MEXICO CITY—The U.S. government deported drug lord Osiel Cardenas on Monday, transferring custody of the ex-Gulf Cartel chief known for hyper-violent tactics to Mexican authorities at the border city of Tijuana.
Cardenas, 57, was freed in August after serving more than two decades behind bars in maximum security prisons in the United States, and since then has been held by U.S. immigration officials.
The U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a statement that Cardenas was “handed over to Mexican law enforcement without incident” after crossing the San Diego, California, port of entry, to Tijuana.
“The successful removal of Osiel Cardenas, a notorious international fugitive, underscores our unwavering commitment to public safety and justice,” said Samuel Olson, head of ICE’s enforcement and removal field office in Chicago, which oversaw the deportation.
Prior to his capture in a 2003 gun battle, Cardenas presided over some of the bloodiest gang violence in Mexico’s turbulent past, blamed for transforming drug trafficking by embracing hyper-violent tactics including decapitations.
The Gulf Cartel is one of Mexico’s oldest criminal gangs, its illegal rackets dating back nearly a century, though in recent years it has been eclipsed by the powerful Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels.
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Cardenas also founded what became the Zetas Cartel, an armed wing of the Gulf Cartel made up of former army special forces, known for extreme violence.
The Zetas later branched off and for a time became the country’s deadliest crime group.
The group pioneered efforts to diversify from drug trafficking to extorting residents and businesses in areas they controlled. The Zetas also sowed terror by employing wide-scale kidnapping for ransom schemes.
