Rafael Chao was a Mexican drug lord and former federal police commander. Chao led the secret federal police force before its dissolution, and he turned to the drug trade to find a new job. In 1989, the imprisoned Guadalajara Cartel boss Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo gave Chao control of Mexicali. On 5 July of that same year, Chao was arrested while in possession of 95 packets of cocaine, which had been sold to him by Magdalena Pineda Trinidad.