Osiel Cardenas Guillen (born 18 May 1967) was the drug lord of the Mexican Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas until his arrest in 2003.
Biography[]
Osiel Cardenas Guillen was born on 18 May 1967 in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, the brother of Antonio Cardenas Guillen and Homero Cardenas Guillen. He worked as a mechanic before Juan Garcia Abrego recruited him into the Gulf Cartel, and he took over the cartel after Garcia Abrego's 1996 arrest. He became known as "El Mato Amigos", meaning "the Friend-Killer", after he was forced to kill several of his former friends in order to take over the Gulf Cartel. Cardenas Guillen recruited deserters from the Mexican Army as mercenaries, forming Los Zetas with himself as boss. In 2003, he was captured after a shootout with Mexican police, and he was extradited to the United States in 2007; in 2010, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.