Miguel "El Gringo" Villarreal

Miguel Villarreal (died 10 March 2013) was a U.S.-born Mexican suspected drug lord and high-ranking leader of the Gulf Cartel, a criminal group based in Tamaulipas. He was the crime boss of Reynosa, Tamaulipas. Nicknamed El Gringo in reference to his U.S. nationality, Villarreal was identified by authorities as a Gulf Cartel leader in 2010, when he allegedly commanded cells that fought Los Zetas drug cartel in northeastern Mexico. By 2011, he served as the regional kingpin in Miguel Alemán, Tamaulipas and ordered several kidnappings and killings in the South Texas border area from Mexico.

During 2011 and 2012 Mexican media outlets reported on two occasions that Villarreal had been killed in an armed confrontation with either rival drug traffickers and Mexican law enforcement officers. By that point, rival factions within the Gulf Cartel were fighting each other for control of Tamaulipas and the cartel. Although not officially confirmed, Stratfor intelligence agency reported that Villarreal was killed in a three-hour gunfight that left at least three dozen dead in Reynosa, Tamaulipas on 10 March 2013. The shootout was caused by an attempt by Mario Ramírez Treviño, another high-ranking drug lord of the Gulf Cartel, to remove his rivals and become the undisputed leader of the cartel.

Criminal career Miguel Villarreal acquired his nickname El Gringo by being a U.S. citizen.

Ramírez Treviño and Villarreal vied for the control of the drug trade operations in Reynosa, but the former had taken the overall command of the Gulf Cartel and committed himself to kill anyone that he considered his enemy, which included Villarreal. Ramírez Treviño ordered his men to "erase everything and [kill] everyone that had ties with El Gringo", thereby creating a single structure among the cartel's commanders. Intelligence reports indicated that Ramírez Treviño ordered his men to kill more than 60 people associated with Villarreal in Miguel Alemán and Camargo, Tamaulipas throughout March 2013 to reunify the Gulf Cartel under his power.

After several prolonged battles for the control of Reynosa, Ramírez Treviño became the top leader of the Gulf Cartel in 2013, a position he had been vying since the drug lords Costilla Sánchez and Cárdenas Guillén were arrested in late 2012. Although the information was not officially confirmed, Stratfor intelligence agency had suggested that Villarreal and several of his top associates were killed in the infighting on 10 March 2013.