User:Morogris/C7

Ángel Eduardo Prado Rodríguez (born July 18, 1985), commonly referred to by his aliases Ciclón 7 (Cyclone 7) and El Orejón (Big Ears), is a Mexican suspected drug lord and high-ranking leader of the Gulf Cartel, a drug trafficking organization. He is the main leader of Los Ciclones, a Gulf Cartel faction based in Matamoros, Tamaulipas. Prado Rodríguez is believed to be a close associate of the Cárdenas clan, a group that originally commanded the Gulf Cartel in the early 1990s and early 2000s. Since 2014, he is one of Mexico's most-wanted drug lords.

Background
Los Ciclones, the Gulf Cartel faction that Prado Rodríguez commands, is based in Matamoros, Tamaulipas and is loyal to the Cárdenas clan. This family led the Gulf Cartel through the early 1990s under the tutelage of Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, but lost considerable influence over the years after their members and close associates were arrested or killed. During the 1990s, the cartel operated under a particular structure that permitted rivalries among the leaders to exist without undermining the organization's logistics. However, when Osiel was captured and extradited to the United States in 2003 and 2007 respectively, the Gulf Cartel's factions grew increasingly divisive. Infighting within the organization officially started when Samuel Flores Borrego (alias "Metro 3"), one of the top bosses who headed a faction known as Los Metros, was killed on the alleged orders of Rafael Cárdenas Vela (alias "El Junior" and "El 900"), one of the Cárdenas members. One of the many versions surrounding his murder was that he was killed because Los Metros had betrayed Antonio Cárdenas Guillén (alias "Tony Tormenta"), a member of the Cárdenas family, by tipping his whereabouts to law enforcement. "Tony Tormenta", Cárdenas Vela's uncle, was killed in a gunfight with Mexican security forces in 2010 in Matamoros. With Flores Borrego's death, the Cárdenas clan and their enforcer group Los Rojos went to war with Los Metros. Los Ciclones was commanded by "El Junior", who took control of organized crime activities in Matamoros in March 2011 after being stationed in Río Bravo. He was arrested in October 2011, and the command of Los Ciclones was then succeeded to Homero Cárdenas Guillén, another member of the clan and a close ally of Prado Rodríguez.

According to Mexican federal sources, the capture Mario Cárdenas Guillén of the Cárdenas clan, along with Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez's of Los Metros in September 2012, lead to the disintegrations of the Gulf Cartel's horizontal command structure.

Leadership tenure
On April 2014, the Mexican federal government identified Prado Rodríguez as the top operator of the Gulf Cartel in Matamoros, Tamaulipas. At that time, however, his actual name was unknown; he was simply referred to by law enforcement by his monikers "Ciclón 7" (Cyclone 7) and "El Orejón" (Big Ears). Federal authorities placed him on their most-wanted list along with nine other Gulf Cartel leaders from the state of Tamaulipas: Juan Carlos de la Cruz Moctezuma (alias El Chuma), from Miguel Alemán; José Ismael Mendoza Falcón (alias "Polimenso"), from the Frontera Chica; Eduardo Ismael Flores Borrego (alias "El Negro"), who operates in Valle Hermoso; José Antonio Romo López (alias "La Hamburguesa"), from Ciudad Mier; Carlos González Escobar (alias "Carlitos Whiskies"), from Nuevo Progreso; Juan Manuel Rodríguez García (alias "Juan Perros"), from Río Bravo; Juan Francisco Saenz Tamez (alias "Metro 103"); and Juan Francisco Martínez Ramírez (alias "Comandante Paquito"), from Reynosa.