In two indictments filed in New York City and Washington, D.C., the U.S. government identified a total of 19 men it accuses of involvement in the Gulf cartel and its armed enforcement wing, the Zetas. The U.S. government is now referring to the Gulf cartel-Zetas partnership as the “Company.” Three men are identified as the “triumvirate” that runs the organization, which spreads from Tamaulipas in the north along the Gulf coast into the Yucatán Peninsula. They are identified as Antonio Ezequiel Cárdenas Guillén, Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez and Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano A fourth named Gulf cartel leader, Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales, allegedly controls the Tamaulipas city of Nuevo Laredo, through which massive amounts of drugs are funneled into Laredo, Texas. The US. government is offering US$50 million in reward money for information leading to the capture of the suspects.
Treviño and the “triumvirate” have also been designated by the U.S. Treasury Department as “narcotics kingpins,” which allows the government to freeze their assets. U.S. authorities also claim to possess wiretap evidence of suspects discussing drug shipments and pricing, bribe amounts, threats against rivals and authorities, and influence over police departments. Teviño was allegedly captured discussing his control over the Veracruz ministerial police.
On August 20, U.S. authorities also presented multiple indictments accusing Mexican drug cartel leaders of trafficking enormous quantities of drugs into the United States. The indictments accuse 10 major drug traffickers and dozens of cartel operatives that make up distribution networks dating back as far as 20 years ago. The three most notorious cartel operatives included Joaquín “el Chapo” Guzmán Loera, Ismael “el Mayo” Zambada García, and Arturo Beltrán Leyva.
The indictments are evidence of increased cooperation between the U.S. and Mexican governments in recent years. The U.S. justice system is seen as being far more capable of prosecuting major cartel operators, apparent from the over 200 suspected cartel members extradited from Mexico to the United States in the last two and a half years.
From the Justice in Mexico Project’s August Monthly News Report:
http://www.justiceinmexico.org/news/recent_news.php
SOURCE:
Marosi, Richard. “U.S. indictments target mexico’s Gulf cartel.” Los Angeles Times July 21, 2009.
“Por introducir 200 toneladas de droga a EU, presentan nuevas acusaciones contra El cártel de Sinaloa,” El Universal, August 20, 2009.
