The Black Kiss: Zetas Groomed Texas Teens As Sicarios At 13

Borderland Beat

Reta

Cordona tattooed his eye lids to appear open

Gabriel Cardona and Rosalio ‘Bart’ (as in Bart Simpson) Reta are American citizens of the border town of Laredo, Texas. They were raised in poverty and with the many problems inherent to poverty.  When developing  to the teenage years, they had dropped out of school and had become friends with bad influences. Seduced by the promises of easy money, faster cars and an abundance of girls, the two childhood friends soon joined the despicable cartel of Los Zetas.

This group of mercenaries and narcos trained them to kill, and the two young boys started to work as hit men. They were paid ahead of time; they lived in safe houses in upper class neighborhoods of  Laredo Texas, where those hard working successful citizens were clueless that the new family in the neighborhood were teen sicarios.  The teens worked a five day work week, on call, ready for the order for them  to kill on both sides of the border. They were paid up to $10,000 dollars and 2 kilos of cocaine for each job, and  bonuses like a 70 thousand dollar Mercedes for a well executed job.

Laredo safe house where the teens lived, and waited for orders

“You know, it’s the money, the cars, the houses, the girls,” Rosalio Reta said, after a pause, “And you know that it will not last forever, that it will end.” He said.

In April of 2006, Cardona was arrested in Texas during an operation coordinated by Roberto Garcia, a detective from Laredo. The 19 year old teenager confessed to have participated in seven murders and involved Reta, among others.  Reta fled to Mexico.

Execution of a "friend"

Cardona also confessed to have kidnapped two American teenagers, members of a rival cartel. Erupting in laugher, his mocking description of their pleas was heard  by the detective as he monitored the conversation.  Despite the captives plea, he tortured them and stabbed them then  killing them with a broken bottle. In  the hacked phone conversation between Cardona and Reta, Cardona describes how he collected the blood of the dying bodies in a glass and toasted to the Santa Muerte (Holy Death), the female deity of death. He placed the bodies in a barrel with 55 gallons of diesel, to preparing to cook them and set them on fire.

Reta expresses his admiration for Trevino's
leadership qualities, in a shootout he is in front, with weapon.

A month later, Reta was arrested in Mexico for being involved in a vain assassination attempt in a bar in Monterrey. Alleged to have killed four and injured twenty five when he opened fire and threw a grenade inside the popular bar. Even then, he didn’t  kill his victim and the Zetas wanted him dead . Reta contacted Roberto Garcia from jail and asked to be extradited to the United States. There, in a recorded interview he confessed to have committed 30 murders.

Gabriel Cardona currently is serving a sentence of 80 years for five homicides, in which afterwards- if he is still alive- will serve a sentence of life for the kidnappings. While awaiting his trial, Cardona, asked a convicted companion to tattooed open eyes in his eyelids. In 2008 Reta was sentenced to 70 years for two murders in Laredo. He also asked a prisoner to tattooed flames and horns on the face.

CBC released a video with the backstory information and  interview with the young killer "Bart" Reta.  He  reveals some of the inner workings of one of Mexico's most depraved and violent drug cartels.

                       Another video that contains some information about these thugs:

part of the wiretap-click to enlarge

Viewing  on a larger format:

View the full CBC video by LINKING HERE

More on Gabriel Cardona LINK HERE

Sources used: CBC and SOMA (translated by Chivis from Spanish)

Thank you to Milo of BB Forum for the link to the Gangland Video