Known in the underworld as Comandante Simple or El Metro 24, Flores was believed to be a leader of the powerful Gulf Cartel, which operates throughout much of northeastern Mexico. was mistaken for, Imagen III, was actually Jesús Alejandro Leal Flores. Why do I have to change it because another person uses a name like it?” “I have been wrestling for twenty years under this name. “I work an honest job and I wrestle because it is my passion,” he told the paper. Identifying himself only by the initials R.C., he said he was a truck driver from the Mexican border city of Reynosa, and had never been a gangster. This Imagen slipped out just before the raid, later surfacing to speak to the Monitor, a south Texas newspaper, to clear his name. There had been a wrestler who went by Imagen at Cine El Rey, but his name was Imagen II, a name he says he took in honor of his deceased brother. In the end, the operation boiled down to a case of mistaken identity. Eventually, the FBI confirmed that its target had not even been at the theater that night. That evening, the FBI’s target had been a drug trafficker who moonlighted as a luchador, hidden by his mask and the stage name Imagen III. As it happened, the reason was not a cross-border immigration infraction but the ongoing war against Mexican drug cartels. ICE denied involvement, forcing an FBI spokesperson to blame the initial version of the story on a miscommunication within the Bureau. Officially, the FBI was there in support of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to apprehend an individual wanted on an “immigration violation.” But as the overwhelming show of force suggested, the raid had bigger stakes. Making their way to the dressing rooms, they arrested six luchadors-masked wrestlers of the Mexican sport of lucha libre-who had come north to perform in a showcase.
Working with local SWAT officers and an air support helicopter from the Texas Department of Public Safety, agents stormed the Cine El Rey, a historic downtown theater. It was April 2013 and the FBI had a unique lineup on their hands. In a twisted parallel to the country’s long tradition of masked luchadors, Mexico’s cartel leaders have carved out their own traditions of anonymity.
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