Antonio Cárdenas Guillén
Mexican drug lord / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Antonio Ezequiel Cárdenas Guillén (5 March 1962 – 5 November 2010), commonly referred to by his alias Tony Tormenta ("Tony Storm"), was a Mexican drug lord and co-leader of the Gulf Cartel, a drug trafficking organization based in Tamaulipas. He headed the criminal group along with Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez. Antonio was considered by Mexican security forces as one of Mexico's most-wanted men.
Antonio Cárdenas Guillén | |
---|---|
Born | Antonio Ezequiel Cárdenas Guillén (1962-03-05)5 March 1962 |
Died | 5 November 2010(2010-11-05) (aged 48) Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico |
Cause of death | Gunshot wounds |
Other names | El Licenciado Tony Tormenta Marcos Ledezma El Señor de los Truenos |
Occupation | Gulf Cartel drug lord |
Height | 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) |
Predecessor | Osiel Cárdenas Guillén |
Born in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Antonio initially worked as a car washer at a local police station with his brother Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, former leader of the cartel. By the late 1980s, he entered the drug trade, and later became the crime boss of Matamoros, where he controlled the city's drug trafficking shipments and all organized crime activities. Few details were known of Antonio's criminal career prior to 1999, when his brother Osiel confronted federal agents at gunpoint with several of his gunmen in Matamoros. In 1998, Antonio avoided arrest after FBI and DEA agents tracked his whereabouts inside a domicile in Houston. Back in Mexico, his brother Osiel was the Gulf Cartel's main leader and had created a paramilitary squad known as Los Zetas, formed by soldiers who left the Mexican military.
When Osiel was arrested in 2003, Antonio and Costilla Sánchez took the lead of the criminal organization, and Los Zetas eventually broke apart from the Gulf Cartel in 2010. However, Antonio was killed in an eight-hour shootout between Gulf Cartel gunmen and soldiers of the Mexican Navy in Matamoros on 5 November 2010. According to the Mexican government, ten people were killed that day in Matamoros, but local media outlets suggested that over 40 people were killed by gunfire. One anonymous law enforcement officer, witnesses, and several local newspapers indicated over 100 were killed in Matamoros.