Pubdate: Sat, 6 Nov 2010
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Page: AA1, continued on page AA7
Copyright: 2010 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Tracy Wilkinson, Reporting from Mexico City
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Mexico
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Felipe+Calderon

Mexico Under Siege

CARTEL LEADER SLAIN BY MILITARY

'Tony Tormenta,' a Top Figure in the Gulf Drug Gang Dies in a Border Gun Battle

The Mexican drug kingpin known as "Tony Tormenta," a top leader of 
the powerful Gulf cartel, was killed Friday in a ferocious gun battle 
with military forces in the northern border state that had long been 
his tightly controlled home turf.

Antonio Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen, alias Tony Tormenta or Tony the 
Storm, was killed along with three of his henchmen after hours of 
battle in the city of Matamoros, in Tamaulipas state just across the 
border from Brownsville, Texas, the Mexican government announced.

Two members of the Mexican navy's special forces were also killed, as 
was a Mexican reporter. It was unclear whether other civilians died.

Cardenas, 48, had acted as one of two top commanders of the Gulf 
cartel after his brother, Osiel, longtime leader of the group, was 
captured in 2003 and extradited to the United States, where he was 
sentenced to 25 years in U.S. prison in February and ordered to 
forfeit $50 million in assets.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration had offered a reward of up 
to $5 million for Cardenas' capture and is believed to have provided 
intelligence to Mexican authorities in the pursuit of the drug lord.

The death of Cardenas will be seen as an important victory for 
beleaguered President Felipe Calderon, who nearly four years ago 
launched a military offensive against drug cartels that has claimed 
about 30,000 lives.

"Today marks a new, significant step in efforts to dismantle these 
criminal bands who so damage the population of our country," said the 
government's national security spokesman, Alejandro Poire.

Still, any significant setback for drug trafficking or a halt to 
violence remains uncertain because commanders are readily replaced, 
and the demise of one leader often triggers an even bloodier power struggle.

The Gulf cartel for many years was Mexico's most powerful trafficking 
organization, second only to the older Sinaloa cartel, based in the 
Pacific state of the same name. The Gulf group has held sway over all 
of the large state of Tamaulipas in northeastern Mexico that borders 
Texas and provides important smuggling routes into the U.S. It 
controls police and politicians, buys off businessmen and intimidates 
journalists.

The Gulf cartel beefed up its firepower about a decade ago by 
recruiting and building the Zetas paramilitary force, which was 
initially the organization's armed wing. This year, however, the 
Zetas, like Frankenstein, turned on their masters, broke away to form 
their own trafficking racket and declared bitter war on Cardenas and 
his cohorts.

Hundreds of people have been killed in the fight between the Gulf 
cartel and the Zetas, with the latter group, an especially ruthless 
band, steadily gaining territory.

Mexican and U.S. authorities had been stepping up the pressure to 
capture Cardenas, who is said to have lived relatively openly in 
Matamoros. His wife lives in Houston, according to Mexican government 
documents.

His DEA mug shot, a rare photograph, shows a man with dark, wavy 
hair, a mustache and a gold chain around his neck.

"He was considered a very dangerous figure ... very bloodthirsty," 
Ricardo Ravelo, author of several books on Mexican drug trafficking, 
said Friday night in a radio interview.

He was a stone-hearted thug, Ravelo said, who tortured and beheaded 
victims and didn't hesitate to kill. He had fully half of the 
Tamaulipas police force at his service and providing protection, Ravelo added.

Mexican authorities also placed Cardenas on their most-wanted list 
and offered a bounty of about $2 million. Government documents accuse 
Cardenas of planning and supervising the flow of cocaine, marijuana 
and synthetic drugs into the U.S. and the collection of bribe and 
extortion money in Tamaulipas.

Friday's daylong gunfights throughout Matamoros between cartel hit 
men and Mexican soldiers and marines plunged the city into chaos and 
panic, witnesses said, as armed men plowed through streets on the 
backs of pickup trucks.

Residents rushed in helter-skelter traffic to get home; many remained 
trapped in their offices. Cellphone service went down, further 
stoking fears as bursts of high-caliber weaponry could be heard for 
hours. International bridges into Texas were closed for a time.

Most of the fighting barely made a ripple in national news here in 
Mexico because local reporters in Tamaulipas, out of fear or 
corruption, have been trained to ignore cartel activities. Only when 
a journalist for a Matamoros newspaper was killed in the gun battle 
did the news begin to trickle out.

On Friday evening, the government announced the death of Tony Tormenta.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake