HomeMexicoMario Ramirez Treviño, alias 'X20'

Mario Ramirez Treviño, alias X20, was the head of the Gulf Cartel, an organization that has trafficked contraband and illegal drugs across the northeast of Mexico for close to 40 years. He consolidated his hold on the organization in January 2013, after several bloody battles with rivals within his organization and with the Gulf Cartel's chief rivals, the Zetas, but was captured in August 2013.

History

Ramirez, according to the little open source data available, is a former investigative police officer who became a drug addict and a collaborator of the Gulf Cartel, not necessarily in that order. Following a time in rehab, he emerged as one of the top leaders of the Rojos, one of the several armed factions the Gulf Cartel developed beginning in the late 1990s.

The other armed wings of the cartel, namely the Zetas and the Metros, carved their own spaces within what was essentially a large federation of groups that eventually stretched south to Guerrero and Quintana Roo, and west to Coahuila.

SEE ALSO: Zetas News and Profiles

The Rojos were originally assigned to Reynosa; the Metros to Matamoros; the Zetas to Nuevo Laredo. With the 2003 arrest and later extradition of the cartel's boss, Osiel Cardenas, these groups split into factions and began a prolonged fight for control of this lucrative corridor, which still sees hundreds of tons of cocaine, marijuana and synthetic drugs pass through its border crossings.

The Zetas officially broke away in 2010. The Metros, who were loyal to Cardenas and his brother, Antonio Ezequiel "Tony Tormenta" Cardenas -- who himself was killed in a shootout with authorities in December 2010 -- and the Rojos, who were loyal to now jailed former Gulf Cartel boss Eduardo Costilla, alias "El Coss," also split in September 2011, according to court testimony collected by the Brownsville Herald.

X20 Factbox

DOB: 1962

Organization: Gulf Cartel

Criminal Activities: Drug trafficking, drug sales, extortion, kidnapping

Areas of Operation: Reynosa, Tamaulipas (Mexico)

Status: Captured

The realignments went further and speak to the chaotic nature of the Mexican underworld. Some members of the Rojos allegedly joined the Zetas, as the various groups struggled to contain their internecine battles. The Rojos, and their leader X20, also aligned with the Sinaloa Cartel and displaced the Zetas from several key plazas, including Monterrey, the all-important industrial and money hub of northern Mexico.

SEE ALSO: Gulf Cartel News and Profiles

The fighting between these various factions came to a head in 2012 and the beginning of 2013. Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo saw some of the worst violence in their history, to cite just two Tamaulipas cities that came under siege.

However, after the death of Hector Salgado, alias "Metro 4," the head of the Metros in January 2013, and the capture of Miguel Angel Treviño, alias Z40, the leader of the Zetas, in July 2013, X20 became positioned to consolidate his hold on northeast Mexico.

But his time at the helm was short-lived. He was captured by the Mexican army in Tamaulipas in August 2013.

Now the question is whether his former armed wing, known as the Deltas, can take control. They may have some formidable competition in the Sinaloa Cartel, which had already been distancing itself as the Gulf Cartel infighting has grown worse and may seek to make its own play on the region.

Criminal Activities

X20 has been accused of trafficking large quantities of cocaine and marijuana. In 2010, he and others from the so-called "Company" were also named to the United States Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) "Kingpin's List," which identifies him a high-level lieutenant of the Gulf Cartel who launders illicit funds.

Geography

Ramirez operated mainly from Reynosa, Tamaulipas, his base of operations for at least the past decade.

Allies and Enemies

For the past several years, X20's Gulf Cartel worked closely with the Sinaloa Cartel, although there are some reports that say the two groups are now at odds.

Ramirez's chief enemy was Alejandro "Omar" Treviño, alias "Z42," the presumed successor to Miguel Treviño, alias "Z40," the captured head of the Zetas.

Prospects

Ramirez is jailed in Mexico but is wanted in the United States for organized crime and drug trafficking. He is named in a lengthy indictment issued in the District of Columbia in which the historic names of the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas are identified as co-conspirators (see indictment below) and may face extradition to the United States.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

CHAPITOS / 18 SEP 2023

In Mexico, criminal groups have prohibited fentanyl production, and the state extradited a top trafficker. Could this mean new US-Mexico…

EXTORTION / 7 OCT 2021

Despite the pandemic’s economic fallout being felt throughout the Riviera Maya, cartels have continued their extortion schemes in Mexico's popular…

FEATURED / 8 MAY 2023

While fentanyl dominates headlines, Mexico has continued to produce colossal tons of methamphetamine which floods the United States.

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…