Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo


Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, commonly referred to by his alias El Padrino, is a convicted Mexican drug lord, He was one of the founders of the Guadalajara Cartel in the 1970s.
At its height, the Cartel controlled much of the drug trafficking in Mexico and the corridors along the Mexico–United States border.
Gallardo was finally arrested in 1989 for the murder of Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena. Félix Gallardo was serving his 37-year sentence at the Altiplano maximum-security prison but was transferred to a medium-security facility in 2014 due to his declining health.

Early life

Born on a ranch in Bellavista, on the outskirts of Culiacán, Sinaloa, Félix Gallardo graduated from high school and studied business in college. He took a job as a Mexican Federal Judicial Police agent. He worked as a family bodyguard for the governor of Sinaloa state Leopoldo Sánchez Celis, whose political connections helped Félix Gallardo to build his drug trafficking organization. Félix Gallardo was also the godfather of Celis' son Rodolfo.
Félix Gallardo started working for drug traffickers brokering corruption of state officials, and together with Rafael Caro Quintero and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, who previously worked in the Avilés criminal organization, took control of the trafficking routes after Avilés was killed in a shootout with the police.

Connections to Colombian cartels

In the early 1980s, drug interdiction efforts increased throughout Florida, which was then the major shipping destination for illegal drug traffickers. As a result, the Colombian cartels began to utilize Mexico as their primary transhipment point.
Juan Matta-Ballesteros was the Guadalajara Cartel primary connection to the Colombian cartels, he had originally introduced Felix Gallardo's predecessor, Alberto Sicilia-Falcon to Santiago Ocampo of the Cali Cartel, one of the largest Colombian drug cartels. Rather than taking cash payments for their services, the smugglers in the Guadalajara cartel took a 50% cut of the cocaine they transported from Colombia. This was extremely profitable for them, with some estimating that the trafficking network, then operated by Felix Gallardo, Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, and Caro Quintero was pulling in $5 billion annually.
Until the end of the 1980s, the Guadalajara Cartel headed by Félix Gallardo had nearly monopolized the illegal drug trade in Mexico.

Murder of DEA agent Kiki Camarena

In 1980 DEA special agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena" was assigned to the Administration's resident agency in Guadalajara. Working through informants, Camarena discovered cartel marijuana plantations in Zacatecas state. The plantations were raided and destroyed. In 1984, Mexican soldiers, backed by helicopters, destroyed an even larger 1,000 hectare marijuana plantation known as "Rancho Búfalo" in Chihuahua, Mexico, known to be protected by Mexican DFS intelligence agents, as part of "Operation Godfather". Thousands of farmers worked the fields at Rancho Buffalo, and the annual production was later valued at 8 billion. All of this took place with the knowledge of local police, politicians, and the military. Camarena was beginning to expose the connections among drug traffickers, Mexican law enforcement, and high-ranking government officials within the Partido Revolucionario Institucional, which Félix Gallardo considered to be a major threat to the Guadalajara cartel's operations throughout Mexico.
In response, Félix Gallardo reportedly ordered the kidnapping of Camarena. On February 7, 1985, Jalisco police officers on the cartel's payroll kidnapped Camarena as he left the U.S. consulate. His helicopter pilot, Alfredo Zavala Avelar, was kidnapped shortly afterward. They were brought to a residence located at 881 Lope de Vega in the colonia of Jardines del Bosque, in the western section of the city of Guadalajara, owned by Rafael Caro Quintero, where they were tortured and interrogated over a period of 30 hours. On February 9, Camarena was killed when a hole was made in his head with a tire iron. His body, wrapped in plastic, was later found, along with Zavala Avelar's, in a shallow hole on a ranch in Michoacan state.
Camarena's murder prompted one of the largest DEA homicide investigations ever undertaken, Operation Leyenda. A special unit was dispatched to coordinate the investigation in Mexico, where corrupt officials were being implicated.
Investigators identified Félix Gallardo and his two close associates, Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo and Rafael Caro Quintero, as the primary suspects in the kidnapping. Under pressure from the US, Fonseca and Quintero were apprehended, but Félix Gallardo still enjoyed political protection.
Some Mexican journalists, historians, and witnesses, state that Camarena was killed with the complicity of the CIA after uncovering its drug trafficking operations in Mexico, used to fund the Contras in Nicaragua

Arrest

Félix Gallardo kept a low profile and, in 1987, moved with his family to Guadalajara. He was arrested in Mexico on April 8, 1989, and was charged by the authorities in Mexico and the United States with the kidnapping and murder of DEA agent Enrique Camarena, as well as racketeering, drug smuggling, and multiple violent crimes.
According to US officials, Félix Gallardo also spent time at the Sinaloa governor's house as a guest, which governor Antonio Toledo Corro has denied. When asked about his association with Félix Gallardo, governor Toledo said he was "unaware of any outstanding arrest warrants" against Félix Gallardo.
The arrest of Félix Gallardo was the catalyst for exposing the widespread corruption at political and law enforcement levels in Mexico. Within days of Félix Gallardo's arrest, and under pressure from the media, several police commanders were arrested, and as many as 90 officers deserted.

Incarceration

While incarcerated, Félix Gallardo remained one of Mexico's major traffickers, maintaining his organization via mobile phone until he was transferred in the 1990s to the Altiplano maximum security prison, where he served part of his 37-year sentence.
As he aged, Félix Gallardo complained that he lived in poor conditions while in jail. He says that he suffers from vertigo, deafness, loss of an eye, and blood circulation problems. He lives in a 240 × 440 cm cell, which he is not allowed to leave, even to use the recreational area. In March 2013, Félix Gallardo started a legal process to continue his prison sentence at home when he reached his 70th birthday. On 29 April 2014, a Mexican federal court denied Félix Gallardo's petition to be transferred from the maximum-security prison to a medium-security one. On 18 December 2014, federal authorities approved his request to transfer to a medium-security prison in Guadalajara, due to his declining health.
On 20 February 2019, a court in Mexico City denied his request to complete the remainder of his sentence at his home. The court stated that Félix Gallardo's defense did not provide them with sufficient evidence to prove that his health issues were putting his life at risk.

Division of territory

After his arrest, Félix Gallardo decided to divide up the trade he controlled as it would be more efficient and less likely to be brought down by law enforcement. Félix Gallardo instructed his lawyer to convene the nation's top drug narcos in 1989 at a house in the resort of Acapulco where he designated the plazas or territories. The Tijuana route would go to his nephews, the Arellano Felix brothers. The Ciudad Juárez route would go to the Carrillo Fuentes family. Miguel Caro Quintero would run the Sonora corridor. Joaquín Guzmán Loera and Héctor Luis Palma Salazar were left the Pacific coast operations, with Ismael Zambada García joining them soon after and thus becoming the Sinaloa Cartel. who was not a party to the 1989 pact.
Félix Gallardo still planned to oversee national operations, but when he was transferred to a high-security prison in 1993, he lost any remaining control over the other drug lords.

Memoirs

In 2008, the investigative journalist :es: Diego Enrique Osorno|Diego Enrique Osorno was able to contact Félix Gallardo through the latter's 13-year-old son. Through this connection, the first memoirs of a Mexican drug lord were written from prison, in secret and hurriedly, by hand, by an author with ailing vision. The memoirs include narrative about his arrest and presentation before police, and explains a bit of his family tree, jumping from one topic to another. Selections of the 35 pages were published in the Mexican magazine Gatopardo, with background by the journalist.

Family

Upon his arrest at least nine of Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo's nieces and nephews took over different roles within the organization to form the Arellano Félix Organization, also known as the Tijuana Cartel. Another niece, Sandra Ávila Beltrán, is a former member of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Members of the Arellano Félix Organization
Sinaloa Cartel
In the Netflix series , Félix Gallardo is portrayed by actor Diego Luna.