Guadalajara Cartel

Lore & Background

The cartel's origins trace back to the aftermath of Operation Condor, a Mexican antidrug program in the 1970s that pushed many traffickers from Sinaloa to regroup in Guadalajara, Jalisco. The regrouping led to the formation of the Guadalajara Cartel sometime in 1980. Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, a former federal police officer, started by brokering corruption of state officials. His partners, Rafael Caro Quintero and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, had previously worked in the Avilés criminal organization and took control of 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. The cartel prospered from the cocaine trade, with Juan Matta-Ballesteros serving as its primary connection to the Colombian cocaine cartels. Rather than taking cash payments, the cartel took a 50% cut of the cocaine they transported from Colombia, with some estimating the network pulled in $5 billion annually. The organization suffered a major blow in 1985 when co-founder Rafael Caro Quintero was captured and later convicted for the torture and murder of DEA agent Enrique Camarena.

After the arrests of Caro Quintero and Fonseca Carrillo in April 1985, Félix Gallardo kept a low profile and in 1987 moved with his family to Guadalajara city. He then convened the nation's top drug narcos at a house in Acapulco where he designated the plazas (turfs) or territories, dividing up the trade. The Tijuana route went to his nephews, the Arellano Félix brothers. The Ciudad Juárez route went to the Carrillo Fuentes family, headed by Amado Carrillo Fuentes, the nephew of Fonseca Carrillo.

Miguel Caro Quintero would run the Sonora corridor. Control of the Matamoros, Tamaulipas corridor – then becoming the Gulf Cartel – was left undisturbed.

Reader's Guide

The Guadalajara Cartel was formed in the late 1970s by Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, Rafael Caro Quintero, and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo. It was among the first Mexican drug trafficking groups to work with the Colombian cocaine mafias. The cartel controlled much of the drug trafficking in Mexico and the corridors along the Mexico–United States border throughout the 1980s. Major marijuana plantations began springing up in the early 1980s, seeded with an improved variety of marijuana originally developed by American cannabis cultivators from California and Oregon, called 'sinsemilla' (meaning seedless).

These new plantations were located in remote desert areas, requiring well drilling for irrigation, a problem solved by massive bribery. The cartel trafficked cocaine to the U.S. in multi-ton shipments each month, taking a 50% cut of the cocaine they transported from Colombia. According to some writers, the organization prospered largely because it enjoyed the protection of the Mexican DFS intelligence agency under its chief Miguel Nazar Haro. The murder of DEA agent Enrique Camarena in 1985 outraged the U.S. government and put pressure on Mexico, resulting in a four-year law enforcement manhunt that brought down several leaders.

After the arrests of Caro Quintero and Fonseca Carrillo in April 1985, Félix Gallardo divided up the trade in a meeting in Acapulco, designating plazas to different drug lords. Multiple modern present-day drug cartels such as the Tijuana, Juárez, and Sinaloa cartels originally started out as branches or 'plazas' of the Guadalajara Cartel before its eventual disintegration.

Did You Know?

• In November 1984, authorities burned more than 10,000 tons of marijuana at Rancho Búfalo in Chihuahua, a loss of around $160 million.
• DEA agent Enrique Camarena was tortured for over 30 hours; his skull, jaw, nose, cheekbones, windpipe, and ribs were broken before his skull was crushed with a piece of rebar.
• Former Mexican Judicial Police chief Armando Pavón Reyes reportedly accepted a $300,000 bribe to allow Rafael Caro Quintero to flee to Costa Rica in a private jet.