HOUSTON, TEXAS (BNO NEWS) – Former head of the Gulf Cartel has been sentenced to serve in federal prison without parole, United States Attorney José Angel Moreno said Wednesday.

Osiel Cardenas-Guillen, 42, of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico was sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $50 million to the United States, which are proceeds from his illegal enterprise.

Cardenas-Guillen directed a vast drug trafficking empire that imported thousands of kilograms of cocaine and marijuana into the U.S. from Mexico, which were distributed to other areas of the country, including Houston and Atlanta.

More than 2000 kilograms of cocaine that was seized by United States law enforcement from July 2000 to September 2001 were linked to Cardenas-Guillen. In June 2001, records in Atlanta indicated that the Gulf Cartel generated more than $41 million in drug proceeds over a three-and-a-half month period in the Atlanta area alone.

Besides drug trafficking, Cardenas-Guillen commonly used violent tactics to carry out his deakubgs. In 1999, he threatened to kill a Sheriff’s Deputy who was working undercover, and later that year, a DEA agent and an FBI agent were surrounded by Cardenas-Guillen and his gang, threatened at gunpoint.

Cardenas-Guillen was indicted in 2000 and was extradited in January 2007- one of a total of 15 major drug defendants and others extradited to the United States from Mexico - for prosecution.

He will serve all of his offenses simultaneously for a total of 25 years in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons without parole, followed by a supervised release term of five years. He was also fined $100,000 and ordered to forfeit $50 million.

“The successful prosecution of Cardenas-Guillen underscores the joint resolve of the United States and Mexico to pursue and prosecute the leadership of the drug trafficking cartels, dismantle their organizations and end the violence and corruption they have spawned,” said Moreno.