Rolando López Salinas (1948/1953 – September 2018), also known as El Rolis, was a Mexican suspected drug lord and former high-ranking member of the Gulf Cartel, a criminal group based in Tamaulipas, Mexico. López Salinas started his criminal career as the right-hand man of his cousin Edelio López Falcón and was in charge of his security services, and later became involved in drug trafficking operations. During his criminal career, López Salinas survived two assassination attempts—one in 1999 and another in 2000—which were reportedly triggered by his differences with Gilberto García Mena, a former cartel boss. After López Falcón came into conflict with the cartel's leadership, both he and López Salinas broke ties with the cartel and forged alliances with rival criminal groups.
López Salinas eventually joined the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, a criminal group that arose from the remnants of the Sinaloa Cartel, and became one of its senior members. In 2015, law enforcement agencies identified him as the head of the cartel in Monterrey and San Pedro Garza García. On 4 September 2018, gunmen kidnapped López Salinas in San Pedro Garza García; his corpse was found a few days later, bearing visible signs of torture. His assassins left a sign at the crime scene warning other cartel members that they would be killed if they did not surrender. Investigators suspect he was murdered by members of his own cartel.
Career Rolando López Salinas, also known by his nickname "El Rolis", was born in Tamaulipas, Mexico between 1948 and 1953. In the 1990s, he was reportedly a member of the Gulf Cartel, a criminal group based in Tamaulipas, and worked under his cousin Edelio López Falcón ("El Yeyo") as his top enforcer and his personal bodyguard, and was responsible for managing his security services. Although López Salinas reported directly to his cousin, murder operations conducted by López Salinas and his faction were ordered directly by the drug lord Gilberto García Mena ("El June"), to whom both reported. López Falcón allowed this because he preferred to not be linked to that part of the business. In the late 1990s, however, López Falcón and García Mena entered into conflict with one another.
The conflict started after López Falcón began diversifying the Gulf Cartel's portfolio and smuggling cocaine to the U.S. from Tamaulipas, a corridor through which García Mena primarily smuggled marijuana. García Mena sought support from Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, the leader of the Gulf Cartel, to try to oust both López Salinas and López Falcón, both of whom sought the support of rival organized crime groups. In mid-2000, López Salinas and López Falcón met with members of the Sinaloa Cartel and brokered a drug deal without the Gulf Cartel's approval. Both men eventually left the Gulf Cartel and formed an alliance with the Sinaloa Cartel, which promised them larger profits in exchange for allowing them to smuggle drugs in Tamaulipas. This prompted García Mena and the Gulf Cartel to fully cut ties with López Salinas and his group. At that time, the Sinaloa Cartel operated as a triangle organization and had an alliance with the Milenio and Juárez Cartels, criminal groups that rivaled the Gulf Cartel.
In 2001, López Salinas was accused of collaborating with three military personnel based in Tamaulipas: General Ricardo Martínez Perea, Infantryman Javier Antonio Quevedo Guerrero, and Captain Pedro Maya Díaz. The investigation against López Salinas began in January 2001, when residents from Miguel Alemán complained to federal authorities that several drug traffickers based in the area were receiving protection from the Mexican Armed Forces. An anonymous fax was sent to the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA); the fax provided details of the Gulf Cartel's use of the military for their drug-trafficking activities. López Salinas was accused of receiving information to prevent his drug shipments from being seized he was notified of the movements of law enforcement personnel in the area. The Mexican military sent undercover troops to the area to investigate the incident. Upon gathering information from Miguel Alemán residents, they were made aware that López Salinas reportedly owned a health clinic in the city and that Quevedo, Maya, and other military officials were hospitalized there sometime between June and July 2000 after overdosing on cocaine.
Assassination attempts In February 1999, Cárdenas Guillén met with his enforcer Arturo Guzmán Decena ("Z-1"), the head of the Gulf Cartel's former paramilitary group Los Zetas, at a safe house in Reynosa and ordered him to gather twenty of his henchmen to kill López Salinas. Cárdenas Guillén and López Salinas had been friends but the former wanted to kill him because of his conflict with García Mena. According to government files, Cárdenas Guillén's gunmen arrived at López Salinas' home in Miguel Alemán and surrounded it. Only Guzmán Decena and his associate Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano ("Z-3") entered the premises. The rest of the henchmen, including Juan Carlos de la Cruz Reyna ("Z-36"), Braulio Arellano Domínguez ("Z-20"), Hugo Ponce Salazar ("Z-4"), Mateo Díaz López ("Z-10"), Rogelio García García ("El Roger"), and Baldomero González Ruiz ("El Viejo Fox"), remained outside. A shootout between them and López Salinas' gunmen broke out at the property. During the shootout, Lazcano shot at a gas tank, causing an explosion that killed several people inside. Guzmán Decena and Lazcano fled the scene shortly thereafter. González Ruiz suffered a gunshot wound on his jaw. According to a government protected witness, multiple gunmen died inside the house but he stated that the Tamaulipas State Police covered up the incident. The Gulf Cartel failed to reach López Salinas, their intended target. After the operation, the gunmen returned to the safe house in Reynosa and notified Cárdenas Guillén of what occurred.
After learning of López Salinas' defection from the Gulf Cartel, García Mena plotted to kill him. On 22 September 2000, López Salinas was nearly killed in a drive-by ambush in Miguel Alemán. He was traveling in an armored Escalade vehicle with his chauffeur and bodyguard Héctor Arias when the attack occurred. As they turned at a street corner, they noticed two vehicles with their hoods raised as though they had engine problems blocking the road. Arias put the vehicle into reverse but two more vehicles corralled behind them to prevent them from escaping. Arias and López Salinas reached for their weapons as they saw several gunmen exiting their vehicles. The assailants fired at López Salinas' vehicle using a number of firearms but the bullet-proof windows prevented any gunshots from penetrating it. López Salinas and Arias then lowered their side windows and fired back. During this exchange, Arias was shot on the elbow. Both of them were able to drive away from the scene shortly thereafter.
Aftermath To protect himself from future attacks, López Salinas hired six assassins from the state of Sinaloa. On 27 September 2000, however, the hitmen were arrested at Colonia Infonavit Rinconada in Miguel Alemán; they initially resisted arrest and fired at the police officers when confronted but they surrendered after the Tamaulipas State Police surrounded them and ordered them to turn themselves in. According to police reports, the gunmen were posing as state policemen and were arrested after authorities received an anonymous tip. In their confession, they stated they were in Tamaulipas to protect López Salinas, and that their center of operations was in Nuevo León. The police suspected López Salinas was planning to use the gunmen to carry out an attack against García Mena's forces. After learning the gunmen were working for López Salinas, the PGR confirmed they were joining state officials in the investigation. Two agents and a commander from the Tamaulipas State Police were under investigation for allegedly providing support to López Salinas and his gunmen. In addition, Nuevo León authorities were also investigating the gunmen for their alleged involvement in the homicide of three people in Apodaca on 22 September.
After waiting several days for a warrant, judge María Guadalupe Gómez Núñez granted the Mexican Army and the Federal Judicial Police (PJF) permission to raid López Salinas' home in Miguel Alemán on 30 September 2000. Security forces suspected his house was being used as a safe house for the cartel's operations. At the scene, authorities found six AK-47s, two handguns, 871 rounds of ammunition, a grenade, and twenty packages of marijuana weighing . They also seized two vehicle air bags, which investigators suspected López Salinas removed from his vehicles to hide grenades. The grenades were intended to be used during shootouts and were retrieved by operating a sophisticated electronic system. Authorities also confirmed the six gunmen arrested days prior had been staying in this house and that they were probably preparing for an attack against López Salinas' rivals.
Manhunt and resurgence On 9 April 2001, the Mexican Army arrested García Mena after a week-long manhunt in Guardados de Abajo, Camargo. The Gulf Cartel suspected López Falcón plotted against García Mena and informed Mexican authorities on his whereabouts. The Gulf Cartel thus carried out a search to kill him and those aligned with his faction. About a month after the arrest, López Falcón was subject to an assassination attempt in Guadalupe, Nuevo León. On 13 May 2001, several gunmen from Los Zetas stormed into a cockfighting arena and music concert that López Falcón was attending. He left the arena unharmed by merging with the rest of the concert-goers, but the incident spawned national headlines and catapulted López Falcón to fame. Both he and his cousin became top priorities for law enforcement. In June 2001, an anonymous citizen issued a memo to the PGR and the Monterrey-based newspaper El Norte with pictures of López Salinas and López Falcón; the memo accused López Salinas of being in public places in Miguel Alemán with armed men and that local authorities reportedly did nothing to stop him. Authorities suspect this memo was submitted by López Salinas' rivals.
To increase law enforcement and media attention against López Salinas and several of his accomplices, Cárdenas Guillén's lawyer Juan Jesús Guerrero Chapa leaked a fake rumor that López Salinas and López Falcón were part of a new Nuevo León-based criminal group known as the Monterrey Cartel (Spanish: Cártel de Monterrey) to the national press in mid-2001. This media strategy was also used to help ease the increasing law enforcement pressure the Gulf Cartel was experiencing in Tamaulipas following the arrest of García Mena and to help refocus their efforts against Cárdenas Guillén's turf competitors. The rumors prompted the PGR to investigate López Salinas' links with members of the PJF and the Nuevo León State Police. Federal and state officials later stated that the Monterrey Cartel did not exist.
On 31 July 2001, the Specialized Unit Against Organized Crime (UEDO), one of the PGR's former branches, carried out a joint operation with the Mexican military to arrest López Salinas in Miguel Alemán and Camargo. Security forces believed López Salinas and his associate Mario Ramírez ("La Gata") were trying to become the leading cocaine traffickers in the area. Both López Salinas and Ramírez reportedly formed an alliance to defend themselves from the Gulf Cartel in the border area known as La Frontera Chica. They said this was due to the leadership void resulting from García Mena's arrest and López Falcón's assassination attempt, which forced him to leave Tamaulipas. The UEDO carried out this operation after U.S. authorities seized two tons of cocaine that were reportedly owned by López Salinas and Ramírez. The military was withdrawn from the area on 28 July.