Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo

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Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo (born January 8, 1946) is a Mexican drug lord known as "El Padrino," the cocaine czar of Mexico, and premier leader of the Guadalajara Cartel of the 1980s.

Gallardo was arrested in 1989. While incarcerated, he remained one of Mexico's major traffickers, maintaining his organization via mobile phone until he was transferred to a new maximum security prison in the 1990s. At that point, his old organization broke up into two factions: the Tijuana Cartel led by his nephews, the Arellano Félix brothers, and the Sinaloa Cartel, run by former lieutenants Héctor Luis Palma Salazar and Joaquín Guzmán Loera.

Many say his political protector was his godfather, Governor Leopoldo Sanchez Celis. Miguel Ángel Félix, who would later go on to become the largest drug trafficker in the Western Hemisphere, began his career as Leopoldo's family bodyguard. He used Celis' extensive political connections to create the largest cartel in Mexico. Eventually he partnered with Pablo Escobar in Colombia. Félix Gallardo was also the godfather of the Governor's son, Rodolfo. This relationship led to the kidnap, torture, and assassination of the Governor's son by Héctor Luis Palma Salazar and Joaquín Guzmán Loera. In retribution, Félix Gallardo kidnapped and decapitated the wife of Héctor Luis Palma Salazar. This led to a longstanding drug war between the Tijuana Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel.

His nephews, the Arellano Félix brothers, were said to have been protected by the late kingmaker Carlos Hank González. Governor Sanchez Celis was a close associate of Hank González, who had been described as the “primary intermediary between the multinational drug trafficking enterprises and the Mexican political system.”. Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo and Carlos Hank González shared the same private aviation pilot - Alberto Ángel Abed Schekaiban. Alberto Ángel Abed, a pilot by trade, mysteriously became the owner of Taesa airlines. Taesa was founded by Hank González.

Sandra Ávila Beltrán, the largest female drug trafficker in the world, is the niece of Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo.

[edit] References

• DEA Fugitive: FELIX GALLARDO, Miguel Angel
• Drug Trafficking: Mexico
• Political Corruption and Drug Trafficking in Mexico
• Carlos Hank González: El Fin de Una Era