Mexico Detains Northeast Cartel Leader, Seizes Weapons, Drugs and Seven Tigers

Mexican authorities detained the leader of a cell tied to the Northeast Cartel on Monday, officials said. The arrest in Nuevo León yielded weapons, drugs, cash and seven tigers.

José Antonio Cortes Huerta, 39, heads the cell affiliated with the cartel, security minister Omar Garcia Harfuch said in a social media post. The operation followed a boat seizure in Tamaulipas. Officials also arrested Rosario Flores Alemán, 41.

Forces seized unidentified narcotics, cash, 10 guns, 11 vehicles, six motorcycles and seven tigers.

Some Mexican drug cartels keep exotic cats as status symbols and sometimes to dispose of enemies. A 2023 U.S. indictment stated that victims of a Sinaloa cartel faction were "fed dead or alive to tigers."

Officials linked the items to Roberto Blanco Cantu, known as "El Señor de los Buques" or "The Lord of the Ships." Cantu holds a majority stake in Mefra Fletes and faces accusations of fuel smuggling. He works with the Northeast Cartel.

The Northeast Cartel, a Zetas offshoot based in Tamaulipas near the border, drew designation as a foreign terrorist group from the Trump administration in 2025. Last month, the U.S. sanctioned three people and two casinos over alleged cartel ties.

The U.S. Treasury Department holds the cartel responsible for trafficking fentanyl, crystal meth, heroin and cocaine along the border. It has run "a campaign of terror on the border."

"CDN is involved in violent criminal activity on both sides of the border, including the kidnapping and killing of individuals that threaten their criminal enterprise on the southern border," the department said. "CDN uses its terror-fueled influence in the region to control drug trafficking and human smuggling routes, bribe politicians and journalists, and extort local businesses and shipments flowing to and from the United States at the busiest inland point of entry for trade in the United States."

The arrest arrives as Mexico presses its cartel crackdown under pressure from the Trump administration.

Last month, the Mexican military took one of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel's top leaders in the northwest, two months after its leader "El Mencho" was killed.