Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, the founder of the Los Zetas cartel, was deported to Mexico following his US prison sentence

Cárdenas Guillén, the founder of the Los Zetas Cartel, was sent to Mexico, where he faces federal charges, following his imprisonment in the United States.

Once incarcerated for a long time in the United States, the founder of the notorious Los Zetas drug gang was repatriated to Mexico.

The 57-year-old Osiel Cárdenas Guillén was the leader of Los Zetas until 2003, when Mexican soldiers surrounded him close to Matamoros, his birthplace.

The team rose to prominence as one of the most formidable and vicious killing squads in the Mexican drug wars under his command.

When Cárdenas was turned over to Mexican police at the Otay border crossing by US immigration officials, he was promptly arrested again and transported to Mexico State’s El Altiplano high security jail.

During his reign as one of Mexico’s most influential drug lords, he was charged with homicide and organized crime, according to Mexican prosecutors.

Cárdenas Guillén began his criminal career with the Gulf drug cartel in the 1990s. It is said that he was not afraid to kill his allies in order to gain power, earning him the moniker “Mata Amigos,” which translates to “killer of friends” in Spanish.

However, his use of Mexico’s elite special forces as hitmen and enforcers for the Gulf cartel is what made him notorious.

They swiftly instilled fear throughout their stronghold in northeastern Mexico by using cruel tactics like beheading and dismembering their captives.

One of Mexico’s most sought men by the early 2000s was Cárdenas Guillén.

In 2003, he was captured by Mexican security authorities in his native state of Tamaulipas following a brutal gunfight.

Given the gang leader’s influence in the region, the security forces promptly flew him to Mexico City, the country’s capital, and placed him in pre-trial custody.

The United States extradited him in 2007.

In addition to smuggling tons of cocaine into the United States, he was accused of threatening to kill and assault federal officials there.

After entering a guilty plea in 2010, he received a 25-year prison sentence.

He was turned over to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in August 2024 after serving a significant portion of his sentence at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Idaho.

As a result, he was deported to Mexico on Monday.

Cárdenas Guillén faces seven federal prosecutions that are still pending, according to Mexican authorities, and if convicted of all the allegations, he could receive a term of more than 700 years in jail.