Osiel Cárdenas, the first drug cartel capitalist

He reigned for only a few years, but he changed everything. This could be the epitaph on the criminal tombstone of Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, the first drug cartel capitalist. At the turn of the century, Cárdenas, now 57, was the architect of the massive expansion of the Gulf Cartel — the name the United States used for the drug trafficking group from Tamaulipas, in northeastern Mexico. Known as “El Mata Amigos” (The Friend Killer), Cárdenas also founded Los Zetas, a criminal organization that forever altered the dynamics of Mexico’s underworld. And, he led one of the first major criminal wars of contemporary North America, waging battle against the Sinaloa Cartel and its allies for control of Nuevo Laredo, a key border hub between Mexico and the United States.

On Monday, Cárdenas set foot on Mexican soil for the first time in more than 17 years, after serving a prison sentence in the United States. Deported back to the country of his birth, the Mexican authorities executed an arrest warrant against him for organized crime, with more charges likely to follow. He could face centuries in prison — or as long as his body can endure. He may attempt to collaborate with authorities in exchange for a reduced sentence, but what seems clear is that he will spend many years in jail. And that the Mexico he returns to is, in part, the product of his actions.

Cárdenas arrived at Altiplano on Monday, the same prison where he was held at the start of the century before his extradition. Much has changed since then, and so has he. His thin, gray hair, glasses, and wrinkles —all visible in photographs released by both governments — offer a softer image than the one Mexico once had of him. But whether he has changed on the inside is another matter. During his first stint at Altiplano in the State of Mexico, there was no doubt about his control over his criminal empire. Two decades later, the question is whether he will attempt to get back in the game — and if so, in what condition.

Cárdenas was a bridge between two worlds. His rise within the Tamaulipas drug trafficking networks, which included figures like Juan García Abrego, began in the late 1980s and extended into the 1990s, coinciding with Carlos Salinas de Gortari’s presidency. This period also marked the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), an event that would forever alter North America, as well as drug trafficking and the broader criminal economy. The surge in economic activity and cross-border traffic between the United States and Mexico opened numerous opportunities for the Gulf Cartel, with Nuevo Laredo serving as its main departure point, due to its strategic connection with Monterrey and Guadalajara.

There was another key issue. In the mid-1990s, the U.S. effectively blocked the Caribbean route used to smuggle cocaine from South America, primarily from Colombia. For years, the drug had flowed into the country through Florida, but increased surveillance — through more ships, planes, and radars — forced Colombian traffickers to adjust their strategy. With a border spanning more than 1,860 miles with the United States, Mexico became the primary gateway for the drug. And Tamaulipas was closer than Tijuana, Juarez, or Ojinaga. The January 1996 arrest of García Abrego cleared the path for Cárdenas. The murder of another prominent trafficker, Salvador Gómez — an old associate of his — further solidified his position, earning him the nickname “Friend Killer” and paving the way for his business.

The decline of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in the final years of the 20th century and the disbanding of its old police structures, such as the Federal Security Directorate and the Federal Judicial Police, played a crucial role in this shift. For decades, party officials and their government apparatus had organized drug trafficking in the country. This has been well documented by academics like Luis Astorga and Benjamin Smith, as well as journalists like Terrence Poppa, who exhaustively examined the connections between crime and the state throughout the last century. With the PRI’s collapse, combined with increased business opportunities brought by NAFTA and the rising flow of Colombian cocaine through Mexico, conflict seemed inevitable. It was within this context that Los Zetas were born.

“Osiel Cárdenas distinguished himself from other drug trafficking leaders for several reasons. First, because he introduced paramilitarism and escalated the level of confrontations with state institutions,” writes Astorga in Security, Traffickers and Military: Power in the Shadow.

The story is well-known. By the late 1990s, overwhelmed by the Sinaloa Cartel’s efforts to seize control of Nuevo Laredo, Cárdenas managed to hire between 30 and 40 elite soldiers, previously part of Mexico’s Special Forces Airmobile Group (GAFE). While traffickers had long used bodyguards, this marked a significant evolution in Mexican crime, the consequences of which continue to plague the country.

For years, the responsibility of sponsoring, organizing, and protecting drug trafficking had fallen to the state — and was done in a disorderly manner. In Tamaulipas, this role was eventually taken over by a group of army deserters, who would come to be known as Los Zetas, named after their radio call signs.

“All of this was orchestrated by a man who would go down in history for betraying his old ally,” writes Astorga, who provides further insight into Cárdenas’s character: “Cárdenas was prone to clientelist actions, often with wide media coverage, such as giving toys to children or food to victims. He was more interested in the media than his counterparts [...] It was as though the businessman of illegality, the warrior, and the populist coexisted in him.”

Cárdenas invented modern warfare in Mexico, blending drug trafficking with a wide array of other criminal enterprises. With Los Zetas entering the criminal scene, trafficking in cocaine, heroin, and marijuana became just one of many businesses for the criminal duo he formed with the Gulf Cartel. They expanded into human trafficking, fuel theft, and later, in Tamaulipas and the areas where Los Zetas expanded their influence, they established a reign of extortion — which, over the years, has grown into one of the country’s most pressing problems.

The Mexican government arrested Cárdenas in 2003 in Matamoros, his hometown, and sent him to the maximum-security Altiplano prison. There, according to press reports, he befriended another figure from the 1990s drug trade, Benjamín Arellano Félix. Together, they fought against the cartels led by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and the Beltrán Leyva brothers for control of the constantly disputed Nuevo Laredo. However, the U.S. had already set its sights on him. In 2007, the government of Felipe Calderón extradited him to the U.S., and in 2010, he was convicted in the country. After serving his sentence, which was reduced due to undisclosed agreements with the Department of Justice, Cárdenas returned to Mexico on Monday, ready to start anew.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition