Recent Federal Indictment Describes Gulf Cartel Management Structure

Brownsville Texas Border Area

I have not blogged about the gulf cartel in a while. The Mexican drug war was national news for about a minute, and now it's not, but the beat goes on. The most recent salvo was fired by DC based feds in a new indictment which describes the management structure of the Gulf Cartel:

The Gulf Cartel recruited the Zetas in the 1990s to help muscle its way into a highly competitive Mexican drug market.
But over the past three years, the paramilitary organization - made up of former special operations soldiers and rural street thugs - has grown in stature, engaged in independent criminal endeavors and has become an equal partner in the business once dominated by its creator.

An indictment in a federal case against the leadership of both groups describes for the first time the hierarchy between the two, who refer to themselves collectively as "The Company."
The document paints a picture of two organizations that have grown more independent of each other in their smuggling activities while continuing to work together to maintain control over Southeast Texas' valuable trafficking routes.

The extradition of alleged former Gulf Cartel chief Osiel Cárdenas Guillén from Mexico in 2006 set off a leadership crisis within the organization. Cárdenas was arrested in Matamoros in 2003 but was believed to have run the criminal organization from his Mexican prison cell. He is now awaiting trial in Houston on multiple counts of conspiracy, drug trafficking and threatening a U.S. federal agent.

In Cárdenas' absence, three leaders have emerged to helm the drug trafficking organization, the June 9 indictment states.

His brother - Antonio Ezequiel "Tony Tormenta" Cárdenas Guillén , 47 - took the reins after his sibling's arrest along with fellow cartel leader 37-year-old Jorge Eduardo "El Coss" Costilla Sánchez, federal investigators say.
Zeta commander Heriberto "Lazca" Lazcano Lazcano, 34 - a founding member of the paramilitary group believed to be one of its most violent members - also took on a prominent role.

(BROWNSVILLE HERALD)

These indictments have a loooonnnggggg pendency- check out news stories about indictments related to the Arellano Felix Drug Trafficking Organization from the 90s onward. Clearly the story here is the 'Rise of the Zetas.' National Geographic Channel, take note.