CDG Leader "El Gero" Arrested In Cadereyta, Nuevo León

"HEARST" for Borderland Beat 

The alleged arrest of Geronimo Hernandez de la Rosa “El Gero”, the Gulf Cartel (Cártel del Golfo, CDG) has been reported on social media networks. El Gero is believed to be the plaza boss for Cadereyta Jiménez, in the Monterrey metropolitan area of Nuevo León. 

At approximately 9:00 am on the morning of November 3, 2021, Municipal Police officers encountered three suspicious men who were aboard an armored van while the officers were out on their routine patrols in the town of Cadereyta Jiménez, southwest of the city of Monterrey. 

The officers stopped the suspicious vehicle and they immediately found that the men were carrying long barrel firearms. After a search, officers discovered that the men were also in possession of narcotics so all three were detained. 

The men allegedly began making threats to the arresting officers, implying that there would be retaliation for arresting them. The men were taken to the Attorney General's Office located on the highway to Laredo where one of the men was allegedly identified as being Geronimo Hernandez de la Rosa, alias “El Gero”, who is sometimes reported as Jeronimo Hernandez de la Rosa, alias “El Jero”.

Once the potential identity of the detainee was learned by authorities and El Gero’s position as a Gulf Cartel plaza boss for Cadereyta Jiménez fully understood, he was taken under heavy guard out of state and brought to Mexico City, according to a Posta article covering the event. 

Cartel Landscape of the Area 

As previously written on Borderland Beat by MX earlier this year, Cadereyta is a strategic point for oil theft activities because there is a 488-kilometer (300 miles), 10-inch pipeline within the municipality that connects all the way to Madero city, Tamaulipas. The pipeline also connects internationally with a pipeline located in Brownsville, Texas.

In Cadereyta, the fight between the CDG and their rival, the Northeast Cartel (Cártel del Noreste, CDN) has been conducted primarily through a series of ambush attacks rather than lengthy gunfight confrontations. 

One of the first attacks occurred in January 2020, only hours after midnight on New Year's Eve, a convoy of armed men opened fire at a Cadereyta drug rehabilitation center, injuring two men inside. This “rehabilitation center”, like many others in Mexico, was simply a front for a cartel safehouse or recruitment building. The one shot up in January 2020 allegedly belonged to El Gero and it is alleged that the men who attacked it were members of CDN.

Scene of those injured in the 2020 palenque attack who were rushed to the hospital for treatment.

Then on the night of April 4, 2020, CDN hitmen who were disguised as police officers shot and killed El Gero's predecessor, Ulises Ramsés Lozano García while he was at a clandestine cockfighting arena (“palenque”) in Cadereyta. Ulises Lozano García had survived a similar attack just two years earlier in 2018 despite having been shot twice in the back, once in the abdomen and once in the forearm. 

Crime scene of the 2018 attempt on Ulises Ramsés Lozano García's life when he was shot four times. 

However in the 2020 attack, Ulises died at the age of 47 years old. Also killed in the 2020 Cadereyta palenque attack was high-ranking regional CDG leader Osvaldo Pérez Moreno, aged 71 years old. 

During the attack that killed Ulises, CDG local boss José Mauro Flores Garza, alias “El Win”, were injured.  El Win is allegedly well connected with the Cadereyta Municipal Police. 

El Win’s group of hitmen is primarily composed of both active and former police officers. His group allegedly dealt in executions, kidnappings, drug dealing, and oil theft activities in the area. The attack at the cockfighting arena was reportedly carried out by Ivan Peña Hernandez ('El Peñitas), a former CDG member who left the organization to join up with CDN. 

In presumed retaliation, El Peñitas was killed in what was likely a CDG hit just three months later. 

Background on El Gero 

El Gero was once a subordinate of Agustin Jaime Gonzalez Garza, alias “El Viejo” or “El Barbas”, the former plaza boss of the Gulf Cartel in the municipalities of Cadereyta, China, General Bravo, and Ramones.

In March 2021, CDN members attempted to assassinate El Gero while he was driving his vehicle. Unbeknownst to the hitmen, El Gero’s black GMC Sierra pickup truck was actually heavily armored and the six bullets which impacted the driver’s side window did not penetrate into the vehicle. El Gero fled as quickly as he could away from the hitmen. At one point, El Gero was forced to abandon his vehicle and run away on foot. He managed to escape those pursuing him and he allegedly returned to leading criminal operations in Cadereyta. 

Sources: Posta, Dominio Medios, Zocalo, Valor por Tamaulipas, La Voz de Pueblo    

Background Sources: Borderland Beat Article on El Gero, ABC Noticias, Valor Tamaulipeco Article 1, Article 2, La Silla Rota, Infobae, ArgusMedia

2020 Palenque Attack: El Porvenir, Scriptamty

2018 Attack on Ulises: Info7, Debate, El Horizonte