Notorious drug lord Osiel Cárdenas Guillén returned to Mexico after serving his sentence in the US, but was re-arrested and sent to prison pending Mexican charges.
Cárdenas Guillén headed the dangerous Gulf cartel in northeastern Mexico before he was arrested and extradited to the US in 2007.
The US Department of Homeland Security confirmed on Monday that he had been returned after 14 years in US custody, most of his 25-year prison term. He is a Mexican citizen, so he has presumably been deported.
A Mexican federal official reported that Cárdenas Guillén was taken into immediate custody in Mexico on drug, organised crime and money laundering charges. The drug lord is reportedly being detained at Altiplano, the country’s most heavily guarded prison west of Mexico City.
The former head of the Gulf cartel was known for his brutality. He founded the Zetas, Mexico’s most bloodthirsty gang of hitmen. Cárdenas Guillén transported tonnes of cocaine, making millions of dollars through his cartel based in the border cities of Reynosa and Matamoros.
