MEXICO CITY — Reputed Gulf Cartel leader Antonio Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen, one of Mexico’s most-wanted drug lords, was killed Friday in a gun battle with marines and soldiers in the northern border city of Matamoros, officials said.
Cardenas Guillen, also known as “Tony Tormenta” or “Tony the Storm,” is the brother of imprisoned former leader Osiel Cardenas Guillen and is believed to have run the powerful cartel along with Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez.
Federal security spokesman Alejandro Poire said 48-year- old Cardenas Guillen died in a clash across the border from Brownsville, Texas, that also resulted in the deaths of three gunmen and two marines.
Cardenas Guillen has been indicted in the United States on drug-trafficking charges, and U.S. authorities have offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
His death is a blow to Mexico’s second-most powerful cartel and a major boost to President Felipe Calderon’s war on drug cartels.
