Tag: Mexico

Mexican Security Chief Tangled in Complex Cartel Web. 

(Note: The following events detailed in this article occurred last year, going to 2019. This is also a very complex story.) 

   Back in 2019, a gentleman named Trindad Alberto de la Cruz Miranda (otherwise known as El Pelon de Playas, translated as “the bald man of the beaches”) was arrested. At the time, he was the head of the notorious Los Zetas cartel in the state of Tabasco in Southeast Mexico. Immediately, the new secretary of security in Tabasco, Hernan Bermudez, was targeted by members of Los Zetas. According to a report in El País, Bermúdez was nominated to the post by Tabasco governor Adán Augusto López. Not long after Bermudez took over as Security chief, it emerged that he was the head of La Barredora, a regional branch of the New Generation cartel based in the state of Jalisco. 

On December 4th, 2020, the criminal scene in Tabasco shifted dramatically when two gentlemen known by their aliases as Pantera (Panther) and Toro (Bull), who were involved in widespread stealing of fuel (a common criminal pursuit in Tabasco), executed someone who went by the Alias Kalimba, who had close ties to Los Zetas. Consequently, Pantera and Toro assumed Kalimba’s old fuel smuggling territory. Shortly after that, in 2021, the Mexican Ministry of Defense finally named Bermudez as the head of a massive criminal enterprise. As of September 2025, there was a report from the AP that Bermudez fled to Paraguay with the intention of setting up a criminal enterprise there. However, shortly after he arrived, he was arrested and extradited to Mexico to face charges of criminal association, extortion, and kidnapping. If you have to go to the police in Mexico, you have two problems.            

Rep Cuellar Charged With Bribery.

Last Friday, Henry Cuellar, a Democrat in the House of Representatives from Texas, was charged with bribery & money laundering.  According to a report in the New York Times, Cuellar and his wife Imelda are alleged to have accepted $600,000 from an oil and gas company owned by the government of Azerbaijan to lobby on its behalf in the U.S.  He also made several speeches in Congress praising the Azeri government. He also tried to stop a bill that cracked down on predatory lenders that apparently would benefit an unknown Mexican bank that he and his wife were doing business with. According to a report in the Guardian, Imelda Cuellar set up shell companies to launder the proceeds of bribes.   This is a very worrying situation for the Democrats, as Cuellar may be forced to resign and open the door for the Republicans in a pivotal House seat.