Osiel Cárdenas Guillénleader of one of the longest-running criminal organizations, the Gulf Cartelmade a call to a news channel from the Almoloya de Juárez prison, in Mexico, on national television, the drug trafficker revealed how corruption reigned in the prison, since the inmate had all the power within him, which was evident for access to cell phones, prohibited in that place.
The call was made directly to Channel 2, during a morning news program, in October 2004. It revealed what happened in 2003 after his arrest in Matamoros; He claimed to have been pressured by the then head of the Deputy Attorney General’s Office Specialized in Investigation of Organized Crime, José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, to blame Governor Tomás Yarrington, originally from Tamaulipas and a member of the opposition political party, the PRI, for complicity; also to incriminate himself.
Osiel Cárdenas, who founded the criminal group The Zetasone of the bloodiest cartels in Mexico and which began as an arm of the Gulf Cartel, He had free access to cell phones and many other luxuries inside the maximum security prison..
Many years passed inside the prison, during which he had at least 60 inmates under his control, and during which he managed to get rid of three enemies: Alberto Soberanes Ramos, alias “El Socorro”, close to Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán; Miguel Ángel Beltrán Lugo, alias “El Ceja Güera”, confidant of “El Chapo”, and his brother, Arturo Guzmán Loera, alias “El Pollo”.
A custodian interviewed by the newspaper Milenio narrated that Osiel “He achieved so much power that his people brought weapons to the prison. We, truth be told, turned them around. We acted like we didn’t see anything, because we didn’t want any problems either. “You could not take their money, but you couldn’t do anything against them.”
The gifts of Cárdenas Guillén
Another guard interviewed by the same media reported that Osiel Cárdenas doubled the salary of the prison employees and even paid for his children’s studies.
In exchange, He had access to bottles of tequila, restaurant meals and drugs for those close to him.; in addition to all the telephones, from which he kept in touch all the time.
“He was talking on the phone all the time. And he gathered his own people, about 60 or 70. All the time he gave orders, asked for this and that. For us it was very clear that he was still the head of his group, although in the news they gave the names of other people,” said one of the guards.
“Imagine how untouchable he was that, from prison, he wrote a letter to his lawyers—who were many—for President Vicente Fox and it was published in a national newspaper. That would be a scandal today, I don’t know, a letter in your newspaper from a drug trafficker to President Sheinbaum. But before it was something else,” added the interviewee.
Óscar Balderas, Milenio journalist and expert in organized crime, points out that the then head of federal prisons, Carlos Tornero Díaz, recognized that The weapon that killed the younger brother of “El Chapo” in the prison was introduced by the security personnel themselveswhich revealed corruption, which had become the “master key” of the criminals who lived and governed the prison.
The official was dismissed by the Secretary of Federal Public Security, Ramón Martín Huerta in 2005, who promised to restore order in the prison, as well as assign new guards. In September, when he was heading to the prison aboard a helicopter, it suffered an accident (which was never clarified) and Martín Huerta lost his life.
The failed escape
“El Matamigos”, as Cárdenas Guillén is also known, requested help from his representative in Michoacán, Carlos Rosalesalias “El Tísico”, founder of The Michoacan Familyto escape at any cost.
In June 2003 he managed the escape of 60 members of Los Zetas from the Morelia prison, Michoacán, so he had experience; However, the plans failed to be carried out.
Everything was frustrated thanks to the intervention of the prison’s telephone lines by the Mexican Army, who managed to dismantle a camp in Uruapan, Michoacán, where A commando rehearsed how to free the “Matamigos” with the help of corrupt officials.
The escape would not take place because he was extradited to the United States in 2007. More than 16 years later, he returned deported to Mexico, to the same prison that he governed with total impunity.
Keep reading:
– Mexico accuses drug trafficker Osiel Cárdenas of murdering relatives of protected witnesses.
– The story of Osiel Cárdenas: From mechanic and waiter to leader of the Gulf Cartel.