“Itzli” for Borderland Beat.
2020: Because the battle inside the Matamoros faction got here to a detailed, the cartel moved ahead underneath “El Vaquero”. But the shadow of “El Contador” loomed within the background up till his return.
Continued from Part 6: The War Within
El Vaquero
It appeared that, by the start of 2020, the battle that Mario Alberto “El Betillo” Cárdenas Medina and Raúl “El Loco” García Martínez, code title “Escorpión 2” had waged to take over the management left to Evaristo “El Vaquero” Cruz Sánchez, code title “Ciclón 46”, was coming to an finish as “Escorpión 2” light from view.
Whereas “El Vaquero” was the seen chief, it was directly alleged that José Alfredo “El Contador” Cárdenas Martínez continued to manage the Matamoros faction from his jail cell in Durango, giving orders to his girlfriend Balquis García, his cousin Dora Cárdenas, and her husband/cartel accountant Héctor René “Chapita” Chapa Villarreal, who’s most recognized for an audio clip of him organizing a cartel sponsored protest in September 2020, along with “El Vaquero”.
With “El Vaquero” within the highlight, the Procuraduría Basic de Justicia (Legal professional Basic’s Workplace) of the state of Tamaulipas started providing a 2 million peso reward for information leading to his arrest in February 2020.
Because the world turned gripped with the outbreak of COVID-19 virus, the Matamoros faction handed out food boxes to poor communities. A message appeared on the boxes from “Señor 46 Vaquero”, a reference to his nickname and solely the variety of his code title, with “Ciclón” being notably absent.
Demise of El Fili
Filiberto “El Fili” Munguía Bravo, showing in Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5, was continuously rumored to play a job within the conflicts inside the Matamoros faction from early 2015 till he allegedly died in February 2017. As a result of it was not well-known that he had faked his demise, it was significantly shocking when information unfold April 19, 2020 that “El Fili” had been killed in a cartel conflict on a mud highway in Matamoros.
By July 2019, lower than a month after the arrest of “El Betillo”, also referred to as “Beto Cárdenas”, there was online speculation that Carlos Fabian “El Cuate” Martínez Pérez, who had been intently related to “El Fili” through the years, is likely to be supporting “El Betillo”. If true, this may be a very noteworthy flip of occasions as “El Cuate” was alleged to be a key a part of the rise of “El Contador” on the expense of “El Betillo”, as coated in Part 4.
As for “El Fili”, it was claimed that he was the leader of Los Ciclones on the time of his precise demise and comments on an article reporting his destiny add to claims that each he and “El Cuate” had been “traitors” that had been supporting “El Betillo”. Thus we’re left with a state of affairs that isn’t readily defined as a consequence of a lack of know-how, however it seems that the duo had turned on their former ally, “El Contador”.
It’s potential that as “Escorpión 2” light away, “El Fili” continued the battle towards “El Vaquero” within the Matamoros space, thus extending the timeline of the battle. One other risk is that the battle had largely ended months previous to this, but “El Vaquero” and his allies sought revenge towards people that had sided with “El Betillo”. On this situation, it took time for “El Fili” to be situated and/or a chance emerged during which he may very well be killed.
The Finish of Los Ciclones?
It might appear that the demise of “El Fili” marked the tip of Los Ciclones as a subgroup inside the Matamoros faction. Through the years a lot of their members had been killed or arrested, whereas some rose to vital positions inside the cartel as an entire. Moreover, Los Ciclones had been fashioned as an armed wing inside the CDG, a job that Los Escorpiones crammed following their reactivation in 2017.
There was additionally the matter of the so-called battle between Los Ciclones and Los Escorpiones. As beforehand talked about in Part 6, the battle was not cleanly divided into these two teams, but the perceived affiliation of Los Ciclones with the forces of “El Betillo” and “Escorpión 2” appeared to hasten their decline and, as beforehand talked about, members of Los Ciclones similar to “El Vaquero” deserted the Ciclón a part of their code names whereas persevering with to make use of the quantity half.
Whereas media sources proceed to report Los Ciclones as if they’re a nonetheless energetic group to this present day, cases during which cartel members make reference to Los Ciclones or use Ciclón code names had been already coming to an finish and a case may be made that when “El Fili” was killed, Los Ciclones ceased to exist.
Los Galos
One of many lesser documented teams inside the Matamoros faction got here to mild across the similar timeframe that Los Ciclones had been fading away: Los Galos. Past passing references to their existence, something written about them is usually based mostly on rumors and hypothesis as a consequence of an total lack of documentation.
Probably the most definitive piece of details about Los Galos is that they had been related to Óscar Antonio “La Droga” López Sandoval, previously a excessive rating member of Los Ciclones with the code title “Ciclón 89” who operated in Nuevo Progreso, Río Bravo, and Reynosa. Based mostly upon circumstantial proof, it might seem that Los Galos operated in that very same space and should have been led, or on the very least supervised, by “La Droga”.
Documentation of members of Los Galos is difficult to seek out. Galo 5 has been identified by image and the alias “Wuero Motas”. Galo 9 has a “corrido” song with a picture and the aliases “Paco” and “c482”, which probably stands for a former code title of “Ciclón 482”. It’s potential that Galo 9 is Francisco “Paquito” Martínez Ramírez, mentioned in Part 3, who additionally makes use of the nickname “Paco”. Moreover, there was a reasonably constant line of rumors that Roberto Saavedra “El Chiricuas” Santana Delgado, mentioned in Part 5, defected to the Matamoros faction and went on to turn into a member of Los Galos.
Taking the latter two under consideration, it might seem that some, if not the entire members of Los Galos had been former members of Los Metros working for the Matamoros faction. Their function inside the cartel is tougher to find out, however it’s fairly potential that they served as a gaggle of operators and traffickers working in territory that had been seized from Los Metros.
El Primito
As mentioned in Part 5, within the waning days of Luis Alberto “El Pelochas” Blanco Flores as chief of Los Metros, Luis Miguel “El Flaco Sierra” González Mercado waged a short marketing campaign in Río Bravo towards the Matamoros faction and was stated to be backed by a then underreported particular person often called “El Primito”.
Following the August 2018 arrest of “El Pelochas”, it seems that “El Primito” turned chief of Los Metros with little to no opposition and maintained discreet management of this CDG faction. For a 12 months, it was believed that the true id of “El Primito” was Bartolo “El Primo” Rodarte Castillo, who had been arrested in Cadereyta Jiménez, Nuevo León in Might 2015. This line of thought was so pervasive that even the Cártel del Noreste (CDN, Northeast Cartel) would use his picture in messages towards Los Metros.
The revelation that “El Primito” was truly César Morfín Morfín would emerge online in August 2019, in addition to conflicting information as to the timing of his arrival in Tamaulipas, which apparently occurred someday in 2007-2009.
A rarely reported history of “El Primito” claims that he was despatched from Jalisco to the border by orders of Los Flores, a drug trafficking household that will finally turn into a part of the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), to assist cross medicine within the metropolis of Río Bravo on their behalf by paying charges to the CDG. Upon Los Zetas splitting from the CDG in 2010, “El Primito” was stated to have offered cash, weapons, and other people to assist the CDG and gained respect inside Los Metros. In time the standing of “El Primito” grew to the purpose that he labored instantly underneath Juan Manuel “El Toro” Loisa Salinas and finally he turned head of plaza in Camargo earlier than assuming management of Los Metros.
Continued Conflicts with Los Metros
As mentioned in Part 6, it was alleged in August 2019 that Carlos Roel “Chuy 7”, Collazo Rodríguez, chief of the Zetas Vieja Escuela (ZVE) in San Fernando, was aligned with Los Metros. A month later, it was further claimed that “El Primito” was financing “Chuy 7” in a battle being waged in San Fernando and Méndez, although the opposing aspect was not specified. Whereas it’s potential that he was preventing the CDN or fellow members of ZVE, the truth that “Escorpión 2” is talked about in a listing of supporters makes it almost definitely that it’s referring to battle with “El Vaquero”.
In April 2020 a video was posted online during which an armed confrontation was going down and it was stated to be between the forces of “El Vaquero” and Los Metros. Notably, the video was tagged San Fernando, Barrancon, and Carboneras, all areas beforehand stated to be underneath the management of “Chuy 7”. It’s unclear if the alliance between “El Primito” and “Chuy 7” was nonetheless in impact presently, which ends up in two most important prospects: the mentioning of Los Metros was truly a reference to “Chuy 7” or “El Vaquero” was offering assist to drive out Los Metros, assuming “Chuy 7” had left his alliance with Los Metros and turned to the Matamoros faction.
All through 2020, Los Metros had been more and more on the defensive because the Matamoros faction continued to consolidate energy in Río Bravo and make incursions in Reynosa.
The Return of El Contador
On October 30, 2020 rumors spread online that “El Contador” was released from prison following judges declaring in June that his arrest was unlawful. Within the absence of main media protection the state of affairs was unclear till two weeks later, when El Mañana de Reynosa confirmed that “El Contador” had been launched on October 29 after a choose in Ciudad Victoria declined to indict him on the fees that he had been arrested for.
It seems that “El Vaquero” instantly stepped apart and “El Contador” returned to steer the Matamoros faction as there have been no indicators of opposition at the moment.
El Gordo Villarreal
In some ways, Yahaira “Yaya” Cárdenas is essentially the most neglected of the kids of Osiel Cárdenas Guillén. The oldest of the siblings, it is rumored that she was born to a college trainer that Osiel had a relationship with, making her a half-sister to her extra well-known sisters Marlene and Grecia. It might seem that Yahaira would have stayed within the shadows if not for her husband, René “El Gordo” Villarreal.
The existence of “El Gordo Villarreal” seems to have first come out in December 2018. Moreover, it must be famous that he’s typically referred to as “Comandante Escorpión”, though it’s unclear if he was an precise member of Los Escorpiones. By the start of January 2019 it was claimed that “El Gordo Villarreal” and Yahaira rapidly moved from Matamoros to San Pedro, a rich suburb of Monterrey, Nuevo León, for unclear causes.
Even so, “El Gordo Villarreal” continued to function as a drug trafficker for the Matamoros faction and 600 kilograms of cocaine seized by the navy in Matamoros in early March 2019 allegedly belonged to him. With the discharge of “El Contador” from jail, it was claimed that “El Gordo Villarreal” stated he would return to Matamoros and take revenge towards those that drove him away.
(To be Continued…)
