Félix Gallardo: The Godfather of Mexican Cartels 

Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo (born January 8, 1946), is a Mexican convicted drug lord who was one of the founders of the Guadalajara Cartel, which controlled much of the drug trafficking in Mexico and the corridors along the Mexico–United States border in the 1980s.

Félix Gallardo was arrested in 1989 on charges of ordering the murder of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena. He was serving his 40-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.[1] He worked as a family bodyguard for the governor of Sinaloa state Leopoldo Sánchez Celis, whose political connections helped Félix Gallardo build his drug trafficking organization. He was also the godfather of Sánchez Celis' son, Rodolfo.[2][3][4]

Félix Gallardo started working for drug traffickers by brokering corruption of state officials, and together with Rafael Caro Quintero and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, who had previously worked in the Avilés criminal organization, took control of the trafficking routes after Avilés was killed in a police shootout.[citation needed]

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 trans-shipment point.

Juan Matta-Ballesteros was the Guadalajara Cartel's primary connection to the Colombian cartels, as he had originally introduced Félix Gallardo's predecessor, Alberto Sicilia Falcón, to Santiago Ocampo of the Cali Cartel, one of the largest Colombian drug cartels.[5] 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.[5] This proved to be extremely profitable for them, with some estimating that the trafficking network, then operated by Félix Gallardo, Ernesto Carrillo and Rafael Quintero, was pulling in approximately $5 billion annually.[5]

Until the end of the 1980s, the Guadalajara Cartel headed by Félix Gallardo (comprising what is known today as the Sinaloa, Tijuana, Juarez and Pacifico Sur cartels) had nearly monopolized the illegal drug trade in Mexico.[6][2]

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.[7] In 1984, Mexican soldiers, backed by helicopters, destroyed an even larger 1,000-hectare (2,500-acre) marijuana plantation known as "Rancho Búfalo" in Chihuahua, known to be protected by Mexican DFS intelligence agents, as part of "Operation Godfather". Thousands of farmers worked the fields at Rancho Búfalo, and the annual production was later valued at US$8 billion. All of this took place with the knowledge of local police, politicians, and the military.[2][8]

Camarena was beginning to expose the connections among drug traffickers, Mexican law enforcement, and high-ranking government officials within the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), which Félix Gallardo considered to be a major threat to the Guadalajara cartel's operations throughout Mexico.[5]

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 in Guadalajara. His helicopter pilot, Alfredo Zavala Avelar, was kidnapped shortly afterward.[2][8] They were taken 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. Camarena and Avelar were tortured and interrogated over a period of 30 hours,[9] after which, on February 9, Camarena was executed. Autopsy results indicated that he died after his skull was perforated with a drill.[10] He was injected with adrenaline and other stimulant drugs so as to be kept awake and to avoid his losing consciousness during his torture and interrogation. His body, wrapped in plastic, was found with that of pilot Alfredo Zavala Avelar, in a shallow hole on a ranch in Michoacan state.[5]

The murder prompted one of the largest DEA homicide investigations ever undertaken, Operation Leyenda.[2][11] A special unit was dispatched to coordinate the investigation in Mexico, where corrupt officials were being implicated.[citation needed]

Investigators identified Félix Gallardo and his two close associates, Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo and Rafael Caro Quintero, as the primary suspects behind the kidnapping. Under pressure from the US, Fonseca and Quintero were apprehended, but Félix Gallardo still enjoyed political protection.[2]

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,[12] 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.[13]

According to US officials, Félix Gallardo also spent time at the Sinaloa governor's house as a guest, which governor Antonio Toledo Corro had denied. When asked about his association with Félix Gallardo, governor Toledo said he was "unaware of any outstanding arrest warrants" against Félix Gallardo.[12]

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 with as many as 90 officers deserting.[12]

Félix Gallardo's arrest also led to the dismantling of the Guadalajara Cartel, as key members of the federation chose to withdraw and form their own cartels, relying on violence to claim various territories and trafficking routes. The continuous disputes and conflict among the leaders would breed political, social, and military chaos, and eventually lead to the Mexican drug war.