Gulf Traffickers Take a Hit

Last week, Zetas founder Germán Torres was arrested in Veracruz. Yesterday, Gregorio Sauceda, was also arrested in Matamoros. The media is describing the latter as a major arrest, and calling Sauceda as a high-level member of the Zetas. This is quite different from the picture of Sauceda in a number of books on the Mexican drug trade. According to Ricardo Ravelo and others, Sauceda was never really a member of the Zetas, but rather an old friend of Osiel Cárdenas. Furthermore, he was forced into retirement in 2004 because of a severe drug addiction, and, according to what I've read, was never again a major force in the drug trade. In its second to last paragraph on the arrest, the AP alludes to that: 

Sauceda Gamboa helped the Gulf cartel move an average of 10 tons of cocaine and 30 tons of marijuana across the border each month, and briefly headed the gang, police said, although they acknowledged his personal involvement in the operation had declined in recent years.

Update: Both the AP and the El Universal articles say that authorities attributed the passage of 10 tons of cocaine every month from Mexico to the US. That would be, of course, 120 tons a year. The American cocaine consumption is estimated to total about 250 tons a year. So they are trying to argue that the semi-retired Sauceda, despite controlling only one second-tier border town (Reynosa) was responsible for half of the US cocaine supply? That defies reason, and is a perfect example of why no one trusts anti-drug agencies. I hate to call someone a liar, but if that's really what was said, what else can you call it?