Juan Carlos de la Cruz Reyna (born 1974/1975) is a Mexican convicted criminal and former high-ranking member of the Gulf Cartel, a criminal group based in Tamaulipas, Mexico. He was also a senior member in Los Zetas, the Gulf Cartel's former paramilitary group. In the 1990s, de la Cruz Reyna was an officer in the Tamaulipas State Police while working as a hitman for the Gulf Cartel. After he left the agency in 1999, he became a bodyguard for former Gulf Cartel kingpin Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, and was eventually promoted to regional leader of the cartel in Tampico. He reportedly had policemen on his payroll, and managed international drug trafficking shipments from Central and South America.
In 1999, de la Cruz Reyna and his associates threatened two U.S. agents at gunpoint in Matamoros after they had traveled there with an informant to gather intelligence on the Gulf Cartel's operations. The agents returned to the U.S. unharmed, but this incident triggered a massive manhunt for him. De la Cruz Reyna was arrested in 2007 and extradited to the U.S., where he was convicted of assaulting the two agents. Expecting to be released in 2012, de la Cruz Reyna attempted to bribe an undercover agent to ensure he was released to members of the Gulf Cartel upon his return to Mexico. He later pleaded guilty to charges of bribery and received a sentence of slightly more than an additional 11 more years in prison. He was released from US prison in October 2021 and deported to Mexico, where he was taken into custody by Mexican officials.
Early life and career Juan Carlos de la Cruz Reyna was born in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico in . At some point, between 1995 and 1996, he joined the Tamaulipas State Police. According to information from the Attorney General's Office (PGR), while de la Cruz Reyna served as a police officer, he also worked as a hitman for the Gulf Cartel, a criminal group based in Tamaulipas. Under the leadership of former kingpin Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, the Gulf Cartel recruited several law enforcement agents to further their drug trafficking operations and conduct killings on their behalf. De la Cruz Reyna reported to Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez ("El Coss"), a former high-ranking Gulf Cartel leader. He was released from the agency on 31 May 1999. When he joined the cartel full-time, de la Cruz Reyna was part of two Gulf Cartel subgroups known as the Sierras and the Tangos. Costilla Sánchez and Víctor Manuel Vázquez Mireles ("El Meme") headed these groups. Its members used aliases and codes to ensure their anonymity. De la Cruz Reyna had several aliases, including "El JC", "Tango 36", "JC Tango", "La Torta", "La Chona", and "Z-36".
On 9 November 1999, de la Cruz Reyna and several of his associates, including Cárdenas Guillén, threatened two U.S. agents at gunpoint in Matamoros. The agents had traveled there with an informant to gather intelligence on the Gulf Cartel's operations but were intercepted by the criminal group. During the standoff, Cárdenas Guillén threatened to kill the U.S. agents and the informant, but they were allowed to return to the U.S. unharmed after a heated discussion. This incident led to increased law enforcement efforts against the Gulf Cartel's leadership. Following this incident, de la Cruz Reyna became one of the most-wanted criminals in the U.S. and Mexico. On 14 March 2000, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas (S.D. Tex.) in Brownsville filed a sealed indictment against de la Cruz Reyna for assaulting the two agents. The indictment was unsealed on 14 December 2000. On 9 April 2002, de la Cruz Reyna was included in a superseding indictment for the assault charges. For these charges de la Cruz Reyna faced up to 10 years in prison, up to US$250,000 in fines, and three years of supervised release for each count.
In 2003, the PGR identified de la Cruz Reyna as a direct collaborator of Cárdenas Guillén, and listed him as a senior member within Los Zetas, the Gulf Cartel's former paramilitary group. That same year, the U.S. government formally issued an extradition request to the Mexican government. It asked that de la Cruz be transferred to the U.S. should he be arrested in Mexico. While in Los Zetas, de la Cruz Reyna worked as one Cárdenas Guillén's bodyguards. He later managed security logistics for him and other Gulf Cartel leaders. Since he worked for the Tamaulipas State Police, he was tasked with informing the Gulf Cartel of law enforcement efforts against them. In addition, he was responsible for coordinating with several police agencies to facilitate Cárdenas Guillén's transportation.
According to several PGR protected witnesses who worked with de la Cruz Reyna and other Gulf Cartel leaders, de la Cruz Reyna was responsible for carrying out multiple executions ordered by the cartel's leadership. In 2000, he allegedly assassinated two lawyers who had represented the Gulf Cartel, Miguel Angel Martínez Sánchez and Antonio López Nakazono. He also reportedly ordered attacks against Rolando López Salinas ("El Rolis"), a member of a smuggling group headed by Edelio López Falcón ("El Yeyo"). The protected witnesses also stated that de la Cruz Reyna participated in the murders of Gulf Cartel leaders Rogelio García García ("El Roger") and Ángel Salvador Gómez Herrera ("Chava Gómez"), and of police officer Gerardo Gazcón Sotero and Commander Jaime Rajid Gutiérrez Arreola.
Leadership tenure According to intelligence reports, Cárdenas Guillén promoted de la Cruz Reyna to regional leader in Tampico, Tamaulipas in 2001. A PGR-protected witnesses stated his promotion was due to de la Cruz Reyna's background as a police officer, his tenure in the Gulf Cartel, and his perceived level-headedness. As head of Tampico, he coordinated drug trafficking shipments in southern Tamaulipas and northern Veracruz and had at least 300 people under his command. Some of them were suspected to be members of the local police. These suspects helped protect drug shipments from this part of Mexico to the U.S. -Mexico border between the cities of Matamoros and Nuevo Laredo.
While heading operations in Tampico, he was charged with multiple killings and kidnappings. He was a suspect in the murder of Silvestre Bañuelos Alejos, former deputy chief of the Tamaulipas State Police, and in the death of Adolfo Velasco Ramírez, former police chief in Tampico, both in 2006. In early April 2007, de la Cruz Reyna ordered an attack against law enforcement for a seizure conducted at one of his properties in Tampico. The seizure resulted in multiple weapons, ammunition, tactical gear, and radio communication equipment being confiscated. In addition, several protected witnesses who testified against de la Cruz Reyna in Mexico stated that he had officers of the Federal Preventive Police (PFP) on his payroll. They reportedly assisted de la Cruz Reyna's human smuggling and drug trafficking operations in Tampico.
In January 2007, Cárdenas Guillén was extradited to the U.S., affecting the Gulf Cartel's drug operations. After Luis Reyes Enríquez ("El Rex"), a high-ranking leader of Los Zetas, was arrested in June 2007, the Gulf Cartel's leadership transferred de la Cruz Reyna to Mexico City. He was tasked with coordinating cocaine shipments with suppliers in Central and South America. Before buying a house in Coyoacán, a borough of Mexico City, de la Cruz Reyna lived in multiple hotels in the city. He lived a luxurious lifestyle and spent a lot of money on clothes, food, and other expensive activities, which attracted the attention of law enforcement. To disguise himself in Mexico City, he tried to dress casually; in Tamaulipas, his style was rural, and included boots and a cowboy jeans. De la Cruz Reyna traveled many times between Tamaulipas and Mexico City for work, but preferred to conduct negotiations in Mexico City.
Arrest and aftermath On 28 August 2007, security forces received an anonymous tip that led them to a restaurant in Polanco, Mexico City. There the Special Forces Airmobile Group, the elite unit of the Mexican Army, arrested de la Cruz Reyna and eight other suspected drug traffickers. Eyewitnesses stated that de la Cruz Reyna had just paid for his meal and was about to leave when the Army entered the restaurant and conducted the arrest. Most of the other diners had left when the arrest occurred. Through an informant, authorities were kept updated on the suspects' activities inside the restaurant, including their food and drink orders. The government described the incident as a carefully calculated operation; around 30 Army personnel reached the scene in multiple vehicles and surrounded the restaurant and the adjacent premises. Two helicopters flew over the area. Local police assisted by blocking the street and redirecting traffic. Several soldiers went into the restaurant and apprehended the suspects. Later that evening, Mexican authorities arrested two other people who they suspected were involved in de la Cruz Reyna's operations. The location of their arrest was not made public, but they were in possession of an AK-47, and MXN$100,000 (approximately US$9,090 in August 2007) and US$300,000 in cash. No shots were fired during these operations; none of the detainees resisted arrest.
Investigators stated that three of the eight detainees were Colombian nationals and alleged representatives of Colombia's Norte del Valle Cartel. De la Cruz Reyna was in a meeting with them to negotiate drug trafficking shipment details between Colombia and Mexico. This meeting was the result of Reyes Enríquez's capture months earlier; he was suspected of being the Gulf Cartel's main intermediary for their drug suppliers in Colombia. Restaurant personnel stated that the three Colombian nationals had eaten there twenty days earlier. Mexican authorities stated that the Norte del Valle Cartel had operated in Mexico City since 2003 and was looking to receive several concessions from Mexican criminal groups like the Gulf Cartel in exchange for their drug supply. Among the reported concessions was that the Norte del Valle Cartel was to be allowed to conduct money laundering activities in Mexico, and use the country as a gateway to Europe (primarily Spain) for their drug trafficking shipments.
Once in custody, de la Cruz Reyna was sent to Campo Militar 1, a military installation in Mexico City, before he was transferred to the offices of the Subprocuraduría de Investigación Especializada en Delincuencia Organizada (SIEDO), Mexico's organized crime investigation agency. While at the SIEDO offices, de la Cruz Reyna and his accomplices were interrogated and made their first legal declarations. The U.S. government congratulated the administration of Felipe Calderón (2006–2012) and Mexico's law enforcement agencies for the capture. U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza said the U.S. government would strengthened its bilateral ties with Mexico to continue combating drug trafficking and organized crime. U.S. authorities also reminded Mexico that de la Cruz Reyna was wanted in the U.S. for the assault of the two agents in 1999. The PGR confirmed that the two U.S. agents recognized de la Cruz Reyna as one of the suspects who threatened them. News of his arrest was published discretely in media outlets in Tamaulipas with the exception of a newspaper in Tampico. This raised suspicions concerning the Gulf Cartel's control over the local press.