Mexican Marines Detain Top Leader of Gulf Drug Cartel

Mexican marines have apprehended one of the highest-ranking leaders of the Gulf drug cartel, the notorious gang responsible for the abduction of four Americans in March 2023, resulting in the tragic deaths of two of them.

The public safety department of Tamaulipas, a border state in Mexico, has reported that the suspect was captured in the neighboring state of Nuevo Leon and has been identified as "La Kena."

This is the alias that was previously listed on a Tamaulipas wanted poster for José Alberto García Vilano in 2022. According to Mexico's national arrest registry, García Vilano was taken into custody on Thursday.

In an official statement, Mexico's Navy Department revealed that the marines had detained a suspect described as "one of the key leaders of one of the most powerful criminal organizations in Tamaulipas." The statement also mentioned that the individual was a prime target for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), although his name was not disclosed.

Miguel Treviño, the mayor of San Pedro Garza García, a wealthy community near Monterrey, confirmed that García Vilano was apprehended at a local shopping mall.

"Thanks to good intelligence, coordination and police monitoring, today an alleged criminal leader was arrested without a single shot," Treviño wrote on social media next to an article about the arrest.

In 2022, Tamaulipas state prosecutors also identified García Vilano by a second nickname, "Cyclone 19," and had offered a $150,000 reward for his arrest.

The Cyclones are one of the most powerful and violent factions of the now-divided Gulf cartel. The kidnapping and killing of the Americans has been linked to another faction, known as "The Scorpions."

The four Americans crossed into the border city of Matamoros from Texas in March so that one of them could have cosmetic surgery. They were fired on in downtown Matamoros and then loaded into a pickup truck.

Americans Zindell Brown and Shaeed Woodard died in the attack; Eric Williams and Latavia McGee survived. Most of them had grown up together in the small town of Lake City, South Carolina. A Mexican woman, Areli Pablo Servando, 33, was also killed, apparently by a stray bullet.

In an April 2023 interview, Williams said that at one point he lay covered on the floor of a pickup truck, hidden by the dead bodies of Woodard and Brown.

The Gulf drug cartel handed over five men to the police shortly after the kidnapping. A statement allegedly from the Scorpions faction denounced the violence and stated that the gang had surrendered its own members who were responsible. A Mexican woman also lost her life in the shootings on March 3.

"We have made the decision to hand over those individuals who directly participated in and were accountable for the events, individuals who consistently acted independently and without discipline," the statement read.

In May of last year, law enforcement detained a high-ranking associate of the violent Metros faction within the Gulf drug cartel. The suspect was identified as Hugo Salinas Cortinas, also known by his nickname "La Cabra," which means "The Goat."

Just a few weeks prior to that, the brother of Miguel Villarreal, also known as "Gringo Mike," a former Gulf Cartel plaza boss, was sentenced to 180 months in prison in Houston for his involvement in the distribution of cocaine.