Juan Carlos de la Cruz Reyna

Juan Carlos de la Cruz Reyna (born 1974/1975) is a Mexican convicted criminal and former high-ranking member of the Gulf Cartel, a criminal group based in Tamaulipas, Mexico. He was also a senior member in Los Zetas, the Gulf Cartel's former paramilitary group. In the 1990s, de la Cruz Reyna was an officer in the Tamaulipas State Police while working as a hitman for the Gulf Cartel. After he left the agency in 1999, he became a bodyguard for former Gulf Cartel kingpin Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, and was eventually promoted to regional leader of the cartel in Tampico. He reportedly had policemen on his payroll, and managed international drug trafficking shipments from Central and South America.

In 1999, de la Cruz Reyna and his associates threatened two U.S. agents at gunpoint in Matamoros after they had traveled there with an informant to gather intelligence on the Gulf Cartel's operations. The agents returned to the U.S. unharmed, but this incident triggered a massive manhunt for him. De la Cruz Reyna was arrested in 2007 and extradited to the U.S., where he was convicted of assaulting the two agents. Expecting to be released in 2012, de la Cruz Reyna attempted to bribe an undercover agent to ensure he was released to members of the Gulf Cartel upon his return to Mexico. He later pleaded guilty to charges of bribery and received a sentence of slightly more than an additional 11 more years in prison. He was released from US prison in October 2021 and deported to Mexico, where he was taken into custody by Mexican officials.

Early life and career Juan Carlos de la Cruz Reyna was born in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico in . De la Cruz Reyna had several aliases, including "El JC", "Tango 36", In Mexico, de la Cruz Reyna faced outstanding charges for drug trafficking and money laundering for an organized crime group.