Arrest by Mexican Authorities of Alleged Narcotics Trafficker Oziel Cardenas Guillen (Taken Question)

Question: What is the U.S. reaction to the capture today of the Gulf Drug Cartel leader Oziel Cardenas Guillen?

Answer: We congratulate the Mexican authorities on the capture of Oziel Cardenas-Guillen, one of that country’s leading narcotics traffickers and head of the so-called “Gulf Cartel” based in Matamoros, Mexico. This is the latest of a series of impressive blows dealt by the Administration of President Vicente Fox to dismantle the major drug trafficking cartels.

In December 2000, the Department of Justice announced the unsealing of indictments against Oziel Cardenas-Guillen, Adan Medrano and Juan Manuel Garza-Rendon. The U.S. Government also named them as targets of the Department of State’s Counternarcotics Rewards Program, with an offer of up to $2 million each for information leading to their arrests.

With the capture of Cardenas-Guillen, all three of these international criminals who threatened the lives of U.S. Federal agents and who were responsible for smuggling tons of illegal drugs into the United States are now behind bars.