Galdino or Galindo Mellado Cruz (18 April 1973 – 9 May 2014), commonly referred to by his alias El Mellado and/or Z-9, was a Mexican suspected drug lord and one of the founders of

Los Zetas Los Zetas (, Spanish for "The Zs") is a Mexican criminal syndicate, regarded as one of the most dangerous of Mexico's drug cartels. They are known for engaging in brutally violent "shock and awe" tactics such as beheadings, torture, and indiscri ...

, a criminal organization originally formed by ex-commandos from the

Mexican Armed Forces The Mexican Armed Forces ( es, Fuerzas Armadas de México) are the military forces of the United Mexican States. The Spanish crown established a standing military in colonial Mexico in the eighteenth century. After Mexican independence in 1821, ...

. He joined the

Mexican Army The Mexican Army ( es, Ejército Mexicano) is the combined land and air branch and is the largest part of the Mexican Armed Forces; it is also known as the National Defense Army. The Army is under the authority of the Secretariat of National De ...

in 1992 and was part of the

Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales The Mexican Special Forces Corps ( es, Cuerpo de Fuerzas Especiales) are the special forces battalions of the Mexican Army. Formerly the Special Forces Airmobile Group ( es, Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales) or GAFE, the SF corps has six r ...

(GAFE), an elite special forces unit of the Army. In 1999, he withdrew from the military and was recruited by the Gulf Cartel, a drug trafficking organization, shortly thereafter. With other ex-commandos, he formed Los Zetas, a group that worked as the Gulf Cartel's military wing. In 2010, the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas broke relations and Mellado Cruz sided with the former to maintain a low profile status. He was killed in a gunfight against Mexican security forces in

Reynosa, Tamaulipas Reynosa () is a border city in the northern part of the state of Tamaulipas, in Mexico. It is also the municipal seat of Reynosa Municipality. The city is located on the southern bank of the Rio Grande in the international Reynosa–McAllen Met ...

, on 9 May 2014.

Early life and career

Galindo Mellado Cruz (also Galdino) was born in Tampico Alto, Veracruz, Mexico on 18 April 1973. According to the

Secretariat of National Defense The Mexican Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA); es, Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional is the government department responsible for managing Mexico's Army and Air Forces. Its head is the Secretary of National Defense who, like the co-equal ...

(SEDENA), Mellado Cruz joined the

as a soldier in the

on 1 September 1992. During his tenure in the military, he was part of the

(GAFE), an elite special forces unit of the Army, where he received top military training. On 1 May 1999, however, he applied to be discharged from the Army. Shortly thereafter, he was recruited by the Gulf Cartel, a Mexican drug trafficking organization, and began working for the drug kingpin

Osiel Cárdenas Guillén Osiel Cárdenas Guillén (born 18 May 1967) is a Mexican drug lord and the former leader of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas. Originally a mechanic in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, he entered the cartel by killing Juan García Abrego's friend and compet ...

along with several other ex-commandos from the Army. The group of former soldiers recruited by the Gulf Cartel became known as

, and Mellado Cruz was part of the original fourteen founders of the group. The group's members were

Arturo Guzmán Decena Arturo Guzmán Decena (13 January 1976 – 21 November 2002), also known by his code name Z-1, was a Mexican Army Special Forces officer and high-ranking member of Los Zetas, a criminal group based in Tamaulipas. He defected from the military in ...

(alias "Z-1"), the leader; Alejandro Lucio Morales Betancourt (alias "Z-2");

Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano (25 December 1974 – 7 October 2012), commonly referred to by his aliases Z-3 and El Lazca, was a Mexican drug lord and the leader of Los Zetas drug cartel. He was one of the most-wanted Mexican drug lords. Lazcano j ...

(alias "El Lazca" and "Z-3"),

Mateo Díaz López Mateo may refer to: People ;Name * Mateo (given name) * Mateo (surname) ;People named Mateo * Mateo (singer) (born 1986), former stage name of American pop/R&B singer-songwriter Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Mateo'' (1937 film), a 1937 Argent ...

(alias "Z-6"); Jesús Enrique Rejón Aguilar (alias "El Mamito");

Óscar Guerrero Silva Óscar Eduardo Guerrero Silva (1971 – 1 February 2004), commonly referred to by his alias Z-8 and/or The Winnie Pooh, was a Mexican drug lord and high-ranking leader of Los Zetas, a Mexican criminal organization. Shortly after marrying, Guerrer ...

(alias "Z-8");

Omar Lorméndez Pitalúa Omar Lorméndez Pitalúa (born 18 January 1972) is a Mexican suspected drug lord and high-ranking member of Los Zetas, a criminal group based in Tamaulipas, Mexico. He joined the Mexican Army in 1991 and deserted in 1999. He then joined the Gu ...

(alias "Z-10");

Efraín Teodoro Torres Efraín Teodoro Torres (died 3 March 2007) was a Mexican suspected drug lord and one of the founders of Los Zetas, a criminal organization formed by former soldiers of the Mexican Armed Forces. He joined the Mexican Army in mid-1991 but deserted af ...

(alias "Z-14"); Mellado Cruz (also known by his alias "Z-9" and "El Mellado"), among other ex-commandos. Throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, Los Zetas were the Gulf Cartel's military wing and had the task of protecting Cárdenas Guillén and killing rival cartel members. When Cárdenas Guillén was arrested by Mexican security forces in

Matamoros, Tamaulipas Matamoros, officially known as Heroica Matamoros, is a city in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, and the municipal seat of the homonymous municipality. It is on the southern bank of the Rio Grande, directly across the border from Br ...

, on 14 March 2003, the leadership of the Gulf Cartel was handed over to his brother

Antonio Cárdenas Guillén Antonio Ezequiel Cárdenas Guillén (5 March 1962 – 5 November 2010), commonly referred to by his alias Tony Tormenta ("Tony Storm"), was a Mexican drug lord and co-leader of the Gulf Cartel, a drug trafficking organization based in Tamau ...

(alias "Tony Tormenta") and

Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez (born 1 August 1971), is a Mexican former drug lord and top leader of the criminal drug trafficking organization known as the Gulf Cartel. He was among Mexico's most-wanted drug lords. He joined the ranks of t ...

(alias "El Coss"). The leadership of Los Zetas, on the other hand, was kept under the control of Lazcano Lazcano. However, Cárdenas Guillén allegedly continued to command the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas behind bars; with his extradition to the United States in 2007, Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel kept their alliance under a loose relationship, but each of their respective leaders attempted to fill the leadership void. Following several disagreements and internal power struggles, both criminal organizations broke their alliance and declared war at each other in early 2010. According to information from U.S. law enforcement, Mellado Cruz sided with the Gulf Cartel after the split in order to maintain a low-profile status and avoid public attention. Under the Gulf Cartel, he allegedly oversaw organized crime activities at the U.S.-Mexico border area known as La Ribereña, which encompasses the municipalities of Camargo and Miguel Alemán in

Tamaulipas Tamaulipas (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tamaulipas), is a state in the northeast region of Mexico; one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal Entiti ...

. Sometime between 2010 and 2014, Mellado Cruz escaped from two prisons in Tamaulipas after being imprisoned for rape, armed robbery, homicide, and drug trafficking. He also had thirteen pending criminal investigations for homicide, kidnapping, extortion, and drug trafficking accusations.

Kingpin Act sanction

On 24 March 2010, the

United States Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and t ...

sanctioned Mellado Cruz under the

Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act The Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, better known as the Kingpin Act, is landmark federal legislation in the United States intended to address international narcotics trafficking by imposing United States sanctions on foreign persons a ...

(sometimes referred to simply as the "Kingpin Act"), for his involvement in drug trafficking along with fifty-three other international criminals and ten foreign entities. The act prohibited U.S. citizens and companies from doing any kind of business activity with him, and virtually froze all his assets in the U.S.

Death

On 9 May 2014, Mellado Cruz was killed in a shootout against Mexican federal security forces at a domicile in Las Fuentes neighborhood in

. During the firefight, grenades detonated and shots were exchanged between law enforcement and Mellado Cruz's aides. Gulf Cartel gunmen set roadblocks and threw road spikes throughout Reynosa's streets to prevent the mobilization of reinforcements from the military. Reinforcements from organized crime arrived at the scene in an attempt to save his life, but he was shot dead inside the property. Following his death, the gunmen left the premises. The firefight left five more gunmen associated with him dead, along with a Mexican Army soldier. Inside the house, authorities discovered several assault rifles, including a Barrett 50 rifle and AK-47s, along with grenades, cartridges, and other weapons the criminals used to combat law enforcement. Mellado Cruz's death came amid an internal power struggle within the Gulf Cartel, as rival factions within the organization fight for the control of Reynosa and the rest of Tamaulipas with each other and Los Zetas, their former allies. Days prior to his death, gunfights in Reynosa had left a total of at least 23 dead, including two innocent bystanders, a couple of federal policemen, a soldier, and eighteen suspected criminals. In order to confirm the drug lord's identity, the Mexican government carried out

forensic anthropology Forensic anthropology is the application of the anatomical science of anthropology and its various subfields, including forensic archaeology and forensic taphonomy, in a legal setting. A forensic anthropologist can assist in the identification o ...

studies, where they analyzed the corpse's pictures with the photos from Mellado Cruz's time in the military. They also compared the corpse's fingerprints and DNA samples with the ones they had on file in the Mexican Armed Forces database. The following day, authorities apprehended Ricardo Flores López (also known as Pedro Luis Hernández Campos), the alleged second-in-command behind Mellado Cruz and the cartel's chief in Miguel Alemán, Tamaulipas.

Notes

References

External links

Galindo Mellado Cruz
at the

Procuraduría General de la República The Attorney General of the Republic is the head of the Attorney General's Office (''Fiscalía General de la República, FGR''; prior to 2019, ''Procuraduría General de la República, PGR'') and the Federal Public Ministry of the United Mexic ...

(PGR) {{DEFAULTSORT:Mellado Cruz, Galindo Los Zetas Gulf Cartel members People from Veracruz 1973 births 2014 deaths People sanctioned under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act People shot dead by law enforcement officers in Mexico Founding members of Los Zetas