Mexican drug lord Osiel Cardenas Guillen released from US prison

FILE PHOTO: This handout picture courtesy of Mexico’s Office of the General Prosecutor shows the head of the Gulf Cartel Osiel Cardenas Guillen (C) in custody on board a plane by members of the Federal Agency of Investigations (AFI) of Mexico, January 20, 2007, before being extradited to the US. – Mexican drug lord Osiel Cardenas Guillen, former leader of the notorious Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas criminal gang, was released on August 30, 2024, from US prison and handed over to the immigration department, officials said. (Photo by Mexico’s Office of the General Prosecutor / Agence France-Presse)

WASHINGTON, United States — Mexican drug kingpin Osiel Cardenas Guillen, former leader of the notorious Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas criminal gang, was released Friday, August 30, from US prison and handed over to the immigration department, officials said.

Cardenas Guillen was captured in 2003 and extradited four years later to the United States, where he pleaded guilty to drug trafficking, money laundering and extortion.

A Federal Bureau of Prisons official told Agence France-Presse that Cardenas Guillen, 57, was released Friday and moved into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.

The Mexican drug lord has several charges pending in Mexico, but it is not yet known whether the US government will move to deport him.

The Gulf Cartel was once one of Mexico’s most fearsome criminal groups, but in recent years lost influence and split into multiple factions.

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As leader of the cartel, Cardenas Guillen oversaw a drug trafficking empire responsible for exporting massive quantities of cocaine and marijuana into the United States from Mexico.

Nicknamed “El Mata Amigos” (Friend Killer), he recruited former Mexican special forces soldiers to form his personal guard, which ended up operating on its own under the name of Los Zetas, one of Mexico’s most bloodthirsty gangs until its collapse.

After his arrest in the northeast border state of Tamaulipas he was extradited in 2007 to the United States, where he was sentenced in 2010 to 25 years in prison and ordered to pay $50 million.

After his capture, Los Zetas began operating more independently until they finally broke with the Gulf Cartel in 2010, unleashing a war for control of its drug trafficking routes in eastern and northeastern Mexico.