Miguel Angel "El Padrino" Felix Gallardo (born 8 January 1946) was the founder and boss of the powerful Guadalajara Cartel of Mexico during the 1980s. Gallardo, Rafael Caro Quintero, and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo took control of Guadalajara in 1980 and established ties with the Federal Security Directorate (DFS), ensuring that they could build a billion-dollar marijuana-trafficking organization with police protection. However, Felix Gallardo's switch to cocaine trafficking for the Colombian Cali Cartel and Medellin Cartel in 1984 led to increasing DEA interest in his activities, and Felix Gallardo's murder of undercover DEA agent Kiki Camarena in 1985 led to Operation Leyenda, a major Mexican and American crackdown on the Guadalajara Cartel. Felix Gallardo was arrested in 1989 and sentenced to 40 years in prison for Camarena's murder and for his drug trafficking operations.
Biography[]
Rise to power[]
Felix Gallardo as a policeman
Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo was born in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico on 8 January 1946, and he studied business in college. He served as a federal police agent before becoming a bodyguard for Sinaloa governor Leopoldo Sanchez Celis, becoming godfather to his son. He went on to work for drug trafficker Pedro Aviles Perez as a lieutenant, and, in 1980, he received Aviles' permission to expand into Guadalajara, Jalisco, where he would be out of the Mexican Army's reach during Operation Condor. In 1980, he, Rafael Caro Quintero, and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo took over Guadalajara from Hernin and Hernan Naranjo, formed a partnership with the local DFS commander Juan Jose Esparragoza Moreno, and co-founded the Guadalajara Cartel, which created massive sinsemilla marijuana fields in the desert and trafficked them into the United States, making billions. Gallardo did so in partnership with the DFS Director-General Salvador Osuna Nava, who provided him the necessary political protection to operate; however, Osuna would occasionally retaliate against Miguel Angel if he felt that Miguel Angel was forgetting his place in the relationship.
Cocaine baron[]
Felix Gallardo in 1983
In 1984, Miguel Angel decided to expand into the cocaine business after a visit to Nicaragua, where he discovered large shipments of cocaine with nobody to ship them. With the help of the pilots Amado Carrillo Fuentes and Juan Matta-Ballesteros, the traffickers Benjamin and Ramon Arellano Felix, and his negotiator Sandra Avila Beltran, Miguel Angel concluded a deal with the Colombian Cali Cartel. The Guadalajara Cartel took 50% of Cali's cocaine income in return for providing bases for the Cali Cartel from which they could smuggle drugs into the United States via Florida; Pablo Escobar later kidnapped Miguel Angel and Sandra in Cali and forced Miguel Angel to traffick his goods as well.
Decline of Guadalajara[]
Felix Gallardo in Tijuana, 1984
Gallardo became very wealthy from this new arrangement, but the shift from marijuana to cocaine offended Caro Quintero, while Gallardo - now a massively powerful crime boss - became the subject of an intensifying DEA manhunt, evading capture several times with the help of his DFS contacts and from wealthy businessman Ruben Zuno Arce (whose uncle Juan Arevalo Gardoqui had ties to the Ministry of Defense and other high-ranking officials). Miguel Angel took over Tijuana from Alberto Sicilia Falcon after a spate of tit-for-tat attacks, arranging for him to be arrested shortly after Avila Beltran negotiated a peace deal with him. However, Miguel Angel grew increasingly dictatorial in his governing methods, causing trouble within his federation. At a meeting of his plaza bosses at the Hotel Americas, he alienated Caro Quintero for deciding that cocaine would now be Guadalajara's main business, Pablo Acosta Villarreal protested at Miguel Angel's arbitrary decision-making, and Sandra was angered when Miguel Angel gave Tijuana to Benjamin and Ramon Arellano Felix rather than giving her 20% of the city as promised. When Osuna Nava confronted Felix Gallardo after the meeting and demanded a higher cut of the profits, a stressed and infuriated Felix Gallardo bludgeoned him to death with an ashtray as Juan Jose Esparragoza Moreno watched. Concurrently, Miguel Angel's personal life also deteriorated as his wife discovered his many infidelities, including with an impregnated art gallery employee, and she attempted to convince him to return to Sinaloa.
Murder of Kiki Camarena[]
Juan Arevalo Gardoqui confronting Miguel Angel, 7 February 1985
By this point, undercover DEA agent Kiki Camarena had discovered his cartel's vast marijuana plantation at Rancho Bufalo, and he convinced Guadalajara DEA station chief Jaime Kuykendall and DEA Mexico operations supervisor Ed Heath (reluctantly) to launch a November 1984 search-and-destroy raid on the plantation, having recently failed to capture Miguel Angel himself in a planned ambush in El Paso. Felix Gallardo thought rationally, refusing to attract more attention to his cartel. However, Secretary of Defense Arevalo Gardoqui, DFS commander Esparragoza Moreno, and a vengeful and insane Caro Quintero conspired to have Camarena kidnapped from his house at 881 Lope de Vega in Guadalajara on 7 February 1985, doing so in broad daylight. Felix Gallardo confronted Caro Quintero and angrily berated him for his actions, and he then demanded that Esparragoza Moreno return the agent to his home and leave him be. However, Arevalo Gardoqui arrived and told Felix Gallardo that it was not his shot to call, as Arevalo Gardoqui had changed his mind about not touching the American after hearing that, two days before, he had been interviewed by a two-person investigation team from the US Congress. Felix Gallardo later visited the captive Camarena, and he then ordered the interrogators to begin their torture. Camarena was tortured and interrogated at Zuno Arce's estate for two days, and he was then executed.
Operation Leyenda[]
Felix Gallardo meeting with Helmer Herrera, January 1986
Fonseca and Quintero were arrested not long after Camarena's murder, both with Gallardo's support (as the government needed to show that it had made progress with the Camarena investigation), but Gallardo used his political connections to evade arrest himself. At his 40th birthday party on 8 January 1986, hundreds of guests (including three governros, several generals, his plaza bosses, and representatives from the Cali Cartel) attended, and his lieutenant Cochiloco gifted him with a pet tiger. During the party, Benjamin Arellano Felix approached him and asked for him to transfer the responsibility of transporting goods through Tijuana from the Sinaloa plaza to the Tijuana plaza, as Tijuana was in desperate need of income due to lowered profits. Miguel Angel promised him that money would come soon, but the arrangement would remain the same until then. He then met with Helmer Herrera and demanded that Cali repay its $200 million debts to Guadalajara, but Herrera told Gallardo that cocaine seizures were up by 40% due to the DEA doubling its numbers in response to Camarena's murder, and told Gallardo that the repurcussions from Camarena's death were Gallardo's problems. He then told him that the original arrangement would continue, and he and Navegante abruptly left the party.
Felix Gallardo meeting Juan Garcia Abrego
Felix Gallardo was warned by Esparragoza Moreno that his organization could not hold for another six months, but Felix Gallardo assured him that, in time, he would come to own the Colombians. He then travelled to Matamoros, Tamaulipas to meet with Gulf Cartel boss Juan Nepomuceno Guerra, who gave him samples of his stew and then took him for a drive to discuss life before they talked business. Guerra showed Felix Gallardo the cross-border bridge which was built in 1926, and waved to bribed American cops on the other side of the Rio Grande. He then told Felix Gallardo that more could be learned of a man from his needs than his wants, and he invited him to a party where he met Don Juan's nephew Juan Garcia Abrego, who showed him that half of the Brownsville Sheriff's Department was attending the party. He then guessed that Felix had come to the party to attempt to convince his uncle to enter the cocaine game, but he told Felix that his uncle had stuck with opium for years because it was safe. That night, Guerra himself rejected Felix's offer, as he said that he had seen how Felix treated his partners, let alone his competitors, and because his smaller business had everything he needed and nothing that he didn't. Felix then attempted to convince Guerra that the only way that Mexico's cartels could survive and fight back against the Colombians was through a union, as the Colombians would prefer for the drug traffickers to be independent and fight amongst themselves. He thus sparked Guerra's interest, and he proposed that, since all of Mexico's cartels would be in one union, the Colombians could only negotiate with the Guadalajara Cartel to move their goods, and the Guadalajara Cartel would demand that they keep half of the Colombians' cocaine loads as payment, turning them into vendors rather than "baggage handlers". Guerra then told Felix that his family was Felix's family, and he decided to agree to a partnership within a few weeks, during which he could tell his associates of the deal himself.
Felix Gallardo visiting Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo in prison
Soon after, Felix Gallardo was informed that Camarena's torturer, Sergio Verdin, had been captured by the DEA, and that Ruben Zuno Arce would be the next target on Operation Leyenda's list. Both Felix's corrupt police associate Guillermo Calderoni and Secretary Arevalo advised him to go into hiding, but he refused, insisting on continuing to live in his opulent mansion with his second wife. He then visited Fonseca Carrillo in prison to ask for his help with the Americans, but Fonseca Carrillo told him that he was done helping him after his betrayal, and warned him that, if Felix ever made it to prison, Fonseca would ensure that Caro Quintero and the other inmates would be able to murder him slowly.
Felix meeting with CIA agent Bill Stechner
Another problem manifested itself when one of Juan Matta-Ballesteros' arms shipments was shot down over Nicaragua, implicating the CIA in illegal arms trafficking with the help of Central American criminal elements. Felix was inspired to do business with the CIA himself, and he and Esparragoza met with the CIA with the goal of taking over Matta-Ballesteros' smuggling routes for himself. He met with Agent Bill Stechner in his plane at a Nicaraguan airfield, and, while Stechner originally planned to fly him to America and claim the credit for his capture, he ultimately let him go after Felix showed him maps of several routes which he would use to smuggle arms to Nicaragua for the CIA. Stechner admitted that it had beon eons since a man surprised him, and he agreed to partner with Felix. Felix Gallardo then met with Arevalo Gardoqui, whose reputation had been tarnished by his nephew's arrest, and convinced him to send the Mexican Army to arrest Matta-Ballesteros, which would mean a highly-publicized victory for the War on Drugs, and which would restore Arevalo Gardoqui to his party's good graces. Shortly after, Matta-Ballesteros was arrested for arms trafficking, taking the fall for the crashed plane, and allowing for the CIA to continue its arms trafficking with a new contact.
Crumbling alliances[]
The Panama meeting
Miguel Angel then decided to go on a business trip to Panama to meet the Colombians, and he decided to bring Amado with him. Before they left, he told Amado that he was placing him in charge of the cartel's new fleet of smuggling planes, and he told him that they would build airstrips in Chiapas and Veracruz, where the smuggling planes could refuel before flying up to Ciudad Juarez, where they could offload their drugs and smuggle them cross-border. During the meeting in Panama City, Felix was disappointed to hear that neither Juan Nepomuceno Guerra or Juan Garcia Abrego had come to the hotel, but he decided to resume his meeting with Pacho Herrera and the other Cali representatives. Herrera broke the silence by saying that he had found another boss to traffick his cartel's cocaine, revealing that Nepomuceno Guerra had struck a deal with the Colombians behind Felix's back. In order to mask his surprise, Felix Gallardo asked for the Colombians to send as much product to them as they could; Herrera said that, within a few months, they could assemble 65,000 kilograms (70 tons) of cocaine, and Felix agreed, despite periodic jabs from Herrera about his betrayal of his associates such as Matta-Ballesteros. In order to transport the product, Felix decided to have Amado purchase several jets in order to create a fleet of drug trafficking planes. He then called Nepomuceno Guerra and confronted him about his betrayal, but Guerra told Felix Gallardo that Felix had high-profile problems, while he (Guerra) was a quiet man by nature; he also told him that he wondered how long he could have lasted once Felix got what he wanted from the Colombians, as he was aware of Felix's many betrayals of his associates, with the most recent being Matta-Ballesteros. Felix Gallardo went on a rant, using Guerra's love of the Roman Empire by saying that he would crucify Guerra in front of his grandchildren and then burn his ranch to the ground.
On Felix's return to Guadalajara, he was greeted by Esparragoza, who informed him that the PRI was tapping Carlos Salinas de Gortari, a patrician with family ties to Juan Nepomuceno Guerra, to be the next President, as Arevalo Gardoqui's relation to Zuno made him an unpopular choice. He also informed him of the construction of a tunnel from Tijuana to San Ysidro, which meant that the Sinaloans were trying to get around the transport tax. A stressed Felix Gallardo was then almost killed by a sniper sent by Guerra to kill him on his way home; the sniper's shots caused his car to crash, but he ultimately survived.
Miguel Angel meeting with Raul Salinas de Gortari
In 1987, Felix then decided to meet with Carlos' brother Raul Salinas de Gortari with the goal of currying favor with the future President. He invited Raul to one of his tennis courts, and he also said that he wanted to be a generous friend to Raul, his brother Carlos, and to the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which he claimed he donated to regularly. However, Raul said that he and his brother were not in need of that, as they only needed family and loyalty, and Juan Nepomuceno Guerra had been a loyal family friend since Raul and his brother were boys. He then warned Felix that he and his brother would be very bothered if something was to happen to Guerra, and he then thanked Miguel Angel for his vote and left the room. Miguel Angel then returned to his mansion and told Esparragoza to find out why a "player" like Raul would not accept his money, and he also ordered that Guerra was not to be touched, even as Esparragoza warned him that Guerra could order another assassination attempt on him at any time. Miguel Angel decided to briefly get away to Sinaloa, and then sent Esparragoza to settle the Sinaloa-Tijuana war, which had escalated following the 1987 Tijuana arcade shooting.
Felix meeting with Hector Luis Palma Salazar in Sinaloa, 1987
During his trip to Sinaloa, he met with his plaza boss Hector Luis Palma Salazar, who told him that his plaza would pay the tax now that it had been caught red-handed, and that Cochiloco had been sent to Tijuana to negotiate with the Arellano Felix brothers. However, Felix told Palma that Cochiloco would not be coming back, angering Palma, and Felix told Palma that things had changed. Palma accused Felix of disloyalty, saying that the cartel lieutenants should not kill each other because of money, that Cochi was "one of us", and asked Felix if that meant anything, referencing his past betrayals of his associates. He was further angered when Felix revealed that he had known Cochiloco for over 20 years, since when they were both policemen, and, when Palma accused Felix of having his former friend killed because Sinaloa hurt Tijuana's feelings, Felix responded by saying that he had done so because Palma lacked the fortitude to control his men or lead his plaza, and because he was weak. Palma reluctantly admitted to this, but begged Felix to call off the hit. Felix revealed that it had already been done, and that he had come to Palma to tell him of Cochiloco's death himself.
Felix visiting his wife
Felix then visited his estranged first wife Maria's home, waiting for her at the gate. However, she angrily berated him, telling him that he was not wanted there, and warned him to stop following the children to school and to stop intruding into their lives. While leaving, he stumbled across a rally in support of opposition politician Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, who was met with a large turnout of enthusiastic supporters. He then headed to a local cafe where his ex-wife again confronted him, and she told him that her father had told her about Cochiloco's fate, going on to accuse him of betraying everyone who was ever close to him; she then concluded that he was a "bad guy".
1988 presidential election[]
Arevalo meeting with Miguel Angel, 1987
Felix Gallardo then went to Mexico City to speak with Arevalo Gardoqui, who was angered that he did not win the party's nomination. Felix asked him about Cardenas, noting that Salinas and the PRI would destroy his father Lazaro Cardenas' legacy through privatizations. He then asked if Cardenas would like his help, but Arevalo explained that Cardenas had left the party because he accused it of having ties to corrupt politicians and traffickers, and that, should Cardenas win, Miguel Angel would be thrown in jail on the first day. Felix then asked Arevalo if Cardenas had a chance of winning, but Arevalo said that he knew that he wouldn't, and he then showed him to the National System of Political Election Information (SNIPE) office. There, they observed that Cardenas and his coalition were winning in the major cities and educated centers, while the PRI was holding to the more rural, less populated areas among the ignorant and illiterate. In Mexico City itself, Cardenas was projected to win 54.23% to Salinas' 45.77%. Arevalo explained that, if the PRI candidate could not claim victory as the first precincts declared their tallies, the election would be lost, as there would be nothing to pull the opposition's supporters from the voting line. In Cardenas' case, he gave the people hope, meaning that the results from the first precincts might not be favorable to PRI. Miguel Angel went on to call Raul Salinas again, warning him that the poll predictions were unfavorable to Carlos, and telling him that he could share the PRI's poor polling numbers if he wanted to. Raul then arranged to meet Miguel Angel at the Hotel Ciudad de Mexico at 4:00 PM to hear him out. Before doing so, Miguel Angel told Arevalo to inform Cardenas that he was going to win, as he wanted to use it against him as leverage.
Shortly after, Acosta's lieutenant Rafael Aguilar Guajardo intercepted a phone call between Acosta and Palma, discussing a split from the organization. Juan Jose Esparragoza Moreno relayed this information to Felix, warning him that Acosta was not the problem, but Palma, who had initiated the call. Felix told Esparragoza to have Palma murdered, but Felix's Venezuelan chauffeur Enrique Rafael Clavel Moreno - who was having an affair with Palma's wife Guadalupe Leija Serrano - warned her about her husband's impending doom.
Cecilia Rosario meeting with Miguel Angel
Afterwards, Miguel Angel went to meet PRI campaign manager Cecilia Rosario, who was representing Raul at the meeting. He showed her the devastating election polls, but she said that they could have been fabricated by Miguel Angel's men, or that they were only known to the PRI. Miguel Angel revealed that he had shared them with Cardenas, which would lead to a groundswell of support for Cardenas. Rosario deduced that Felix would offer a solution, and he did: the government could blame the initial results on their new computer system, while they could use another system to report the opposite results. Once the voters were convinced that Cardenas was losing, they would go home before voting, and the PRI would win the election without tampering with a single ballot, maintaining power for six more years. In return, Felix wanted a direct relationship with the new administration. Rosario warned him that, if he was lying, her employers would be intolerable enemies of his. They then shook hands and agreed to work together.
Not long after, Esparragoza called Miguel Angel and informed him that Palma had survived the assassination attempt due to Clavel warning Guadalupe in advance; several of Esparragoza's men had been killed, and he had managed to escape only after throwing a Molotov cocktail at Palma. He then told Felix that Clavel and Guadalupe were having an affair. Miguel Angel, who was reading Acosta's Chicago Sun-Times interview, ordered Esparragoza to deal with Acosta, as his testimony could sabotage his chances of obtaining protection from the new PRI government.
The predicted election results
Felix then met with Rosario again on election day, 6 July 1988, and she warned him that the Acosta article could jeopardize his fate regardless of the election results. That same day, Herrera called him and informed him that his 70-ton shipment of cocaine was ready, and Miguel Angel scrambled to find a way to transport it. He ordered Amado to rush the assembly of his air fleet, and, in the process, Amado discovered the trackers planted in his plane. Meanwhile, Felix waited for the results with Rosario and was told that the polls outside of Mexico City were down, and the PRI had the appearance of riding a surge of support in Mexico City. However, when election supervisor Francisco Ovando suspected that the PRI was editing the election results on the computer, the PRI responded by shutting down the computer system and claiming that the system had crashed. Soon, the news began to report the crash, raising suspicions that the election had been rigged, and encouraging increased turnout from the opposition parties. Rosario told Miguel Angel that the PRI's defeat would mean Miguel Angel's end as well, so Miguel Angel had his lieutenants Aguilar, the Arellano Felix brothers, and El Chapo go to polling stations, hold the pollsters at gunpoint, and force them to add zeroes at the ends of the PRI's vote count. The PRI received thousands of extra votes, and they declared victory before the handwritten votes were counted. The handwritten ballots were then burned en masse, and Ovando was murdered in his car to ensure the PRI's victory.
Downfall[]
Miguel Angel meeting with Maria, 1988
Shortly after the election, Miguel Angel met up with his ex-wife Maria at a cafe, where she congratulated him on helping the PRI win the election. They had coffee together, and they went on to walk around Badiraguato to reminisce about their earlier lives. She then invited him to their daughter Abril's school recital, as she shared her daughter's desire for Miguel Angel to be there for her.
Miguel Angel and his wife attending the PRI celebration party
Shortly after, Felix Gallardo brought his wife with him to attend the PRI's celebratory party for their new President, introducing her to Cecilia Rosario, who greeted them. Rosario showed him numerous notables in attendance, including Carlos Slim, and, when Maria Elvira asked who she and Felix should pretend to be, Rosario explained that they could be themselves, as they were now friends of the party. Felix then toasted to Salinas' promises of growth, prosperity, and liberation for Mexico, and he and his wife reconciled and later went on to kiss for the first time in years.
On the same night as the party, Amado informed Felix that the Colombians' shipment would be shipped the next day, as he had successfully ambushed the DEA team when they came to attack his decoy shipment. Miguel Angel ordered that the cocaine be partitioned equally among his plazas, with each receiving 17.5 tons to smuggle. The ultimate goal would be to transport it to the Sylmar warehouse in Los Angeles, after which the Colombians would pay Felix Gallardo his $250 million transportation fee.
Felix's meeting with Pacho Herrera in Guadalajara, 1989
By 1989, the goods had arrived at the warehouse, only for the DEA and LAPD to launch the biggest yet drug raid in history with the help of an anonymous tip. Felix was upset by this news, but he decided to arrange a meeting with Helmer Herrera at a Guadalajara restaurant. There, he expressed his surprise that Herrera was allowed to live despite the shipment's loss, but Herrera explained that the shipment was incnosequential, as the Colombians could always produce more cocaine. Felix then demanded his $250 million fee, but Herrera presented him with an offer to pay him $4,000 for each kilo smuggled, which would net him $280 million. Felix, using the lost shipment as leverage, refused, calling out Herrera for attempting to set him up for failure with the last shipment, and stating his intent to take half of what the Colombians smuggled through Mexico so that he could traffick cocaine himself. Herrera asked Felix what his partners thought of the idea, but Felix said that he had no partners, only employees. The meeting ended in tension, as Herrera warned Felix that moving into the drug vending industry would be dangerous. After the meeting, Esparragoza suggested to Felix that he should consult his plaza bosses before undertaking such a drastic move, but he refused, as he had already made his decision.
At the same time, Miguel Angel sought to deal with the double-dealing of his plaza bosses, as Guzman had inadvertently let him know that all of the other plaza bosses had expressed their willingness to allow Palma back as a plaza boss. While Miguel Angel agreed to El Chapo's request to forgive Palma, he sent his associate Enrique Rafael Clavel Moreno to send a message to his treacherous lieutenants by beheading Palma's wife and throwing their two young children from a bridge. This happened as Felix sent Esparragoza to summon the plaza bosses to a conference, and the news severely disturbed his associates. It also caused Maria Elvira and her family to once again shun Miguel Angel, as she deduced that he would continue to betray his friends and be a horrible person.
Felix's 1989 conference
At his conference with his lieutenants, Miguel Angel announced that the federation would move into directly selling drugs to the United States, and he dismissed Juarez plaza boss Rafael Aguilar Guajardo's concerns about the Colombians paying Guadalajara for the last shipment, telling him that the new business would not begin for another three months to a year. Benjamin Arellano Felix then asked when the bosses had made the decision, and Miguel Angel told him that he had already made the decision for them. Miguel Angel reminded Benjamin that he controlled the protection, the product, and the transportation, and told him not to get confused about his place within the federation. Aguilar then asked if it was true that Felix had tipped off the authorities about Sylmar, and, when Miguel Angel confessed, saying that it was about gaining power, Benjamin announced that Tijuana was pulling out of the federation (forming the Tijuana Cartel). The Arellano Felix brothers then walked out, and Guzman then stood up and announced that Sinaloa was also out (forming the Sinaloa Cartel). Esparragoza decided to join Guzman, as he also favored Palma's return. Amado then said that Acosta was right in saying that the cost of doing business with Felix was too high, and he and Aguilar decided to leave the federation to form the Juarez Cartel. Amado also told Felix that the Colombians chose Amado as their trafficker over Felix, and Amado told Felix that the federation was over, and that the bosses would run their own territories from then on.
Downfall[]
Felix Gallardo's arrest
On 8 April 1989, a forlorn Felix Gallardo was arrested by Guillermo Calderoni and the Mexican Federal Police at his mansion in Guadalajara. He would go on to play an active role in the activities of the new cartels via cell phone; the Arellano Felix brothers' Tijuana Cartel went on to take control of Tijuana, he gave the Carrillo Fuentes family's Juarez Cartel control of Ciudad Juarez, gave Miguel Caro Quintero's Sonora Cartel control of Sonora, gave Tamaulipas to the Gulf Cartel, and gave the Pacific coast to Joaquin Guzman Loera and Ismael Zambada Garcia's Sinaloa Cartel.
Imprisonment[]
Miguel Angel in prison
Felix continued to be the grey eminence behind the new generation of cartels until he was transferred to the Altiplano maximum security prison to serve a 40-year prison sentence. Before he left, he met with DEA agent Walt Breslin for the first and only time, warning him that the chaos brought about by the formation of several independent cartels would one day lead into a greater conflict, one worse than any experienced during the 1980s. He predicted that, while the new cartels would work separately and initially enjoy some harmony or maybe even work together, they would ultimately fight over the best routes, the best product, and influence over the top dogs in the government, and he warned Breslin that Tijuana would get stronger and would soon cause trouble with Sinaloa, which had soldiers, but no border. Meanwhile, the Gulf would bide its time and build its strength as Sinaloa and Tijuana weakened each other. After NAFTA, Juarez would be strong enough to square off with anyone, and Felix told Breslin to remember the name Amado Carrillo Fuentes, as he could become the most powerful trafficker that Mexico had ever seen. Felix then accused Breslin of coming to his country to "break things and hurt people," which he claimed most Americans wanted to do. He then warned Walt that he would be drowning in blood and chaos once the cage broke open and the "animals" ran free, and he told Breslin that, once that happened, he would miss Felix.
In 2014, eight years after the Mexican Drug War began, and years after most of his lieutenants had either been killed or imprisoned, he was transferred to a medium-security facility due to his declining health.