The founder of the feared Los Zetas drug cartel has been deported to Mexico after serving a lengthy prison sentence in the United States.

Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, 57, led Los Zetas until 2003, when he was cornered by Mexican soldiers near his hometown of Matamoros.

Under his leadership, the organization became one of the most powerful and brutal hit teams in Mexico’s drug war.

U.S. immigration officials handed Cardenas over to Mexican police at the Otay border crossing, and he was quickly rearrested and sent to the maximum security prison in El Altiplano, Mexico state.

Mexican prosecutors said he was arrested on murder and organized crime charges dating back to his time as one of Mexico’s most powerful drug lords.

Cárdenas Guillén began his criminal career in the Gulf drug cartel in the 1990s, reportedly killing his own allies in a bid to reach the top of power, a practice that earned him He was nicknamed “Mata Amigos” (Spanish for “Friend Killers”). ).

But he gained notoriety for recruiting members of Mexico’s elite special forces and using them as killers and enforcers for the Gulf cartel.

These law enforcers turned contract killers are known as Los Zetas.

Using brutal methods such as beheading and dismembering their victims, they quickly spread terror in their stronghold of northeastern Mexico.

By the early 2000s, Cárdenas Guillén had become one of Mexico’s most wanted criminals.

In 2003, Mexican security forces managed to arrest him in his home state of Tamaulipas after a bloody shootout.

Realizing the power the gang leader wielded in the region, security forces quickly airlifted him to the capital, Mexico City, and placed him in pretrial detention.

In 2007, he was extradited to the United States.

There, he was accused not only of trafficking tons of cocaine into the United States, but also of threatening to attack and murder federal agents.

In 2010, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

After serving most of his sentence, he was released from the federal prison in Terre Haute, Idaho, in August 2024 and turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

That paves the way for his deportation to Mexico on Monday.

Mexican prosecutors say seven federal cases are pending against Cardenas Guillen, who could be sentenced to a total of more than 700 years in prison if convicted of all charges.