Gulf Cartel's El Tango Uno Possibly Executed

"HEARST" and "Itzli" for Borderland Beat     

Update 12/31/2021: The covering of the eyes on two graphics has been removed as the woman in question is a public figure. Special thanks to commenter Elver for the tip.

The prominent Gulf Cartel regional leader Odilón Hernández Valdivia, alias “Tango Uno”, is currently rumored to have been executed in the state of Nuevo León, near the city of Monterrey.

Few details about the alleged hit are consistent across the various news and social media versions of events, and even less indicate an alleged motive or organizer of the hit on Tango.

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Some rumors of his death allege that this was ordered by the leadership of the Gulf Cartel (Cártel del Golfo, CDG). One version of events indicated that Tango Uno had recently ordered a hit on a politically powerful CDG ally and that Tango’s death was the fallout of his miscalculation.

December 21, 2021

The earliest rumors of Tango Uno having been killed can be traced back to December 21, at 7:08 pm, when a local Twitter account alleged that Gulf Cartel boss El Contador had Tango Uno executed. Roughly an hour later, another local Twitter account also made this claim. No photos of Tango Uno post-execution were included.

December 22, 2021

Website Valor Tamaulipeco released an article that detailed how social media posts were claiming Tango Uno’s had been executed, specifically citing the two tweets from above. Again, no photos of Tango Uno post-execution were included.

December 27, 2021

At 11:40 pm on December 27, 2021, the newspaper El Mañana released an article that claimed that “Odilón Hernández Valdivia [...] former commander of the Gulf Cartel in Tamaulipas, was executed in the city of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon.”

They go on to allege that “beginning last week there was a rumor that he had been executed, which was finally confirmed, despite the strict secrecy.” They also include the photo seen below, which appears to be a post-execution shot of Tango. This is the first appearance of this photo.

Later that day, local Facebook group Monitoreo Laredo covered El Mañana’s article about Tango Uno’s alleged execution.

December 28, 2021

Twitter accounts La Voz del Pueblo, Tamaulipas RTC, and the website Valor Tamaulipeco picked up the El Mañana story, repeating the allegation that Tango Uno had been killed shortly after Mañana's article was released.

Of note, Tamaulipas RTC has chosen to include the photo seen below in their tweets about the death of Tango Uno, however that photo is actually from the alleged execution of Saúl Salinas González, alias “El Billy”, which took place in the Monterrey area during this same time period as previously reported on Borderland Beat here.

Whether the use of this photo reflects on the veracity of the Tango Uno rumor or if it is simply one Twitter account misidentifying a crime scene is unclear. It is worth noting that the newspaper El Mañana did not use the above photo in their coverage of the incident. 

Meanwhile, Breitbart reported on December 28, that Tango Uno died in a confrontation with state police on December 18, 2021, based on having "consulted with law enforcement sources in Tamaulipas"

They wrote "the shootout took place in the western side of Matamoros in the Parque Industrial Del Norte neighborhood, along Constituyentes Street. The criminal figure was keeping a low profile and driving a 2009 Chevrolet Equinox with Nuevo Leon license plates at the time of his death."

They also allege the shootout occurred due to the state police receiving an anonymous tip that reported a gunman was active in the area and stating "there are suspicions that his own associates may have set him up."

Various aspects of the Breitbart version run counter to all other sources, such as the incident occurring in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, rather than near the city of Monterrey, in the state of Nuevo León. 

Analysis

The news source which claims Tango Uno was executed that has the most consistent record of credibility is El Mañana newspaper. The source for their exclusive photo allegedly showing Tango Uno post-execution is unclear, but it suggests that El Mañana has a source with insider knowledge of the crime and is not purely reporting on rumors that come from social media users.

Criminal History

According to information that was leaked earlier this year from National Guard intelligence, Tango Uno was born in 1979 in the state of Tamaulipas and recently served as a plaza boss for the city of Victoria, the capital city of Tamaulipas. Multiple cartel factions are present in the city and it has been contested within the last few years.

Tango Uno allegedly worked under the Matamoros faction of the Gulf Cartel, serving as a subordinate under Evaristo Cruz Sánchez, alias “El Vaquero”, who was arrested in April, as previously reported by Solcalj on Borderland Beat, and José Alfredo Cárdenas Martínez, alias “El Contador”, the current leader of the cartel.

Government Position

Tango Uno previously held a government position, working as Head of the Transit Department from 2005 to 2007 in the city of Reynosa, located in the state of Tamaulipas. Tango was nominated to the position by then mayor Francisco Javier García, Cabeza de Vaca.

Francisco Javier García would later go on to become governor of Tamaulipas and became a paragon for the state's government corruption, with an arrest warrant issued for him on charges of corruption while he still held office and his bank accounts being frozen by federal entities on suspicion of illicit financial operations.

The History Behind the Alias 

It is worth noting that the “Tangos” are an old, now defunct CDG group originally based out of Tampico. They employed a similar naming convention, with aliases such as “Tango 36” (Juan Carlos de la Cruz Reyna), “Tango 95” (César Eduardo García Martínez) and so on.

As is common within most cartels, but especially prevalent within CDG, the names of old, defunct cartel subgroups are often reused by a younger generation with no direct connection to the original subgroup, drawing upon the legacy and history of the previous group as a way to bolster their own. 

This type of recycling can also be seen in cases like a current Tampico-based faction calling themselves “Los Rojos”, as a call back to an old CDG group that was based out of Mier/Camargo area, as well a current Matamoros-based group calling themselves “Escorpiones”, as a call back to the elite guard that worked under Tony Tormenta.

In the earliest tweets that alleged Tango Uno was executed, José Alfredo Cárdenas Martínez, alias “El Contador” (or “The Accountant”) was blamed for reportedly having ordered the hit, however no evidence in support of his involvement was presented nor has it emerged in any news media as of the writing of this story. 

According to Borderland Beat contributor Itzli, El Contador, rightly or wrongly, has earned a reputation for being ruthless to the extent that anytime someone connected to the Matamoros-faction is arrested or killed, social media users inevitably allege it is a betrayal by him. This does not mean that it is not possible that Contador had some hand in Tango’s killing, however it does mean that such allegations should be taken with a grain of salt without further evidence.

Sergio Carmona Angulo

The El Mañana article which alleged that Tango Uno had been killed ends with the following sentence: 

“The execution comes days after the killing of a businessman who was an ally of the Morenos and who had previously been a financier of the businessmen of the Party National Action [PAN political party], Sergio Carmona Angulo, who is rumored in the underworld to have been executed by Tango 1."

As previously covered by Sol Prendido, Sergio Carmona Angulo was murdered on November 22, 2021, in a barbershop located in the southwestern part of the Monterrey metropolitan area, in the city of San Pedro Garza García, which is regarded by many as the wealthiest city in Mexico.

Police vehicles parked near the crime scene of Sergio's murder.

Sergio Carmona Angulo was a businessman, owning Grupo Industrial Permart, Grupo Industrial Joser, Consultoría Reymar, as well as a kind of political influence peddler, involved heavily in financially supporting PAN political candidates. In fact, Sergio funded the campaign of not only Francisco Javier García Cabeza de Vaca, but also the campaigns of local and federal PAN legislators.

However, Codigo Magenta alleges that Sergio was unhappy because “a dispute arose over some agreements that were not respected, in exchange for the ‘financial support’ he gave, leading Carmona Angulo to redirect his political patronage to MORENA.” 

Following the switch, Sergio was said to become a close friend of Congressman Erasmo González, president of the Budget Commission and a financial patron of Mario Delgado, the National President of Morena.

Codigo Magenta also alleges that the Carmona Angulo family had previously taken control of the customs at the Reynosa, Pharr and Matamoros bridges, during the time when Ricardo Peralta held the position as director of Customs, many of the border crossings were given to the highest bidder in exchange for campaign contributions. 

So far, only website ValorTamaulipeco and El Mañana newspaper (reporting it was “rumored”) have connected Tango Uno to the murder of Sergio Carmona Angulo, without expounding on the motive of Tango Uno might have to want Sergio dead.

Sources: Earliest Twitter Allegation 1, Tweet 2, El Mañana, Valor Tamaulipeco Article 1, Article 2, Article 3, Monitoreo Laredo, Tamaulipas RTC, La Voz del Pueblo, Breitbart, Contralínea