CASE GIVES GLIMPSE INTO DRUG HIT SQUAD'S INNER WORKINGS

LAREDO -- On his last night of freedom, Gabriel Cardona laid on his
bed in a stash house in north Laredo, chatting on his cell phone
about how he'd sliced open two American teenagers with a broken bottle.

"You should have been there," Cardona, a 22-year-old Laredo high
school dropout told a fellow member of the Gulf Cartel's hitman
squad in an April 10, 2006, conversation intercepted by federal
agents. Eleven days earlier, Jorge "Poncho" Aviles, 19, and
Inez Villarreal, 14, were abducted from a Nuevo Laredo nightclub
and taken to an abandoned house south of the border, tortured,
gutted and then burned in 55-gallon drums, according to recenty
unsealed federal court records.

On the recording, Cardona said Aviles died first, after begging for his life.

The conversation with hitman Rosalio "Bart" Reta would become a key
piece of evidence in a federal case that could land Cardona, who is
already serving 80 years in prison for five murders, with a potential
life sentence. The San Antonio native pleaded guilty to a federal
charge of conspiracy to kill and kidnap in a foreign country in
August for the murders of Aviles and Villarreal and is to be
sentenced this spring.

Cardona's case is part of a 47-count indictment that has led to the
arrests of 14 defendants employed by the Gulf Cartel, a dominant and
ruthless drug syndicate. Thirteen of them, including Cardona, have
pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Laredo in connection with
the case against the cartel.

Four defendants are scheduled for sentencing Jan. 29. Nine more,
including Cardona, are scheduled to be sentenced in April and May.
The charges against one defendant were dismissed.

Though the federal case is considered a blow to the syndicate's
operations, some of the top leaders remain fugitives, including
Miguel Angel Trevino, the alleged mastermind of seven murders laid
out in the indictment.

New documents unsealed as part of the still-unfolding federal case
for the first time detail the slayings of Aviles and Villarreal, and
offer a glimpse at the inner workings of the Gulf Cartel. The records
highlight a long-standing battle with the Sinoloa Cartel for control
over the lucrative Interstate 35 smuggling corridor.

One U.S. law enforcement source, speaking anonymously, said the Zetas
- -- the enforcement arm of the Gulf Cartel -- have retained control of
the Laredo smuggling business even since the disruption of Cardona's
hitman cell by employing enforcers with prison gangs, including the
Texas Syndicate and Mexican Mafia. While cartel-related violence has
increased markedly elsewhere along the Texas-Mexico border, Laredo
has seen relatively few drug-related homicides in the past two years,
in large part because the Zetas are maintaining control of the area.

"It's quiet now," the source said, "but that could change at any moment."

Hitmen 'blend in'

Cardona's American-born hitman crew was dubbed "Zetillas," slang for
"little Zetas," because of their ages. The youngest, at 16, was Reta,
a Houston native. He is now a convicted murderer in Texas, and a
suspect in multiple homicides in Mexico.

Jesse Guillen, a former Webb County prosecutor who handled multiple
murder cases against the crew, said the American teenagers were
potent weapons for the cartel, which was charged in the 47-count
indictment with moving major loads of marijuana and cocaine north,
often escorting the drugs up to Dallas.

"They blend in," Guillen said of the hitmen. "They're U.S. citizens.
They speak fluent English. They're able to follow shipments, and
collect money for it. They're able to drive up to Dallas and Houston
without any problems."

According to recently unsealed court records, the hitmen were paid
$500 a week just to be on-call to kill, and up to $50,000 to carry
out a double homicide. They drove fancy cars, were paid with cash and
cocaine, and killed on command.

Cardona was more of a "middle management" type, coordinating hits on
orders from Trevino and his lieutenants, Guillen said. But Reta, he
said, was "a stone-cold killer from the word 'go.' "

The slayings tied to Cardona's cell started June 8, 2005, with the
botched kidnapping of a former Nuevo Laredo police officer, Bruno
Orozco. He was killed in broad daylight in an industrial section of
the city, shot at close range.

Caught by SWAT team

Acting on information from witnesses, Laredo police detectives
arrested Cardona in November 2005 in connection with Orozco's death.
Cardona posted bail and was later implicated in four more Texas
homicides -- plus the killings of Aviles and Villarreal.

Six months after Orozco was shot to death, Moises Garcia was killed
in the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant while he sat in his car.
Garcia's pregnant wife was injured in the attack. In the federal plea
agreement, the getaway driver said Cardona and Reta talked about how
Reta "shot a man in the head, 'just like that.' " Reta is still
facing a state murder charge in connection with Garcia's death.

Noe Lopez Flores was killed next, in a botched hit by Cardona that
was supposed to target the victim's half-brother. A receipt left
behind in the car used in the killing helped Laredo police crack that
case, and eventually bring down the cell, Guillen said.

After the deaths of Aviles and Villarreal in Mexico, Cardona had one
more hit on a dark highway in Texas, killing cartel defector Jesus
Resendez and his 15-year-old nephew, Mariano Resendez, on April 2, 2006.

Cardona's spree ended eight days later, shortly after he was recorded
talking to Reta on the wiretap. SWAT teams closed in on the safe
house in a north Laredo suburb within hours of the phone call.
Cardona has since pleaded guilty to all five state murder charges.

'There are three left'

The wiretap proved to be key in solving the murders of Aviles and
Villarreal. Cardona suspected Aviles of working for "Los Chapos," a
rival smuggling organization. Cardona said on the wiretap: "He was
crying and crying ..." and said, " 'No man, I'm your
friend.' " On the recording, Cardona said he grabbed a bottle
"and slash! I slit his whole (expletive) belly. And -- poom! --He was
bleeding, I grabbed a little cup and -- poom! poom! --I filled it
with blood and -- poom! --I dedicated it to the Santisima Muerte,"
the saint of death.

After Cardona described the bloody scene on the wiretap, Reta asked,
"Are those two dead?"

"Of course, of course," Cardona replied.

Then he added, "There are three left, there are three left."

On April 3, a little over a week before Cardona was arrested at the
safe house, Aviles' father went to the police in Laredo to report his
son missing. Adrian Rios Aviles said he has held out hope that
Cardona's confession was false. The bodies of Aviles and Villarreal
were never recovered.

"I pray for him every day," Rios, 41, said of his son. "I still have
hope that he's alive. If he's not, I pray that Jesus Christ takes care of him."