“Itzli” for Borderland Beat.
In a year marked by notable arrests, the Matamoros faction plunges itself into civil war.
Continued from Part 5: Shifting Tides
Inside the Fraction
A report from February 2019 gave a bit of insight into the structure of the Matamoros faction at the time. Sergio “Cortez” Ortegón Silva, rightly or wrongly, was still said to be head of plaza in Matamoros. Heriberto “El Bazán” Bazán Rodríguez, who appeared on a most wanted list in June 2018, was head of plaza in Ciudad Victoria.
An individual only known by his alias, “El Caballero”, was listed as head of plaza in Valle Hermoso, apparently taking the place of Eduardo “El Negro” Flores Borrego. However, there is reason to believe that “El Negro”, who also went by the alias “El Negrito”, was still active, as he appears to be referenced in a Grupo Escorpion message from March 2019 as well as a Los Metros video from December 2019.
Carlos Osvaldo “Carlitos Whiskies” González Escobar, code name “Pantera 7”, was listed as head of Nuevo Progreso, although he was reportedly killed in January 2019 as the Matamoros faction clashed with the military over several days.
An online list from October 2018 would include other individuals worth noting, in particular prominent members of Los Ciclones Evaristo “El Vaquero” Cruz Sánchez, code name “Ciclón 46” and Óscar Antonio “La Droga” López Sandoval, code name “Ciclón 89”.
On that list Juan Miguel “El Miguelito” Lizardi Castro, code name “M-56”, is listed as a member of Los Escorpiones in Reynosa and, assuming this information is correct, Río Bravo was taken over by the Matamoros faction sometime in 2018, with Edgar “El Maestrín” Valladares Hernández placed as head of plaza. Both of these individuals would be referenced in a banner placed by Los Metros in Reynosa in December 2019.
The Third Arrest of El Contador
On March 3, 2019 José Alfredo “El Contador” Cárdenas Martínez was once again arrested, this time by the Fiscalía General de la República (FGR) in San Luis Potosí, although details as to exactly where in the state he was detained do not appear to have ever been released.
With “El Contador” imprisoned, his right hand man, “El Vaquero”, took his place as leader of the Matamoros faction, though over time rumors spread that “El Contador” continued to control the cartel from prison.
The Reemergence of El Betillo
When “El Contador” rose to power in March 2016, as covered in Part 4, it apparently came at the expense of Mario Alberto “El Betillo” Cárdenas Medina, who was said to have been leader of the Matamoros faction prior to that. Thereafter, “El Betillo”, also known as “El Betito”, “El Beto”, “El Patrón”, and “El Güero” disappeared from the cartel landscape for the most part and was only mentioned in passing when he was rumored to have vowed revenge for the death of his brother Manuel “El Many” Cárdenas Medina, covered in Part 5.
By the beginning of 2019, if not sooner, “El Betillo” was living in Mexico City, although he continued to have operations in Tamaulipas. According to government officials, “he did everything by telephone”; using code words, he coordinated the trafficking of drugs, weapons, and illegal immigrants with his subordinates in Tamaulipas, as well as ordering kidnappings. Likewise, he maintained a line of communication with his imprisoned father, Mario “M1” Cárdenas Guillén, through a lawyer.
Ciclones vs. Escorpiones
With the arrest of “El Contador”, “El Betillo” apparently saw an opportunity to return to power; three weeks later news spread that Los Ciclones and Los Escorpiones were fighting each other for power. The reality was not quite that simple, however, as there was not a definitive dividing with each group on opposite sides of each other during the conflict, as it is implied.
On one side of the power struggle was “El Betillo”, who was said to have been backed by Los Ciclones, which, granted, may have been the primary base of his support. However, he did have support within Los Escorpiones. Likewise, “El Vaquero” was on the opposite side of the war for power, yet he was a member of Los Ciclones, although, as representative of “El Contador”, it would appear the bulk of Los Escorpiones supported him. Taking this into account, a more accurate description of this conflict would be followers of “El Betillo” versus loyalists of “El Contador” and “El Vaquero”.
It would be reported that on March 30, 2019 “El Betillo” met with Víctor Manuel “El Meme Loco” Vázquez Mireles at the Los Arcos restaurant in the San Jerónimo section of Mexico City. “El Meme Loco” had been a close associate of Osiel Cárdenas Guillén prior to being arrested on March 28, 2003. He was released from prison at an unspecified time and it appears that “El Betillo” approached him as a potential ally in his war against “El Vaquero”, although it is not fully clear what decision “El Meme Loco” made.
The Arrest of El Betillo
According to later reports, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of the United States sent the Mexican government information about “El Contador” and “El Betillo” on March 22, 2019, including phone numbers that they had been using. A week later, on March 29, the Fiscalía General de la República (FGR) was able to locate “El Betillo” based on information obtained by tapping into a phone call made on one of those numbers, although it would later be rumored that the phone number was actually given to the government by “El Contador”.
Regardless, from that point forward the Mexican government began tracking “El Betillo” and arrested him in the Naucalpan municipality of the state of México on June 30, 2019.
Cartel del Golfo Nueva Era
The so called war between Los Ciclones and Los Escorpiones did not end with the arrest of “El Betillo”, however. Just as “El Vaquero” represented the imprisoned “El Contador”, the forces of “El Betillo” continued under the command of Raúl “El Loco” García Martínez, code name “Escorpión 2”.
The criminal career of “Escorpión 2” dates back to at least 2005, at which point he was arrested and was reported to be working under Antonio “Tony Tormenta” Ezequiel Cárdenas Guillén. It is quite possible that he was a member of the original group of Los Escorpiones, though there is a lack of information to verify this theory and he may have merely been a member of the reactivated Los Escorpiones that emerged in 2017, as discussed in Part 5.
Regardless, the war between “Escorpión 2” and “El Vaquero” continued, garnering additional attention in early August 2019 when several pictures of young women who were allegedly part of a group known as Los Marucheros, working under “Escorpión 2”, appeared online.
Shortly thereafter, on August 8, 2019, banners were hung in Matamoros signed by “Cartel del Golfo Nueva Era and Allies Escorpión 2”, offering a $1 million reward for “El Vaquero”, dead or alive.
San Fernando
An hour and a half drive south of Matamoros lies the city of San Fernando, Tamaulipas. During the leadership of Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, the head of plaza was his nephew, Rafael “El Junior” Cárdenas Vela and it fell under the control of Los Zetas following their split from the Cártel del Golfo (CDG, Gulf Cartel) in January 2010, as discussed in Part 1.
San Fernando would become infamous as it was the site of a Los Zetas massacre of 72 migrants in August 2010. Among those blamed for this event was Martiniano de Jesús “El Pata de Queso” Jaramillo Silva, code name “Z-74”, a high ranking member of Los Zetas who controlled the San Fernando region and would go on to join the Zetas Vieja Escuela (ZVE, Old School Zetas), discussed in Part 2, bringing his territory along with him.
“El Pata de Queso” was arrested in November 2017 and died of kidney failure three days later. Thereafter, leadership passed to his second-in-command, Hugo “El Ganso” Sánchez García and he was arrested July 7, 2019, less than two years after taking control of the San Fernando Plaza.
El Chuy Sierra
Following the arrest of “El Ganso”, Carlos Roel “Chuy 7”, Collazo Rodríguez, also known as “Chuy Sierra”, became leader in the San Fernando region and in August 2019 it was said that he controlled not only San Fernando, but the coastal town of Carboneras, several small towns near San Fernando, and the city of China, in the neighboring state of Nuevo León, with Humberto Alejandro “El Pawa” Uribe Mendoza as his head of operations.
Around that same time in August, it was alleged that “Chuy 7” was aligned with Los Metros, which at first glance seemed unlikely as ZVE was aligned with the Matamoros faction. However, when one takes into account that “Chuy 7” came to power when both “El Contador” and “El Betillo” were in jail, coupled with the uncertainty caused by the conflict between “Escorpión 2” and “El Vaquero”, it becomes logically possible that he chose to become a semi-independent cell within the ZVE, pursuing different alliances.
A Rumored Alliance
A month later, amidst a rumor that Los Metros were providing financial support to “Chuy Sierra”, it was alleged, without explanation, that “Escorpión 2” was a commander under them. A similar accusation was made in October, when photos of “El Pawa” were published online and it was said that he was the “principal collaborator of Chuy 7 and of the filthy Raúl Escorpión 2”. Days later, it would be alleged that “Escorpión 2” was supporting the return of Norberto “El Caballito” Cruz Comparan as head of plaza in El Mezquital, as “El Betillo” had ordered.
Fading from View
In the time after October 2019, references to “Escorpión 2”, Cartel del Golfo Nueva Era, and the conflict against “El Vaquero” ended abruptly, without explanation, with one exception, a brief mention in April 2021 that a close associate of “Escorpión 2”, Wilberto Michel “El Willy” Cervantes Dorantes, had been killed at an unspecified time during the war.
The death of “El Willy”, who may have worked alongside “Ciclón 7” (Ángel Eduardo “El Orejón” Prado Rodríguez) previously, cannot be placed within this framework, but it can be inferred from him being mentioned that it was a significant blow to “Escorpión 2” and it likely took place sometime in 2019.
Regardless, it seems that the war between “Escorpión 2” and “El Vaquero” ended in 2019 for unknown reasons, be it “Escorpión 2” abandoning the effort when he relocated to San Fernando, a truce being reached, or the fighting becoming such low level and/or a stalemate that its continuation became unnoteworthy. Thereafter, “Escorpión 2” faded away while “El Vaquero” would continue on as leader of the Matamoros faction in the place of “El Contador”.
The CDG in Nuevo León
While the Cártel del Golfo (CDG, Gulf Cartel) was born in Matamoros and thrived in Tamaulipas, as covered in Part 1, the neighboring state of Nuevo León has been deeply intertwined with its history, in particular the Monterrey metropolitan area and along Highway 40, which connects it to Reynosa via the towns of Cadereyta Jiménez, China, and General Bravo.
It has generally been thought that the Monterrey area has been controlled by various cartels and factions. However, a lack of information, coupled with the majority of articles referring to the CDG without specifying a faction, has created a level of uncertainty.
Matamoros Faction in Monterrey
The presence that Los Zetas had in Nuevo León was fractured with their evolution to the Cártel del Noreste (CDN, Northeast Cartel) in 2015 and the split of Zetas Vieja Escuela (ZVE, Old School Zetas) in 2016, as discussed in Part 4. An arrest in the Monterey area in October 2016 was one of the early pieces of proof that the Matamoros faction and ZVE had entered into an alliance.
The Matamoros faction was directly present in the Monterrey metropolitan area by May 2017 at the latest, when Edgar Iván “El Garo” Silva Guevara was arrested, at which time he was described as being in charge of the operations of the CDG in the municipalities of Apodaca, García, and Santa Catarina. This can readily be inferred based on the mention of his previous arrest that same month, during which he was described as being the head of a ZVE cell.
Another instance of the Matamoros faction being present in Monterrey is the August 2018 arrest of Héctor Adrián “La Yegua” Lucio Benavides, who was described as the leader of a Los Ciclones cell, which definitively places him within the Matamoros faction.
Thereafter, we can see instances of messages being directed against the Matamoros faction. For instance, a CDN message in Nuevo León from November 2018 directed towards “El Cartel de el Golfo y Vieja Escuela” can be taken as referencing the Matamoros faction and Zetas Vieja Escuela, as does a CDN message against “los Golfas de Matamoros” from February 2019.
A message signed by the CDG in March 2019 that was left in the municipality of Guadalupe, part of the Monterrey metropolitan area, can not be clearly identified as being from the Matamoros faction but may very well be so based upon timing and location. Likewise, banners hung by the CJNG (Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación) in Apodaca, San Nicolás, Escobedo, and Monterrey in June 2019 are arguably targeting the Matamoros faction, though definitive proof is lacking.
Sinaloa Cartel in Monterrey
It should be noted that by August 2019, during the waning days of the war within the Matamoros faction, covered in Part 6, rumors emerged that a truce had been made between Matamoros and the Cártel de Sinaloa (CDS, Sinaloa Cartel), part of which would allow the CDS to operate within Nuevo León, although it is unclear if the alleged truce was with “Escorpión 2” or “El Vaquero”.
While the legitimacy of the truce can be debated, the CDS, who controlled the Torreón, Coahuila metropolitan area, a mere 210 miles west, were reported being present in Nuevo León in October 2019 and a fentanyl drug lab found in García in June 2019 may have belonged to the CDS, but this is purely speculation.