Captures of big bosses mark AMLO’s six-year term… just like his predecessors

The fall of Mexico’s big bosses

Since the 1990s, several leaders of Mexican criminal organizations, such as Amado Carrillo “El Señor de los Cielos”, Rafael Caro Quintero, Héctor Luis “El Güero” Palma, the Beltrán Leyva brothers, Miguel Ángel Arellano Félix – “the boss of bosses” -, Juan José Esparragoza “El Azul”, and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, have faced fates ranging from capture and shooting to uncertain situations that at the time fueled legends about their whereabouts.

These are some Mexican drug lords who have been captured or killed by the authorities.

March 1986. Juan Jose de Jesus Esparragoza Moreno, alias “The Blue”

Juan José de Jesús Esparragoza Moreno was one of the leaders and founders of the Sinaloa Cartel and a member of the Juárez Cartel and the Guadalajara Cartel.

Although his activities are associated with organized crime, the role of this drug trafficker was to seek alliances with drug dealing groups in various parts of the country, as well as to open new routes for drug trafficking.

For several years, the United States Department of Justice offered 10 million dollars for his capture and he was accused of possession and distribution of cocaine to various states of the American Union.

Her death was reported in 2014 in Mexico City due to an apparent cardiac arrest, however, this information has not been confirmed by any Mexican authority, so doubts persist about her whereabouts.

April 1989. Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo

Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, founder of the now defunct Guadalajara Cartel, listed in the 1980s as the largest distributor of marijuana in Mexico, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), was arrested in a luxurious house on Cosmos Street in Guadalajara, in April 1989.

Also known as the “Drug Czar,” Félix Gallardo was the founder of the Guadalajara Cartel, one of the criminal organizations with a presence in Chihuahua, Jalisco, and Sonora. He received a 40-year prison sentence, which he is serving in the Puente Grande prison, Jalisco.

June 1995. Hector “El Güero” Palma

“El Güero” Palma, one of the leaders of the Pacific Cartel along with Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and founder of the Guadalajara Cartel along with Miguel Ángel Felix Gallardo, was arrested in June 1995 on the border of Nayarit and Jalisco after a plane crash while traveling to a social event.

In 2007 he was extradited to the United States where he was sentenced to 29 years in prison, however, he only spent nine years in a prison in that country until he was sent back to Mexico where he was held in the Altiplano maximum security prison in the State of Mexico.

His legal defense has attempted on several occasions to file appeals to obtain his release due to his advanced age.

July 1997. Amado Carrillo Fuentes

Amado Carrillo Fuentes, better known as “The Lord of the Skies” for the fleet of aircraft he owned, a drug trafficker who became leader of the Juarez Cartel after Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo was arrested, died of apparent cardiac arrest on Thursday, July 3, 1997 after undergoing cosmetic surgery and liposuction at the Santa Monica Hospital in Polanco.

Following his death, the drug lord’s body was flown to Culiacán, Sinaloa, via air parcel service on July 5 for a wake. A week later, the then Attorney General’s Office (PGR) confirmed his death, however, various theories and doubts arose about the drug trafficker’s fate, including the possibility that he faked his death to escape to another country with a new identity.

December 2009. Arturo Beltran Leyva

Arturo Beltrán Leyva, leader and founder of the Beltrán Leyva Cartel, was killed in 2009 in an armed confrontation between elements of the Mexican Navy and members of the cartel, which occurred in Cuernavaca, Morelos.

Beltrán Leyva, alias “El Barbas” or “The boss of bosses”, was born in 1958 in Badiraguato, Sinaloa. “The boss of bosses” began his criminal record as a bodyguard and right-hand man for drug trafficker Amado Carrillo Fuentes, alias “El señor de los cielos”, with whom he became familiar with the world of drug trafficking and the illegal sale of substances.

However, years later, in 2008, the Beltrán Leyva brothers separated from the Sinaloa Cartel, after Alfredo Beltrán Leyva was arrested by Mexican authorities, an event that was considered a betrayal by “El Chapo” Guzmán.

At the time, Beltrán Leyva’s death was seen as a victory for President Felipe Calderón, who after taking office in 2006 launched a fight against drug trafficking, led by then-Secretary of Security García Luna.

Beltrán Leyva was charged in the United States, along with Guzmán and other drug traffickers, with bringing into the United States some 200 metric tons of cocaine and large quantities of heroin between 1990 and 2008, in addition to smuggling back to Mexico some $5.8 billion in cash.

October 2012. Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano

Heriberto Lazcano, alias “Z3” or “El Lazca,” a commander in the Mexican special forces before leading Los Zetas’ drug trafficking operations, was killed in a shootout with the Mexican army in October 2012.

“El Lazca” Lazcano became one of the most important drug lords in Mexico as well as one of the enemies of Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán.

According to reports, he was killed by Navy personnel in a confrontation in Progreso, Coahuila, however, a few days later, it was reported that his remains were stolen by alleged employees of his to ‘give him an eternal burial’.

Lazcano was one of the most wanted drug traffickers by the Mexican government, which offered a reward of 2.6 million dollars for his capture, while Washington added 5 million more.

January 2016. Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman

The leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the drug traffickers who has most surprised the world for his exploits of evading justice, arrests and escapes from maximum security prisons, was captured for the first time in 1993 in Guatemala and sentenced to 20 years in prison for homicide and drug trafficking, a sentence he was serving in the maximum security prison of Puente Grande, Jalisco, from which he managed to escape in 2001 using a laundry cart.

After several years on the loose, Guzmán Loera was recaptured by elements of the Sedena and the Navy in Mazatlán, Sinaloa in 2014 after a major operation. In 2015, the drug trafficker escaped again, this time from the maximum security prison of Altiplano after digging a tunnel that reached his cell.

The third capture of “El Chapo” Guzmán took place in 2016 in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, and he was transferred to the United States.

In neighboring Mexico, Guzmán has already received a life sentence.