The leader of Los Zetas sent to Mexico after serving a sentence in the United States

The founder of the feared Los Zetas drug cartel has been deported to Mexico after serving a lengthy prison sentence in the United States.

Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, 57, led Els Zetas until 2003, when he was cornered by Mexican soldiers near his hometown of Matamoros.

Under his leadership, the group became one of the most powerful and brutal hit squads in the Mexican drug wars.

U.S. immigration officials turned Cárdenas over to Mexican police at the Otay border crossing, where he was quickly arrested and taken to the maximum-security El Altiplano prison in the state of Mexico.

Mexican prosecutors said he had been arrested on murder and organized crime charges from his time as one of Mexico’s most powerful drug lords.

Cárdenas Guillén made his criminal career in the Gulf drug cartel in the 1990s, reportedly not stopping from killing his allies to rise to the top, a practice that earned him the nickname “Mata Amigos ” (in Spanish “killer of friends”. ).

But what he became famous for was recruiting members of Mexico’s elite special forces and using them as hitmen and executioners for the Gulf Cartel.

The law enforcement officers turned contract killers became known as Los Zetas.

The brutal methods they used, such as beheading and dismembering their victims, quickly spread terror throughout the northeastern part of Mexico, which was their stronghold.

In the early 2000s, Cárdenas Guillén was one of the most wanted men in Mexico.

Mexican security forces managed to arrest him in his home state of Tamaulipas in 2003 after a bloody shootout.

Aware of the power the gang leader had in the area, security forces quickly moved him to the capital, Mexico City, where he was placed in pre-trial detention.

In 2007 he was extradited to the USA.

There, he was charged not only with trafficking tons of cocaine into the United States, but also with threatening to assault and kill federal agents.

He pleaded guilty in 2010 and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

After serving a large portion of his sentence, he was released in August 2024 from federal prison in Terre Haute, Idaho, and turned over to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

That cleared the way for his deportation to Mexico on Monday.

Mexican prosecutors said seven federal cases were still open against Cárdenas Guillén and he could be sentenced to a total of more than 700 years in prison if he pleaded guilty to all charges.