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

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

Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, 57, led Los Zetas until 2003, when he was besieged 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 rearrested and taken to the high-security El Altiplano prison in Mexico state.

Mexican prosecutors said he was arrested on murder and organized crime charges dating back to the period when he was one of Mexico’s most powerful drug lords.

Cárdenas Guillén began his criminal career in the Gulf drug cartel in the 1990s, and was reportedly not shy about killing his allies to get to the top, a practice that earned him the nickname “mata amigos” (Spanish for “friend killer”). ).

But what he is best known for is recruiting members of Mexico’s elite special forces and using them as professional killers and enforcers for the Gulf Cartel.

The law enforcers 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.

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

Mexican security forces were able to arrest him in his home state of Tamaulipas in 2003 after a bloody gun battle.

Aware of the power the gang leader wielded in the area, security forces quickly transferred him to the capital, Mexico City, where he was placed in pretrial detention.

In 2007, he was extradited to the United States.

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

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

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

That paved the way for his extradition to Mexico on Monday.

Mexican prosecutors said seven federal cases remain open against Cárdenas Guillén, and that he could be sentenced to more than 700 years in prison if found guilty of all charges.