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 yet a party to the 1989 pact. Miguel Caro Quintero would run the Sonora corridor. The Ciudad Juárez route would go to the Carrillo Fuentes family and to Rafael Aguilar Guajardo. The Tijuana route would go to his nephews, the Arellano Felix brothers. After his capture in 1989 for the alleged murder of DEA agent Enrique Camarena, Félix and allegedly the Mexican Government decided to divide up the trade he controlled as it would be more efficient and less likely to be brought down by law enforcement.įélix 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 (turfs) or territories. He had huge involvement in politics and bribed political authorities to protect himself and his business.
Until the end of the 1980s, Guadalajara Cartel headed by Félix Gallardo was one of the most powerful cartels in the world. He controlled almost all of the drug trafficking in Mexico and the corridors along the Mexico–United States border in 1970s and the 80s. He had strong ties with the Cali Cartel and Escobar's Medellin Cartel as he distributed drugs for them. Known as "El Padrino" (The Godfather) and "El Jefe de Jefes" (The boss of bosses) was born in 1946, and is the founder and former leader of the Guadalajara Cartel, the first mexican super-cartel ever established. Main articles: Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo and Drug barons of Colombia information and resource brokers, social status, access to information). individual traits), it has now developed to focus upon the leader's social capital (e.g. Since the 1970s, research on organized crime leadership (and by extension, drug lords) has evolved, where once studies emphasised the importance of the leader's human capital (e.g.