Infamous Mexican drug lord known as ‘the boss of bosses’ gets out of prison after 33 years

A veteran Mexican drug lord convicted of killing an undercover US agent has been placed under house arrest due to deteriorating health, officials announced Tuesday. Miguel Ángel Felix Gallardo was considered Mexico’s most powerful drug trafficker when he was arrested in 1985 for the murder of Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, a US Drug Enforcement Administration agent.

Known as the “Boss of Bosses” (“Jefe de jefes”), the 76-year-old founder of the Guadalajara Cartel has been in prison since 1989 and is blind in one eye and deaf in one ear.

“He has many illnesses and needs treatment that he cannot get in prison,” Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador told reporters.

“He’s on a lot of medication. He’s in a delicate situation,” added Lopez Obrador.

In 2021, Lopez Obrador made public his “good wishes” to Felix Gallardo after the aging drug lord said in an interview that the left-wing leader was slowly resolving the violence ruling Mexico. I am grateful to

Felix Gallardo served 33 of the 40 years in prison.

As his condition worsened, the National Human Rights Commission came to intervene in his case.

An official in the western state of Jalisco, Jose Antonio Perez, told AFP that a judge had allowed Felix Gallardo to be placed under house arrest using a tracking device because he was in danger of dying before serving his sentence. Told.

The Attorney General’s Office is appealing the decision, he said.

Felix Gallardo’s organization is considered the ancestor of modern Mexican drug cartels.

It was one of the first cartels to establish contact with Colombian drug lords, working to transport cocaine from the South American country to the United States.

Last month, the Director of the Drug Enforcement Administration told CBS News that two Mexican cartels, the Sinaloa Cartel and Jalisco New Generation Cartel — Behind the influx of fentanyl into the United States that is killing tens of thousands of Americans.

“These cartels carry out a calculated and deliberate betrayal to bring fentanyl into the United States and get people to buy fentanyl by hiding it in counterfeit drugs and other drugs. We’re doing everything we can to make money,” said DEA administrator Ann Milgram.

Department of Justice consider The Jalisco Cartel “among the five most dangerous transnational criminal organizations in the world”. Cartel leader Nemesio OsegeraElmencho,‘ is one of the most sought after by authorities in Mexico and the United States.