Gilberto Barragán Balderas

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Gilberto Barragán Balderas (born May 19, 1970) is a Mexican suspected drug lord and senior member of the Gulf Cartel in Tamaulipas. He joined the cartel in the late 1990s and served as the regional boss of Miguel Alemán, coordinating drug shipments from South and Central America to Mexico and the United States. He was part of the Los Metros faction and used the nickname Metro 18. He allegedly provided the cartel with information about Mexican security forces to help shipments pass safely.

U.S. prosecutors charged him in several indictments beginning in 2007 for drug trafficking and related crimes, detailing cocaine and marijuana operations and money smuggling. The United States offered up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest, and he appeared on top-wanted lists. In 2010 he was sanctioned under the Kingpin Act, freezing his U.S.-based assets.

Mexican authorities arrested him on his birthday in 2011 in Reynosa and he was held in a maximum-security prison. In 2020 he was extradited to the United States, along with seven other suspected drug traffickers, to face charges in the District of Columbia. He is presumed innocent until proven guilty.