Antonio Ezequiel Cárdenas Guillen
| Antonio Cárdenas Guillén | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Antonio Ezequiel Cárdenas Guillén 5 March 1962 Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico |
| Died | 5 November 2010 (aged 48) Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico |
| Cause of death | Gunshot wounds |
| Other names |
El Licenciado Tony Tormenta Marcos Ledezma |
| Occupation | Gulf Cartel drug lord |
| Height | 6 ft (1.83 m) |
| Weight | 215 lb (98 kg) (97.5 kilos) |
| Predecessor | Osiel Cárdenas Guillén |
Antonio Ezequiel Cárdenas Guillén (5 March 1962 – 5 November 2010), commonly referred to by his alias Tony Tormenta ("Tony Storm"), was a Mexican suspected 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.
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.
Antonio Ezequiel Cárdenas Guillén was born on 5 March 1962 in El Mezquital ranch in the border city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. As a teenager, Antonio Ezequiel and his brother Osiel earned their living by washing cars at the headquarters of the Federal Judicial Police in their hometown. By the late 1980s, Cárdenas Guillén started his criminal career under the Gulf Cartel, where he became a high-ranking leader and commanded organized crime activities and drug trafficking in Matamoros. His contact with the police in Matamoros marked the life of the Cárdenas Guillén clan; federal reports of the Procuraduría General de la República (PGR) suggest that the drug lord had solid business relations with police and military men. Witnesses indicate that Antonio frequented public places in Matamoros, Reynosa, Ciudad Victoria, and other cities in the state of Tamaulipas surrounded by a number of municipal and state police officers, whose superiors have allegedly remained loyal to the Gulf Cartel for over half a century. His henchmen reportedly wore bullet-proof vests with the Spanish insignias for the Gulf Cartel (Cártel del Golfo – C.D.G.) embellished across their chests. Although some of Antonio Ezequiel's men were reported to have worn military garbs while on duty, their uniforms have also become more subtle with time. For example, some Gulf Cartel gunmen wear tennis shoes of the same color, caps with the logo "CDG–TT" (Gulf Cartel–Tony Tormenta), or trucks emblazoned with the same logo to help them distinguish themselves from rival gangs.
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