested by U.S. authorities in Texas while possessing marijuana in 1984, but was released without a conviction. He returned to Mexico, and established a center of operations in Nuevo León. García Mena was arrested on drug-trafficking charges in 1989, but authorities were again unable to convict him. Released in 1990, he rejoined the Gulf Cartel.
Throughout his criminal career, García Mena cultivated a social image of a feared kingpin and a benefactor. He donated money to his community, and corrupt officials in the local police and the military facilitated his drug operations. García Mena consolidated his criminal empire by building a profitable marijuana-trafficking business with his brother and nephews, and successfully defended his turf from rival criminal groups. He befriended Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, who became the undisputed Gulf Cartel kingpin, during the late 1990s. García Mena had disagreements with other Tamaulipas-based traffickers, however, who eventually plotted his downfall.
On 6 April 2001, he was arrested by the Mexican Army after a week-long manhunt. García Mena's arrest triggered infighting within the Gulf Cartel, and prompted more offensives from the Mexican government. He was convicted of several charges, including drug trafficking and illegal possession of firearms. García Mena was released in 2014, after a court determined that his arrest violated due process. A fugitive from U.S. justice, he has a pending extradition request.
Background and career García Mena was born in 1954 in Miguel Alemán, Tamaulipas, Mexico, to Gilberto García Acevedo and Emma Mena. When García Mena was young, he excelled in school and athletics; he was fluent in English, and popular among his peers. At age eighteen García Mena became involved with Los Bravos Locos, a small drug-running gang which smuggled and sold marijuana in the U.S. Some gang members were devotees of Santa Muerte, a folk Catholic saint, and García Mena also became a devotee. He quickly ascended in the criminal underworld as an assassin and innovative smuggler and was recruited by the Gulf Cartel, a criminal group based in Tamaulipas.
García Mena rose to prominence during the 1970s by controlling the drug trade in La Frontera Chica region, which includes the U.S.-border municipalities of Miguel Alemán, Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, Camargo, Mier, and Guerrero. He worked with his brother, Juan Anacleto, and several of his nephews (who were known as Los Aerolitos). The police initially suspected that García Mena was a drug mule and car thief before he joined the Gulf Cartel. García Mena also smuggled drugs through tunnels connecting Miguel Alemán to Star County, Texas. The tunnels required advanced technology because they were dug below the Rio Grande River. García Mena bought properties on both sides of the border to ensure drugs were smuggled smoothly.
Early arrests In 1984, he was arrested for the first time after U.S. authorities found him in possession of of marijuana in Texas. However, García Mena was not sentenced and was released from prison thirty days after his arrest. He returned to Mexico, and resumed his criminal activities. Instead of returning to his native Tamaulipas, García Mena made Nuevo León his center of operations. Disguised as a cattle rancher, he rented a house in the Monterrey neighborhood of Colinas de San Jerónimo. Residents of the neighborhood said that García Mena was a quiet, normal neighbor; although he greeted neighbors when he arrived home, however, they thought it unusual that he was usually accompanied by a man in military uniform. According to authorities, he used Monterrey as a corridor to move drugs from other parts of Mexico (primarily Oaxaca) before they were sent to Miguel Alemán to be resold. His narcotics were stored in warehouses in Colonia Central de Carga and Parque Industrial Ciudad Mitras, two neighborhoods in Guadalupe and García. When the drugs reached Tamaulipas, they were smuggled into the U.S. for further distribution. On 12 June 1989, the Federal Judicial Police (PJF) arrested two of García Mena's associates (Jesús López Meléndez and Germán Rodríguez Mijares) in Apodaca with 2.5 tons of marijuana. In their confessions, the men said that they were hired in Oaxaca by Octavio Leal Moncada (one of García Mena's business partners) to move the drugs to one of his ranches in Hidalgo. They identified Leal Moncada, García Mena, and the brothers Omar and Sergio Hinojosa García, as owners of the marijuana, and the PJF arrested García Mena and several of his henchmen on 14 June 1989.
Once arrested, García Mena confessed that his cousin Eusebio Guadalupe Hinojosa García and Virgilio Esquivel Cabrera were also involved in his drug operations. The other detainees identified García Mena as the lead operator, and stated that the drugs were intended to be smuggled from Miguel Alemán to the U.S. in speedboats. During his first hearing, García Mena retracted from his statements and said he was tortured by the PJF to confess he was the owner of the marijuana loads. When he was first visited by his defense lawyer Horacio Moyar Quintanilla, García said he was fine, but he later stated that he was forced to say that by the PJF. He said he was in Monterrey for an appointment with doctor Óscar Támez, and that he was arrested at his mother-in-law's house, where he was tortured and forced to sign blank papers. The judge ordered the prosecution to present evidence proving that the vehicle and the properties that were linked to the drug operation were tied to García Mena. He also ordered the doctor to appear in court and show him García Mena's medical records and appointments. The doctor appeared in court in less than 72 hours and showed the judge that García Mena did visit him for a scheduled appointment. The judge thus ordered for García Mena's release, citing torture and the doctor's appointment book as evidence of García Mena's innocence.
As García Mena stepped out of prison, he was re-arrested for other drug charges. He was transferred to Reclusorio Sur (a Mexico City penitentiary), and then re-transferred to Topo Chico in Monterrey. The lead prosecutor of the case against García Mena was Alejandro Garza Delgado. His defense argued that he was not guilty because the drugs linked to him by the prosecution were not in his possession at the time of his arrest. Although judge Rodolfo Pasarin de Luna sentenced Leal Moncada to 26 years and gave minor sentences to three detainees on 26 July 1990, he said that the evidence against García Mena was insufficient and ordered his release. The Attorney General's Office (PGR) appealed the verdict, and issued an arrest warrant for him later that year. Leal Moncada and the other detainees were also later acquitted and released from prison. García Mena returned to his native Tamaulipas and settled in Guardados de Abajo, a rural community in Camargo where he lived in a mansion for twelve years.
In 1992, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) suspected that García Mena managed to smuggle 30 tons of marijuana from Mexico to Texas with the assistance of ten other gang members, including his brother Antonio. U.S. authorities issued an arrest warrant for his capture and released a US$10,000 bounty. Mexican authorities, including the PGR, requested citizens' help in locating García Mena, who was referred to in the press release by his alias "The Czar of Miguel Alemán". According to the Mexican police, García Mena was believed to be hiding in his hometown of Guardados de Abajo, and highlighted that his parents owned a property adjacent to the Rio Grande River. The PGR regarded him as one of the five most-wanted fugitives in Mexico, and believed he owned a pipe trailer company, though it was unclear if he used strawpeople to manage it. In September 1993, judge Isidro Gutiérrez González issued an arrest warrant for García Mena's capture. The judge considered that the circumstances surrounding his release were suspicious.
Leadership When García Mena became involved in drug trafficking in the 1970s, the Gulf Cartel was headed by Juan García Ábrego. García Mena defended La Frontera Chica from incursions by rival criminal groups for several years, and consolidated himself as a kingpin with manpower and a profitable marijuana-trafficking business. Groups like the Juárez Cartel (under the leadership of Amado Carrillo Fuentes), the Tijuana Cartel (under the Arellano Félix siblings), and the Sinaloa Cartel (under Héctor Luis Palma Salazar) unsuccessfully tried to take over drug-trafficking routes in the region, and decided to turn away from the drug corridors at the Tamaulipas border and focus on other drug routes in Mexico. García Mena's success gave him social acceptance and a good reputation in the criminal underworld.
After García Ábrego was arrested in 1996, the cartel experienced internal strife as several factions (and leaders) vied for control. García Mena was part of a faction opposed to groups headed by cartel leaders Ángel Salvador Gómez Herrera ("El Chava"), Adán Medrano Rodríguez ("El Licenciado"), and Hugo Baldomero Medina Garza ("El Señor de los Tráilers") for control of the drug corridors in La Frontera Chica. Control of the Gulf Cartel consolidated under Osiel Cárdenas Guillén in 1998, and García Mena began working with him with other cartel leaders involved in the unrest. He was left in charge of drug-trafficking activities in La Frontera Chica, and became one of Cárdenas Guillén's top collaborators. Cárdenas Guillén initially did not know what to call García Mena when he was appointed to the executive role; learning that García Mena was born in June and enjoyed hot weather, he began calling him "El June".
García Mena met Cárdenas Guillén when the latter worked in Miguel Alemán as a PJF officer during the late 1990s, prior to becoming the leader of the Gulf Cartel. As a policeman, Cárdenas Guillén oversaw drug seizures and ran a profitable drug ring with the help of corrupt fellow officers. García Mena heard of Cárdenas Guillén's activities, and approached him for a meeting; they got along well, and became trusted business partners. Cárdenas Guillén helped keep García Mena's turf free from rival drug gangs, and gave him drugs to resell which had been seized by the police. García Mena gave some of the profits to Cárdenas Guillén, who gave them to his collaborators in the police. Their partnership strengthened with time; Cárdenas Guillén was romantically involved with Adriana García García, García Mena's niece. Adriana worked at the PJF offices in Miguel Alemán, and helped Cárdenas Guillén with leaked law-enforcement information. García Mena supported their relationship, and gave Cárdenas Guillén free rein in Miguel Alemán's drug-trafficking activities. Cárdenas Guillén eventually became the head of the Gulf Cartel, and García Mena worked under him.
Influence and downfall