Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, a former federal police officer, started working for drug traffickers brokering corruption of state officials and his partners in the cartel,
Rafael Caro Quintero and
Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo ("Don Neto"), who previously worked in the
Avilés criminal organization, took control of the trafficking routes after Avilés was killed in a shootout with
MFJP police officers. It is believed Avilés was set up by Fonseca, the gang's
treasurer. These new plantations were located in remote desert areas, where transportation was much less expensive but additionally, faced several new problems. Desert production required
well drilling for irrigation, and Mexico had strict laws governing well digging, a problem that was eventually solved by massive
bribery. It was also easier to spot plantations in the barren deserts; the larger the farm, the easier to spot. With an end to solo American overflights as part of the eradication program, however, money and intimidation allowed farms to grow dramatically without coming to official notice. Several of the agency's members were involved in
organized crime directly by actively participating in murder and drug trafficking on the cartel's behalf. The Guadalajara Cartel however suffered a major blow in 1985 when the group's co-founder Rafael Caro Quintero was captured, and later convicted, for the
torture and murder of American
DEA agent
Enrique Camarena. Camarena was an undercover field agent who the cartel suspected of giving information to the DEA which led to destruction of the organization's 2,500 acre marijuana crop known as Rancho Búfalo (English: "Buffalo Ranch") in the state of
Chihuahua during November 1984. The authorities reportedly burned more than 10,000 tons of marijuana – totaling a loss of around $160 million. This allegedly prompted Caro Quintero and other high-ranking members of the Guadalajara Cartel to seek revenge against the DEA and Camarena. In retribution, Camarena and his pilot Alfredo Zavala Avelar were kidnapped in Guadalajara on February 7, 1985, in broad daylight by several DFS officers, taken to a residence owned by Quintero located at 881 Lope de Vega in the colonia of Jardines del Bosque, in the western section of the city, brutally tortured, and murdered. Camarena was
interrogated and tortured to gain information regarding his knowledge of law enforcement operations directed against the cartel; as well as any information that the DEA may have on Mexican politicians involved in drug trafficking. Over the course of the 30 plus hour torture session, Camarena's skull, jaw, nose, cheekbones, windpipe, and ribs were broken; the kidnappers brought in a doctor to administer drugs to the agent to keep him conscious throughout the whole session. The kidnappers made audio recordings of some parts of Camarena's interrogation. The final blow was apparently done when the torturers crushed his skull with a piece of
rebar or other similar piece of metal. About a month later, Camarena and Zavala's corpses were taken to the neighboring state of
Michoacán and dumped in a roadside ditch to be discovered on 5 March 1985. Caro Quintero then left Mexico on March 9, 1985, with his associates and his girlfriend Sara Cristina Cosío Gaona. Former Mexican Judicial Police chief Armando Pavón Reyes, after receiving a $300,000 bribe, reportedly allowed Caro Quintero to flee from the airport in Guadalajara, in a private jet, to seek refuge in
Costa Rica. The police chief was fired shortly afterward, and was charged with bribery and complicity in the Camarena murder. It was also alleged that Caro Quintero, in just eight days prior to Camarena's kidnapping had ordered the abduction, torture, and murder of writer
John Clay Walker and dentistry student Albert Radelat on January 30, 1985. According to the allegations, the two Americans were dining in a Guadalajara restaurant when they encountered Caro Quintero and his men as they accidentally walked into one of Quintero's private parties. Caro Quintero was said to have then ordered his men to seize the Americans and take them to a store room, where they were tortured with
ice picks and interrogated. John Walker died on the scene from blunt force trauma to the head. Albert Radelat was still alive when he was wrapped in tablecloths, taken to a park near the city, and buried. The men's bodies were found six months later buried at the San Isidro Mazatepec Park in
Zapopan. The authorities believe that Caro Quintero had mistaken Walker and Radelat for U.S. undercover agents. The murder of agent Camarena outraged the U.S. government and put pressure on Mexico to arrest all the major players involved in the incident, resulting in a four-year law enforcement manhunt that brought down several leaders of the Guadalajara Cartel. The U.S. applied heavy political pressure to the Mexican government throughout the investigation, going as far as to close several U.S.-Mexican port of entries for a period of several days. After the arrest of Rafael Caro Quintero and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo in April 1985 for the Camarena murder, Félix Gallardo kept a low profile and in 1987 he moved with his family to Guadalajara city. Félix "The Godfather" Gallardo 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 convened the nation's top drug narcos at a house in the resort city of
Acapulco where he designated the
plazas (turfs) or territories. Different
drug lords were given a certain
region where they could traffic drugs to the U.S. and tax smugglers that wished to move merchandise on their turf. The Tijuana route would go to his nephews, the
Arellano Félix brothers. The
Ciudad Juárez route would go to the Carrillo Fuentes family, headed by the nephew of Fonseca Carrillo,
Amado Carrillo Fuentes.
Miguel Caro Quintero would run the
Sonora corridor. Control of the
Matamoros, Tamaulipas corridor – then becoming the
Gulf Cartel - would be left undisturbed to
Juan García Ábrego. Meanwhile,
Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera and
Ismael Zambada García would take over
Pacific coast operations, becoming the
Sinaloa Cartel. Guzmán and Zambada brought veteran
Héctor Luis Palma Salazar 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; he was arrested on April 8, 1989. ==See also==