One of those believed to be responsible was found murdered.

The killings were allegedly carried out by the Cyclones and Scorpions to dislodge the Metros. In recent months, Tamaulipas has been dealing with the aftermath of a June massacre that left 19 people dead in the city of Reynosa. Attempts to stop the violence are Sisyphean, with constant reporting of security forces arresting a leader of one faction or gunning down a commander of one another. Parts of Tamaulipas may seem calm for a while, only to fall into violence once again.

These names continue to haunt Tamaulipas to this day, engaging in a cycle of alliances and internecine warfare for control of what’s left of the united Gulf Cartel. But their successors have been fewer, with the Old School Zetas (Zetas Vieja Escuela) and Northeast Cartel (Cartel del Noreste) emerging as the main groups. Over time, the Zetas would also split, only worsening Mexico’s criminal fragmentation. The Escorpiones (Scorpions) were the private guard of Antonio Ezequiel Cárdenas Guillén, alias “Tony Tormenta.” After he was killed in 2010, the Scorpions went to ground in Matamoros and are now allied to the Cyclones. In later years, the Ciclones (Cyclones) arose in Matamoros. In Reynosa, the Metros in Camargo and Mier, the Rojos. As the Cárdenas Guillén family, which led the CDG and had recruited the Zetas, fractured and struggled to maintain control, different “units” were created across Tamaulipas, ostensibly to guard specific leaders or cities. The Zetas’ betrayal began a pattern of units created as bodyguards or enforcers eventually trying to supplant their own leaders. SEE ALSO: The Zetas’ Model of Organized Crime is Leaving Mexico in Ruins The story of how the Zetas grew in influence and membership until outsizing the CDG – as well as the war that ensued and its ongoing impact on violence in Mexico today – has been well documented. In the 1990s, the Zetas, a paramilitary-style group of former Mexican special forces, were hired to guard CDG leadership. This marked the birth of the US-Mexico border cartels. Guerra’s nephew, Abrego, was the first Mexican drug trafficker to be included in the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted List in 1985. All of them answered to the group’s leader, Juan García Abrego.

By the 1980s, this business had been formalized in the Gulf Cartel (Cartel del Golfo – CDG).įederal prosecutors.

The enterprise swiftly grew to all types of contraband. In the 1930s, Juan Nepomuceno Guerra smuggled whisky across the Rio Grande during Prohibition. The Gulf Cartel and its ancestors maintained control of Tamaulipas for eight decades.

Infierno en la tormenta