Juan Nepomuceno Guerra

Who was Juan Nepomuceno Guerra?

Juan Nepomuceno Guerra was a Mexican drug lord and smuggler who co-founded the Gulf Cartel with his nephew Juan García Ábrego. He is often considered the "godfather" of U.S-Mexico border cartels.

During the 1930s he began smuggling whisky across the Mexico-United States border through south Texas. Through shrewd political connections he had fostered, Nepomucena Guerra was able to control all the contraband moving across the Rio Grande. In the 1970s, his nephew Juan García Abrego began utilizing those connections and developed the organization into a drug cartel primarily dedicated to the more lucrative business of smuggling cocaine.

According to news sources, despite allegedly founding one of the largest drug cartels in Mexico, Juan Nepomuceno Guerra never spent more than "a few hours in jail" for his crimes.