TOP MEXICAN CARTEL CHIEF SENTENCED TO 25 YEARS

The sentencing of infamous Mexican drug lord Osiel Cardenas Guillen
this week in a Houston court underscores a longstanding struggle in
the Mexican drug war: Cartels continue to prosper along the
Mexico-U.S. border even under a law enforcement strategy where top
leaders are captured and sent to the U.S. Mr. Cardenas, leader of
Mexico's Gulf Cartel, was sentenced to 25 years in prison under a plea
deal Wednesday, almost seven years after his initial capture in
Mexico. The Gulf Cartel, one of Mexico's largest, has smuggled
thousands of pounds of cocaine and marijuana into the U.S. mainly
through South Texas, according to U.S. authorities.

Mr. Cardenas pleaded guilty to five counts that included money
laundering, drug distribution and the attempted murder of federal agents.

He also agreed to forfeit $50 million in assets.

His sentencing was held in secret Wednesday in Houston, where the
federal judge based in Brownsville moved the hearing. That arrangement
was made due to the possible "imminent danger" to everyone at the
hearing, according to the courtroom transcript unsealed Thursday. "I
feel that [in] this time that I have spent in jail, I have reflected
and I've realized the...ill behavior that I was maintaining, and
truthfully, I am remorseful," Mr. Cardenas said, according to the
transcript. Few dispute that Mr. Cardenas's 2003 arrest marked a major
victory for the Mexican government--and one of its earliest--in
attacking drug cartels by capturing top leaders.

He was extradited to the U.S. in 2007 along with 14 other suspected
drug lords, a break with typical Mexican policy. But south of the U.S.
border, Mr. Cardenas's empire continues to operate without him.
Overall drug traffic from Mexico to U.S. has grown, experts say. Far
from snuffing out operations, his sentencing will simply leave
existing Mexican drug lords "trying to get a better bargaining
position," says Alberto Islas, a Mexico City security consultant. A
former mechanic in the northern state of Tamaulipas, Mr. Cardenas rose
through the ranks of the Gulf Cartel through his ties to Juan Garcia
Abrego, then the organization's leader.

Mr. Garcia was later arrested and Mr. Cardenas took control of the
organization.

Mr. Cardenas became legendary when he scored a major coup against the
government: The recruitment of about 30 members of the Airborne
Special Forces Groups, an elite Mexican army squadron trained in the
U.S. The defectors became known as Los Zetas, the highly feared
enforcement wing of the Gulf Cartel known for its military-like
assassinations that included the use of surface-to-air missiles and
modern wiretapping equipment. Mr. Cardenas's arrest, far from
stanching the drug problem at the border, may have helped to create
yet another cartel in Mexico's drug wars. Since his arrest, Los Zetas
have gradually split off into a group of their own, delving not just
in drug trafficking but the movement of counterfeit merchandise and
the kidnapping on the Central American migrants. Drug experts say that
Mr. Cardenas has been cooperating with authorities since his arrest in
2007, making it unlikely that any new information will surface in the
weeks following the sentencing. George W. Grayson, a professor at the
College of William Mary who has written about the cartels says he
suspects Mr. Cardenas "gave information more in regard to the
structure and the modus operandi of the cartel," rather than "naming
names."

Leslie Eaton contributed to this article.