Crooked Cop Turned Cartel Big Shot Busted for Reign of Terror
A former Tabasco state cop, Francisco Javier Custodio Lima, aka "Guason," was arrested for drug trafficking, murder, and extortion. He was a key figure in the "La Barredora" cartel and had ties to corrupt cops.
They finally put the cuffs on "El Guasón" – The Joker – down in Mexico, but the punchline is brutally unfunny: authorities say this alleged cartel honcho used to wear a badge himself.
Francisco Javier Custodio Luna, fingered as one of the top dogs spreading violence and chaos in the southern state of Tabasco, was nabbed by federal security forces and the Mexican Navy on an outstanding warrant for criminal association. But pals, that charge sounds like just the tip of a very bloody iceberg.
Cops claim Luna, aka "The Joker," wasn't just any scumbag – he was allegedly the right-hand man to Daniel Hernández Montejo, the suspected boss known as "Prada" or "H" who heads up the ruthless "La Barredora" (The Sweeper) criminal outfit.
And get this: Luna himself was reportedly a Tabasco State Police officer. Instead of fighting crime, authorities allege he was busy protecting it, giving cover to "Prada's" crew, which allowed him to rise through the grimy ranks of the underworld. Talk about an inside job!
Investigators say "The Joker" had his dirty fingers in everything: running drug sales and distribution networks, ordering hits in turf wars, and shaking down terrified merchants and residents across the municipalities of Villahermosa, Cárdenas, and Cunduacán in Tabasco's central zone. He allegedly maintained an iron grip through fear and bloodshed.
His time carrying a badge was allegedly well spent – building a crooked network. Cops claim Luna leveraged his police career to bring other active officers and security personnel into the fold. Names like Blasimiro Sánchez Marín ("El Blas") and Efraín Luna Oliva ("El50" or "El Tostón") – both reportedly active state cops – have been flagged as alleged members of "La Barredora," feeding intel about police and military operations straight to the gangsters.
Luna wasn't just managing rackets; he was reportedly a battlefield commander, coordinating logistics for attacks against rivals. His crew is said to be locked in a vicious, high-stakes war for control of central Tabasco against the notoriously savage Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
The brutality linked to Luna's alleged operations is stomach-churning. Authorities are connecting the group led by "Guasón" to the gruesome discovery last November of two murdered women in Villahermosa. Their bodies were reportedly found dumped alongside a "cartulina" – a sinister cardboard sign often used by cartels to leave threats or claim responsibility for their grisly work.
Luna's arrest rips the lid off a terrifying nexus of alleged corruption and violence, where the line between the law and the lawless seems to have been fatally erased. He's now facing the music, but the echoes of his alleged reign of terror won't fade anytime soon in Tabasco.
