Gulf Cartel's Plaza Boss El Gero Allegedly Executed in Nuevo León

"HEARST" and "Itzli" for Borderland Beat 

Gerónimo Hernández de la Rosa, alias “El Gero” (alternatively spelled El Jero), was allegedly executed in Juárez municipality, in Nuevo León. El Gero is believed to be the Gulf Cartel (Cártel del Golfo, CDG) plaza boss for Cadereyta Jiménez, in the eastern Monterrey metropolitan area of Nuevo León.

Earlier this year, El Gero survived an assassination attempt and also avoided detention despite being arrested and rushed off to Mexico City for presumed legal prosecution by federal authorities.

According to a source with information on the attack who spoke with El Porvenir newspaper, El Gero parked on a street in the town of Joaquín Garza y Garza, which is located in Juárez municipality in the state of Nuevo León. 

At approximately 1:10 pm on the afternoon of December 24, 2021, El Gero exited his navy blue GMC pickup truck and purchased food at a stall near the intersection of Arturo B. de la Garza Avenue and Camino a la Paz. Gero then walked back to his truck, where a female passenger waited for him.

Shortly after he returned, a man approached El Gero and took out a gun hidden under his clothing. The man shot El Gero multiple times then jumped into a red Chevrolet Cheyenne pick-up truck being driven by an alleged accomplice, which then sped away, driving in the direction of Cadereyta Jiménez.

Municipal officers responded quickly to the shooting, likely due to the food stall being only one block away from the Juárez Municipal Police station from which, according to Circulo Informativo, gunshots could be heard from inside the building. 

Officers pursued the attackers inside the red pickup truck, leading to a high-speed chase on Highway 40, during which gunshots were heard.

The chase ended near Valle del Roble, near the entrance to Cadereyta Jiménez municipality proper when the officer’s patrol vehicle managed to overtake and stop the attacker’s pickup by forcing them to drive into a breach. Due to their speed, the driver of the pickup lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a fence.

The armed men reportedly shot their firearms at the police however the men were successfully subdued and arrested. The chase and shooting in the breach ultimately left two officers injured, one in his lower extremities, as well as two detainees whose identity and photos have not been released as of the writing of this story.

So, which faction within CDG did El Gero belong to? According to Borderland Beat contributor Itzli, Cadereyta Jiménez has been traditionally controlled by the CDG but it is unclear what the plaza's relationship is to other CDG factions due to a lack of readily available information.

It is quite likely that that group active in Cadereyta operates under the faction Los Metros of Reynosa, or should be considered an independent faction that has been aligned with Los Metros. 

Los Metros have historically operated along the route of Highway 40, leading into Monterrey, which runs right through Cadereyta Jiménez.

Additionally, the then-Metros leader Bartolo Rodarte, alias "El Primo", was found by law enforcement authorities to be hiding out in Cadereyta Jiménez in 2015, which may serve as historical evidence of Metros influence in the area.

In terms of criminal history, El Gero was once a subordinate of Agustin Jaime Gonzalez Garza, aliases “El Viejo”and “El Barbas”, the former CDG plaza boss who allegedly controlled the municipalities of Cadereyta Jiménez, China, General Bravo, and Ramones. 

It is believed that El Gero took over running Cadereyta after Ulises Ramsés Lozano, the plaza boss of Cadereyta at the time was executed on April 4, 2020. The hitmen behind Ulises’s execution reportedly belong to the rival cartel organization, the Northeast Cartel (Cártel del Noreste, CDN).

In March 2021, alleged 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 armored and the six bullets which impacted the driver’s side window did not penetrate through the vehicle’s glass. El Gero sped away from the shooting and survived the attack.

Of note, El Gero had allegedly been arrested on November 3, 2021, when he was caught by municipal police officers for illegal firearms possession alongside two other men in Cadereyta Jiménez. 

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

How El Gero returned to Cadereyta Jiménez by December 2021 after this alleged arrest is unreported by news outlets at this time. 

In addition to having Highway 40 passing through,  Cadereyta is a strategic point for oil theft activities because there is a 488 kilometer (or approximately 300 miles), 10-inch pipeline within the municipality which is ripe for potential oil theft (or huachicoleo) by organized crime groups. 

As previously written on Borderland Beat by MX earlier this year, the fight between the CDG and CDN in Cadereyta 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 safe house 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.

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 died at the age of 47 years old. 

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. 

Sources: El Porvenir, El Norte, Circulo Informativo

Background Sources: Posta, Dominio Medios, Zocalo, ABC Noticias, Valor Tamaulipeco Article 1, Article 2, La Silla Rota, Infobae, ArgusMedia, El Porvenir, Scriptamty, Lopez Doriga

 

Further Reading: 

November 2021 - CDG Leader "El Gero" Arrested In Cadereyta, Nuevo León 

 

March 2021 - El Gero Attempted Assassination