SUMMARY

The Gulf Cartel – Los Fresitas faction is a splinter group from the Gulf Cartel. The Gulf Cartel is made up of numerous factions and gangs, and the Los Fresitas faction fought against another such faction during a few months of 2014.

The Gulf Cartel – Los Fresitas faction is led by a man called El Chive or J2. There were unconfirmed reports in June 2014 that he had been killed in a clash with the Mexican federal forces. His brother El Tony or J3 seems to share the leadership of the Los Fresitas faction. The group is based in in Tampico town in the south of Tamaulipas state.

The name of the group Gulf Cartel – Los Fresitas faction might not be one of the most common names that one associates with the Mexican drug cartels. The name can be translated into strawberries, but could also have the meaning of preppy, someone that dress in expensive, preppy clothes or metrosexual. The Los Fresitas faction made strawberries its trademark during the clashes with the Gulf Cartel – Dragones de Sheyla faction in 2014. On a number of occasions they left narcomantas, messages threatening their rivals, along with dead bodies with strawberries painted on them as a signature to mark who that had killed them. They also left large numbers of strawberries spread around mutilated and beheaded bodies several times in the area of Tampico and Ciudad Madero.

The Gulf Cartel – Los Fresitas faction is loyal to Los Metros, a larger group that is part of the Gulf Cartel. Los Metros has a long-standing dispute with another gang under the Gulf Cartel umbrella, Los Rojos, fighting for the control of the cartel. Traditionally, Los Metros were based in Matamoros while Los Rojos ruled Reynosa.

The Gulf Cartel – Los Fresitas faction has been involved in the non-state category of UCDP organised violence.