Following the release of Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, founder of Los Zetas and former leader of the Gulf Cartel, the government of The United States plans to hand him over to Mexican authorities next Monday, September 2.an official confirmed to the American television network NBC News.
Cárdenas Guillén, who headed one of the most violent criminal organizations in the history of Mexico (Los Zetas), He was released on Friday, August 30th from the Terre Haute Penitentiary in the state of Indiana, where he was imprisoned for 17 years. The capo was handed over to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)although there was a version that he would remain on US soil.
In a statement, an ICE spokesperson said the agency’s Enforcement and Removal Operations officers “took custody of Osiel Cardenas Guillen from the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, today, and he remains in ICE custody pending a final disposition determination.”
Later, a US official who asked not to be identified revealed that the Joe Biden administration planned to transfer Cardenas Guillen to Mexico on Mondaywhere he is wanted on criminal charges. Neither the Justice Department nor the White House have commented on these statements.
Who is Osiel Cárdenas Guillén and why was he in prison in the US?
‘The Godfather’, as he is also called, was arrested in 2003 for drug trafficking, money laundering and extortion of US federal agents. His extradition to the United States took place in January 2007. and three years later he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for these crimes.
A Justice Department report issued in 2010 accused Cárdenas Guillén of threatening to kill a Cameron County, Texas, sheriff’s deputywho was working undercover with ICE, after the officer refused to hand over a shipment of nearly 1,000 kilos of marijuana. These events allegedly occurred in May 1999.
The drug trafficker, originally from Matamoros, Tamaulipas, pleaded guilty to five feloniesincluding conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, and threatening to assault and murder federal agents.
According to U.S. authorities, Osiel Cárdenas Guillén led the Gulf Cartel from 1997 to 2003, the same period in which he also assembled Los Zetas as a security force for the criminal organization.
Following his release, Cárdenas Guillén’s legal status changed to “a stranger”according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) database.
It is said that the drug trafficker He would have reached an agreement with the United States that allowed him to avoid life imprisonment and a maximum security prison sentence in exchange for information on the structure of Mexican cartels.
