Gilberto Barragán Balderas

Gilberto Barragán Balderas (born 19 May 1970) is a Mexican suspected drug lord and high-ranking member of the Gulf Cartel, a criminal group based in Tamaulipas, Mexico. He joined the cartel in the late 1990s and was a trusted enforcer of kingpin Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez. Barragán Balderas was the regional boss of Miguel Alemán and helped coordinate international drug trafficking shipments from South and Central America to Mexico and the U.S. His role in the cartel also included providing them with information on the movement and location of Mexican security forces to ensure safe passage of their cocaine and marijuana shipments. In 2008, an indictment issued by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia detailing his criminal activities was unsealed in court.

In 2009, the U.S. Department of State and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) issued a US$5 million bounty for information leading to his arrest and/or conviction. In 2010, the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned Barragán Balderas under the Kingpin Act. Barragán Balderas was arrested by the Mexican Federal Police at a ranch in Reynosa in 2011 while he celebrated his birthday. He was imprisoned at the Federal Social Readaptation Center No. 1, a maximum-security prison in the State of Mexico. In 2020, he was extradited to the U.S. for his outstanding drug trafficking charges.

Early life and background

Gilberto Barragán Balderas was born in Miguel Alemán, Tamaulipas, Mexico, on 19 May 1970.