MEXICO CITY (AP) — Notorious drug lord Osiel Cárdenas Guillén has been sent back to Mexico after serving a U.S. sentence and was quickly rearrested and sent to a maximum-security prison to face Mexican charges.
There was nervousness about the impending return of Cárdenas Guillén, who once headed the feared Gulf Cartel in northeastern Mexico before being arrested and extradited to the United States in 2007.
The US Department of Homeland Security confirmed on its social media accounts on Monday that Cárdenas Guillén had been returned after serving 14 years in US custody, with most of his 25 years in prison in the US. He is a Mexican national, so he has probably been deported.
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A Mexican federal official who was not authorized to be named said Cárdenas Guillén was immediately taken into custody in Mexico on drug, organized crime and money laundering charges.
The official said Cárdenas Guillén was being held in the country's most secure Altiplano prison, just west of Mexico City.
Homeland Security Investigations posted photos of a paunchy, balding, bespectacled Cárdenas Guillén being escorted by two officers in helmets and flak jackets, and the creature walking across a border bridge.
The image contrasts with the drug lord's fearsome reputation for violence in Mexico.
The former head of the Gulf Cartel was known for his brutality. He created the most bloodthirsty gang of assassins Mexico has ever known, the Zetas, who routinely slaughtered migrants and innocent people.
The 57-year-old resident of the border city of Matamoros, Mexico, moved tons of cocaine and made millions of dollars through the Gulf Cartel, based in the border cities of Reynosa and Matamoros.
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