Zetas founder Osiel Cárdenas released from US prison

Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, former leader of the Gulf Cartel and founder of the criminal organization Los Zetas, was released from prison in the United States on Friday.

Cárdenas, 57, is from the northern border state of Tamaulipas. He was captured in Mexico in 2003 and extradited to the United States in 2007.

He reached a plea deal with U.S. authorities and pleaded guilty in 2009 to charges of drug trafficking, money laundering and making threats against U.S. federal agents. In 2010, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

The founder of Zetas, nicknamed “El Mata Amigos” (The Friend Killer), was released early from the Terre Haute Federal Correctional Institute in Indiana for good behavior. The years he spent in prison in Mexico before being extradited to the United States were also counted.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) told El Universal that Cárdenas will not be sent back to Mexico, where there are valid warrants for his arrest. A DEA official told El Universal that he is free to go wherever he wants.

However, other media outlets reported that Cárdenas could be turned over to Mexican authorities. The newspaper Milenio, citing a source from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), said he was turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement when he was released from prison, although the U.S. is not deporting him.

“Osiel will remain in the United States indefinitely or until his migration situation is resolved,” the HSI source told Milenio.

The Matamoros native was the leader of the Gulf Cartel (CDG) at the time of his arrest and is considered one of the most powerful drug lords in Mexico.

During his leadership of the cartel from 1997 to 2003, “the CDG controlled a massive cocaine and marijuana empire that rivaled those of other legendary Mexican organized crime groups, including the Sinaloa Cartel,” according to Insight Crime, a think tank and media organization focused on organized crime in the Americas.

While leading the CDG, Cárdenas founded Los Zetas, which served as the cartel’s armed unit until it branched out on its own in 2010. Los Zetas was initially made up of deserters from an elite unit of the Mexican army.

The group “professionalized Mexican gang warfare by unleashing an arms race and introducing a form of brutal violence never before seen in the country,” Insight Crime reported Friday.

In 2010, Los Zetas killed 72 migrants — 58 men and 14 women — in the municipality of San Fernando, Tamaulipas.

Michael Deiberta journalist and author who wrote a book about the Gulf Cartel, told Insight Crime that Cárdenas “is probably the most influential, although not the most famous, narco leader in Mexico.”

Mike Vigil, former head of international operations for the DEA, said he was an “architect of extreme violence” and that “his methods became the blueprint for other cartels in Mexico.”

Insight Crime reported that Cárdenas “has no apparent remaining ties to the CDG, which has fragmented into smaller groups since his captivity.”

“However, the Cárdenas family remains a powerful force in the Tamaulipas criminal arena,” it added.

With reports from The Universal, Milenio And Understanding Crime