Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo
Encyclopedia
Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo (born January 8, 1946) is a convicted Mexican
Mexican people
Mexican people refers to all persons from Mexico, a multiethnic country in North America, and/or who identify with the Mexican cultural and/or national identity....

 drug lord
Drug lord
A drug lord, drug baron or kingpin is the term used to describe a person who controls a sizable network of persons involved in the illegal drugs trade. Such figures are often difficult to bring to justice, as they might never be directly in possession of something illegal, but are insulated from...

 known as "El Padrino" (Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

: "The Godfather") who in the 1980s formed the Guadalajara Cartel
Guadalajara Cartel
The Guadalajara Cartel was a Mexican drug cartel which was formed in the 1980s by Rafael Caro Quintero, Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo in order to ship heroin and marijuana to the United States...

 and became the first drug czar in Mexico to control all illegal drug traffic in Mexico and the corridors along the Mexico-U.S.A. border.

Biography

Born in the outskirts of Culiacán, Sinaloa, Félix Gallardo trained as a Mexican Judicial Federal Police agent and then worked as bodyguard for then governor of Sinaloa
Sinaloa
Sinaloa officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sinaloa is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 18 municipalities and its capital city is Culiacán Rosales....

 state Leopoldo Sanchez Celis. He became the illegal drug trade
Illegal drug trade
The illegal drug trade is a global black market, dedicated to cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of those substances which are subject to drug prohibition laws. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs by drug prohibition laws.A UN report said the...

 czar in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, earning him the nickname of "The Godfather". He started off by smuggling marijuana and opium
Opium
Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...

 into the U.S.A., and
was the first Mexican drug capo to link up with Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

's cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...

 cartel
Drug cartel
Drug cartels are criminal organizations developed with the primary purpose of promoting and controlling drug trafficking operations. They range from loosely managed agreements among various drug traffickers to formalized commercial enterprises. The term was applied when the largest trafficking...

s in the 1980s; he and other drug lords shared the Mexico-U.S. border corridors.

According to Peter Dale Scott
Peter Dale Scott
Peter Dale Scott is a Canadian born, former English professor at the University of California, Berkeley, a former diplomat and a poet....

, the Guadalajara Cartel, prospered largely because it enjoyed the protection of the DFS
Dirección Federal de Seguridad
The Dirección Federal de Seguridad was a Mexican intelligence agency. Created in 1947 under Miguel Alemán Valdés with "the duty of preserving the internal stability of Mexico against all forms subversion and terrorist threats", it was merged into the Centro de Investigación y Seguridad Nacional ...

, under its chief Miguel Nassar Haro, a CIA asset."

Through his connections with major Honduran trafficker, Juan Matta-Ballesteros
Juan Matta-Ballesteros
Juan Ramón Matta-Ballesteros is a former drug lord with ties to the Colombian Medellín Cartel...

, Félix Gallardo became the connection for the Medellin cartel
Medellín Cartel
The Medellín Cartel was an organized network of "drug suppliers and smugglers" originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia. The drug cartel operated in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Central America, the United States, as well as Canada and Europe throughout the 1970s and 1980s. It was founded and...

, which was run by Pablo Escobar
Pablo Escobar
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was a Colombian drug lord. He was an elusive cocaine trafficker and rich and successful criminal. He owned numerous luxury residences, automobiles, and even airplanes...

. This was easily accomplished because Félix Gallardo had already established an infrastructure that stood ready to serve the Colombia-based traffickers. By the mid-1980s, the organizations from Mexico were well established and reliable transporters of Colombian cocaine.

There were no cartels at that time in Mexico. Félix Gallardo was the lord of Mexican drug lords. He oversaw all operations; there was just him, his cronies and the politicians who offered him protection. At first, the Mexican gang was paid in cash for their transportation services, but in the late 1980s, the Mexican transport organization and the Colombian drug traffickers settled on a payment-in-product arrangement. Transporters from Mexico usually were given 35 to 50 % of each cocaine shipment. This arrangement meant that Félix Gallardo became involved in the distribution, as well as the transportation of cocaine, and became a formidable trafficker in his own right.

An undercover agent from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
Drug Enforcement Administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States...

, Enrique Camarena
Enrique Camarena
Enrique "Kiki" Camarena Salazar Enrique "Kiki" Camarena Salazar Enrique "Kiki" Camarena Salazar (Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico July 26, 1947 - c. (Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, February 9, 1985) was an undercover agent for the United States Drug Enforcement Administration who was abducted on...

 managed to infiltrate deep into the drug trafficking organization and had become close to Félix Gallardo. On 1984, acting on information from Camarena, 450 Mexican soldiers backed by helicopters destroyed a 1000-hectare marijuana plantation known as 'Rancho Búfalo', where more than 10,000 farmers worked these fields, the annual production which was later valued at $8 billion. The drug lords were outraged and set to investigate the source of the leak. Félix Gallardo ordered the kidnapping of Enrique Camarena on 7 February 1985, apparently by corrupt police officers in his payroll. Camarena was tortured and killed, prompting the launch of the largest DEA homicide investigation Operation Leyenda ever undertaken. A special unit was dispatched to coordinate the investigation in Mexico - where corrupt officials were being implicated. Investigators soon identified Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo and his two close associates: Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo
Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo
Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo is a former Mexican narcotics trafficker, operating as leader of the Guadalajara Cartel alongside Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo and Rafael Caro Quintero...

 and Rafael Caro Quintero
Rafael Caro Quintero
Rafael Caro Quintero is an incarcerated Mexican drug lord born in La Noria, Badiraguato, Sinaloa. Quintero was a co-founder, with Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, of the Guadalajara Cartel and Sonora Cartel. Upon of the cartels' disintegration, its leaders were incorporated mostly into the Tijuana...

 as the primary suspects in the kidnapping. Under enormous pressure from the U.S.A., Fonseca and Quintero were quickly apprehended, however, Félix Gallardo still enjoyed political protection.

Delegating his territory

Félix Gallardo kept a low profile and in 1987 he moved with his family to Guadalajara
Guadalajara
Guadalajara may refer to:In Mexico:*Guadalajara, Jalisco, the capital of the state of Jalisco and second largest city in Mexico**Guadalajara Metropolitan Area*University of Guadalajara, a public university in Guadalajara, Jalisco...

 city. "The Godfather" then decided to divide up the trade he controlled as it would be more efficient and less likely to be brought down in one law enforcement swoop. In a way, he was privatizing the Mexican drug business while sending it back underground, to be run by bosses who were less well known or not yet known by the DEA. Félix Gallardo "The Godfather" convened the nation's top drug narcos at a house in the resort of Acapulco where he designated the plazas or territories. The Tijuana route would go to the Arellano Felix brothers
Tijuana Cartel
The Tijuana Cartel is a Mexican drug cartel based in Tijuana. The cartel has been described as "one of the biggest and most violent criminal groups in Mexico"...

. The Ciudad Juárez route
Juárez Cartel
The Juárez Cartel , also known as the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Organization, is a Mexican drug cartel based in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, across the border from El Paso, Texas...

 would go to the Carrillo Fuentes family
Amado Carrillo Fuentes
Amado Carrillo Fuentes , was a Mexican drug lord who seized control of the Juárez Cartel after assassinating his boss Rafael Aguilar Guajardo. Amado Carrillo became known as "El Señor de Los Cielos" because of the large fleet of jets he used to transport drugs...

. Miguel Caro Quintero
Miguel Caro Quintero
Miguel Angel Caro Quintero was born in La Noria, Badiraguato Sinaloa, Mexico, in 1963. Caro Quintero is believed to have been one of the leaders of the now extinct Sonora Cartel.-Sonora Cartel:...

 would run the Sonora corridor
Sonora Cartel
The Sonora Cartel, also called the Caro-Quintero Organization, was a Mexico based criminal cartel. Upon of the cartel's disintegration, its leaders were incorporated into the Tijuana Cartel and Sinaloa Cartel....

. The control of the Matamoros, Tamaulipas
Matamoros, Tamaulipas
Matamoros, officially known as Heroica Matamoros, is a city in the northeastern part of Tamaulipas, in the country of Mexico. It is located on the southern bank of the Rio Grande, directly across the border from Brownsville, Texas, in the United States. Matamoros is the second largest and second...

 corridor - then becoming the Gulf Cartel
Gulf Cartel
The Gulf Cartel is one of the most powerful drug cartels in Mexico, and perhaps the oldest organized crime group in the country...

- would be left undisturbed to Juan García Abrego
Juan García Abrego
Juan García Ábrego was a Mexican drug lord who started out his criminal career under the tutelage of his uncle Juan Nepomuceno Guerra, who is reported to be the former head of a criminal dynasty along the U.S.-Mexico border now called the Gulf Cartel....

. Meanwhile, Joaquín Guzmán Loera and Ismael Zambada García
Ismael Zambada García
Ismael Zambada García , also known as El Mayo Zambada, is a Mexican drug lord and one of the two Sinaloa cartel leaders...

 would take over Pacific coast operations, becoming the Sinaloa Cartel
Sinaloa Cartel
The Sinaloa Cartel is the most powerful drug cartel in Mexico and considered by the United States Intelligence Community as "the most powerful drug trafficking organization in the world." The Sinaloa Cartel is based in the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa, but also operates in the Mexican states of Baja...

. Guzmán and Zambada brought veteran Héctor Luis Palma Salazar
Héctor Luis Palma Salazar
Héctor Luis Palma Salazar was a Mexican drug trafficker and former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel alongside Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán .- Biography :...

 back into the fold. Félix Gallardo still planned to oversee national operations, he had the contacts so he was still the top man, but he would no longer control all details of the business.

Arrest

Félix Gallardo was arrested in Mexico on April 8, 1989. He was charged by the authorities in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 and USA with kidnapping and murder of U.S. Federal Agent Enrique Camarena Salazar, racketeering, drug smuggling and multiple violent crimes.

According to American officials, Felix Gallardo also spent a time as the Sinaloa governor's house guest, which governor Antonio Toledo Corro has denied. When asked about his association with Felix Gallardo, governor Toledo said he was "unaware of any outstanding arrest warrants" against Félix Gallardo. The arrest of Félix Gallardo was catalytic in exposing the widespread corruption at political and law enforcement levels in Mexico. Within days of his arrest, and under pressure from the media, several police commanders were arrested and as many as 90 officers deserted. No politicians were charged.

While incarcerated, he remained one of Mexico's major traffickers, maintaining his organization via mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...

 until he was transferred in the 1990s to the 'Altiplano
Penal del Altiplano
The Federal Social Readaptation Center No. 1 "Altiplano" is the maximum security federal prison The Federal Social Readaptation Center No. 1 "Altiplano" is the maximum security federal prison The Federal Social Readaptation Center No. 1 "Altiplano" is the maximum security federal prison...

', a maximum security prison, where he is serving a 40-year sentence.

Family

Sandra Ávila Beltrán
Sandra Ávila Beltrán
Sandra Ávila Beltrán is a Mexican drug cartel leader, dubbed "La Reina del Pacífico" by the media...

, who once was the most powerful female drug trafficker in the world, is niece of Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo.

External links

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