NUEVO LEÓN — José Antonio Cortes Huerta, a 39-year-old leader of a cell affiliated with the Northeast Cartel, was arrested in Nuevo León, according to a social media post by security minister Omar Garcia Harfuch. Rosario Flores Alemán, 41, was detained during the same operation.

Authorities seized unidentified narcotics, cash, 10 guns, 11 vehicles, six motorcycles and seven tigers, the post said. The operation followed an investigation that began after the seizure of a boat in Tamaulipas.

Officials said the seized items are linked to Roberto Blanco Cantu, known as "El Señor de los Buques," or "The Lord of the Ships." Blanco Cantu, a majority shareholder of the company Mefra Fletes, is accused of smuggling fuel via boats and is allegedly affiliated with the Northeast Cartel. Some Mexican drug cartels are known to house exotic cats as symbols of power and, occasionally, to dispose of their enemies. According to a 2023 U.S. indictment, some victims of a Sinaloa cartel faction were "fed dead or alive to tigers."

The Northeast Cartel is a remnant of the Zetas crime syndicate. The Trump administration designated the group as a foreign terrorist organization in 2025. The previous month, the U.S. issued sanctions against three people and two casinos for their alleged links to the cartel.

According to the U.S. Treasury Department, the Northeast Cartel is involved in the trafficking of illegal drugs along the border, including fentanyl, crystal meth, heroin and cocaine, and has waged a "campaign of terror on the border."

"CDN is involved in violent criminal activity on both sides of the border, including the kidnapping and killing of individuals that threaten their criminal enterprise on the southern border," the department said. "CDN uses its terror-fueled influence in the region to control drug trafficking and human smuggling routes, bribe politicians and journalists, and extort local businesses and shipments flowing to and from the United States at the busiest inland point of entry for trade in the United States."