Felix Gallardo, the "boss of bosses" of Mexican drug traffickers, is dead. He was 80

Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, also known as "the boss of bosses" among Mexican drug lords, died on November 15 in a private hospital in Guadalajara, where he had been transferred from prison two days earlier; he suffered from hypertension and diabetes. This was reported by security officials of the Central American country. Gallardo, who was 80 years old, had been in custody since 1989 and was one of the most influential drug traffickers, as well as a key figure in the rise of Mexico's major drug cartels. (ansa) Felix Gallardo, the Guadalajara cartel and the arrest In fact, at the end of the 1970s, Gallardo was among the founders of the Guadalajara cartel, considered the country's first major criminal organization, which today's gangs continue to draw inspiration from. He was a key figure in the alliances with Colombian drug traffickers, and his cartel was responsible for the kidnapping, torture and murder, in February 1985, of DEA undercover agent Enrique Camarena Salazar. For that killing, the United States exerted strong pressure on Mexico to capture those responsible, and thus, in 1989, Gallardo was arrested and sentenced to 37 years in prison for the agent's murder, in addition to serving an additional 40-year sentence for drug trafficking. His criminal career, his life and his downfall inspired the TV series Narcos – Mexico on the big screen: he was portrayed by actor Diego Luna. The hospital where Felix Gallardo died (afp)