El Roger was invited to affix the Gulf Cartel by his childhood pal Angel Trinidad Gonzalez Gomez (alias El Trini), who was the third-in-command below El Chava.
Turf wars in Matamoros
The first vendetta recorded in Matamoros after Juan Garcia Abrego’s arrest occurred on 23 March 1996, when El Rafles went lacking together with Mario Alberto Alanis and Mario Alberto Garcia (recognized collectively as Los Marios).
The killings continued and resulted within the dying of Checo Gomez and his pal Francisco Pecina Montañez¹ in Valle Hermoso municipality two months later.
Close to midnight on 20 August 1997, El Roger was practically killed in a shootout in Matamoros. In line with newspaper data consulted by Borderland Beat, a number of Gulf Cartel members met on the residence of a neighborhood drug trafficker named Jorge Omar Aguilar Gallardo (alias El Nene) to work on a truce.
El Chava Gomez and his males, together with El Roger, agreed to fulfill with rival gang members affiliated with Matamoros drug trafficker Antonio Dávila Cruz (alias El Comandante and/or El Davila).² However the assembly didn’t go as deliberate.
When Chava Gomez and El Roger arrived at El Nene’s residence, they opened hearth at El Davila’s males. El Davila, the meant goal of the assault, was killed by gunfire; two members of the attacking group, El Roger’s pal El Trini and ex-police officer Meliton Montalvo Medina, have been killed by El Davila’s gunmen.
A number of of El Davila’s males have been injured and brought into custody as soon as responding cops arrived on the scene, together with his right-hand man Gudelio Campos Gonzalez (alias El Indio), Joel Alejandro Bermúdez Gonzalez, Ricardo Garza, Arturo Cuello, and Gerardo Campos Garcia.
El Roger, nonetheless, managed to escaped unhurt.
With time, he acquire the belief of different members of the Gulf Cartel and climbed by way of the management ranks below El Chava Gomez’s group. By 1996 El Roger he was the third-in-command below Roberto Torres Martinez (alias El Muertero), one among Chava Gomez’s most trusted lieutenants.
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| Osiel Cárdenas Guillén grew to become the highest chief of the Gulf Cartel in 1999. El Roger labored below him, however each of them started to have disagreements as soon as El Roger expressed curiosity in retiring from day-to-day operations |
El Roger’s Ascension
As lined in a previous throwback series by Borderland Beat, the primary inside circle of Los Metros was shaped by El Roger and members of the Tamaulipas State Police and the Matamoros Municipal Police round 1996. This was across the time that Gulf Cartel chief Osiel Cardenas Guillen had moved again to Matamoros after working as a police officer in Miguel Alemán.
Though El Roger was by no means a police officer, he was in a position to consolidate himself as a founding member of Los Metros as a consequence of his enterprise acumen and underworld connections.
By El Chava Gomez, El Roger met Osiel Cardenas and each rapidly bought alongside effectively. By 1999, El Roger determined to go away El Chava’s group and type his personal ring. El Chava didn’t assist El Roger’s determination and gave out the order to homicide him. El Roger left Matamoros and sought refuge in Monterrey with Osiel Cardenas’s assist.
In an unprecedented flip of occasions, Osiel Cardenas killed El Chava in 1999, incomes his infamous alias El Mata Amigos (The Buddy Killer). This consolidated him as the highest chief of the Gulf Cartel. El Roger would turn out to be the second-in-command below Osiel Cardenas quickly thereafter.
Downfall and betrayal
El Roger reportedly labored as one of many plaza bosses in Reynosa and Matamoros. His issues began, nonetheless, when Osiel Cardenas started to mistrust him.
The precise causes for his fallout with Osiel are unclear, however El Roger’s household advised Borderland Beat that El Roger’s issues with Osiel began when El Roger specific curiosity of “retiring” from the Gulf Cartel. El Roger had already made a fortune throughout his tenure and wished to easily transfer medicine throughout the border, pay his dues, and not be concerned in homicide.
Osiel Cardenas, nonetheless, opposed El Roger’s determination to retire from the day-to-day operations. Each usually bought into heated discussions, to the purpose the place El Roger would not reply Osiel’s telephone calls. This angered Osiel, who was recognized for his paranoia and brief temperament.
One in every of El Roger’s henchmen, Juan Carlos de la Cruz Reyna (alias El JC and/or Tango 36), was secretly working as an informant for Osiel Cardenas. El JC would inform him of El Roger’s drug contacts, his purchases, his whereabouts, the cash he made in his plazas, and what he stated when Osiel was not round.
A number of days earlier than El Roger was killed, a person often called Chuy Espino (alias Comandante Negro) stopped by at El Roger’s home to inform him that Osiel Cardenas was planning to kill him. El Roger didn’t imagine him, and because of the earlier disagreements that El Roger had with Chuy Espino, he kicked him out of his home.
Osiel Cardenas later known as El Roger and advised him that he wished to work out a truce.
“Let’s be enterprise companions and equally divide our earnings”, Osiel advised El Roger, who agreed.
Osiel requested El Roger to search for an out there secure home in Matamoros to coordinate a drug supply. He advised him that they might meet there to speak in regards to the peace settlement and new partnership.³
El Roger organized a big get together for Osiel in a quinta (property) close to Seccion 16 neighborhood that was often called Punto Caballo (Horse Level). All of Osiel’s high lieutenants attended the get together, together with a few of El Roger’s enterprise companions and relations.
In the course of the night Hector Manuel Sauceda Gamboa (alias El Karis and/or El Caris) approached El Roger and advised him that he overheard a number of Zetas members on the restroom saying that they wished to kill him that night, however that they determined to not as a result of there have been too many individuals on the get together.
“We have been going to kill [El Roger] right now, however lots of people got here to the get together. Tomorrow is healthier”, El Karis advised El Roger, quoting precisely what he heard.
However El Roger ignored the warning.
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Loss of life
The subsequent morning, on 20 Might 2002, El Roger went house and took a bathe earlier than heading to a gathering with Osiel. This was the final time most of his household noticed him alive.
He headed to the assembly together with his brother Roberto Carlos Garcia Garcia (alias El Titino) and his nephew Roberto Vega Garcia (alias Beto Vega). El Roger wished to go to the assembly alone, however his brother and nephew advised him that they might go along with him. They drove El Roger’s Black Grand Marquis and headed to the home close to the Center College La Técnica 4. Once they arrived, El Roger bought off the car whereas El Titino and Beto Vega waited inside.
As quickly as El Roger walked into the home, he was shot lifeless with a bullet by way of his head by El JC, who was ready for him on the door. Beto Vega and El Titino have been listening to music contained in the car however heard a gunshot coming from inside the home.
Then they noticed El JC, Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez (alias El Coss) and Victor Manuel Vazquez Mireles (alias El Memeloco) stroll out of the door whereas different Zetas gunmen got here out from the adjoining homes. The boys didn’t discover that El Titino and Beto Vega have been contained in the car as a result of it had tinted home windows. However when one of many gunmen opened the passenger door, they killed El Titino whereas he was surrendered on the bottom.
Beto Vega managed to kill El Titino’s assassin and barely escaped the incident alive. He was shot thrice on his leg and buttocks whereas leaping throughout the fence of a close-by faculty. He performed lifeless for a number of hours earlier than calling his household and fleeing to america. The Gulf Cartel discovered he was alive and wished him lifeless to cowl up the incident. Beto Vega by no means returned to Matamoros.
El Roger’s spouse obtained a telephone name that morning from an unknown particular person confirming that her husband had been murdered and that that they had taken his physique to an undisclosed location.
Investigators have been by no means in a position to find El Roger’s physique. However protected witness Francisco Alberto Vázquez Guzmán (codename Rufino) advised federal brokers that El Roger’s and El Titino’s our bodies have been burned at a cartel camp owned by El Memeloco often called Punto Milpa.⁴
Additional Studying
Footnotes
¹ Different offline sources confer with him as Francisco Pecina Montaño
² His identify is typically spelled as Antonio Ávila Cruz (alias El Avila and/or Toño Avila)
³ It’s price noting that Osiel Cardenas was frequently not in Matamoros for the reason that November 1999 standoff with US brokers, so he was working the Gulf Cartel remotely. El Roger was additionally concerned on this standoff together with a number of ex-policemen working for the Gulf Cartel.
⁴ Rufino additionally stated that El Titino’s companion Nely Peña was reportedly kidnapped and killed after his dying
