Los Rojos is a faction of a Mexican drug trafficking organization known as the Gulf Cartel. The group was formed in the late 1990s during the reign of Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, the former leader of the cartel, to provide security to the organization's leaders as the cartel's armed wing. The current leader of Los Rojos is Juan Mejía González, alias El R1. On 2 September 2011, Mejía González and Rafael Cárdenas Vela, two leaders of the Rojos, ordered the assassination of the drug lord Samuel Flores Borrego, who commanded the Metros, another faction within the Gulf cartel.