EXCLUSIVE: Gulf Cartel Boss Ran Extortion, Narcotics Operations Under House Arrest in Mexican Border State

MONTERREY, Nuevo Leon – Local investigators re-arrested a top Gulf Cartel leader in charge of regional fuel theft operations, narcotics sales, and extortion rackets despite already being under house arrest.

This week, the Nuevo Leon State Investigations Agency (AEI) re-arrested Juan Manuel “Juanito, Juanillo, or El 90” Hernandez Vasquez–who was supposed to be under house arrest–during an operation targeting drug distribution groups in the industrial areas of the Monterrey metro. The group managed to operate in Nuevo Leon while avoiding a turf war with the Cartel Del Noreste (CDN) faction of Los Zetas.

Mexican authorities initially arrested Hernandez Vasquez in January when he tried to bribe the federal and state authorities who caught him with 20 bricks of cocaine he was allegedly moving toward Texas. Authorities later learned El 90 was in charge of a cell of 22 gunmen in the Monterrey area.

In the weeks following, Nuevo Leon State Judge Juan Manuel Cardenas Gonzalez ordered the Gulf Cartel boss to be released from jail and held under house arrest. The judge claimed Hernandez was not a danger to the community and had no priors.

After his release, Hernandez Vasquez focused more on fuel theft and extortion schemes, U.S. law enforcement sources in Nuevo Leon revealed to Breitbart Texas. Hernandez Vasquez supposedly replaced the late Hector Adrian “La Yegua” Lucio Benavidez as the Gulf Cartel’s chief in Nuevo Leon. It is also believed that he funneled illicit proceeds to the Matamoros faction of the cartel.

Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities.  The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by Tony Aranda from Nuevo Leon.