UDGTV reports Félix Gallardo’s death in Guadalajara
By Cartel Insider Wire Desk · Edited by Mica Treviño
Original reporting: UDGTV
What happened
UDGTV cites Jalisco’s Security Secretariat as confirming the 80-year-old Guadalajara Cartel founder’s death from multiple organ failure after a guarded transfer from Puente Grande.
Reporting and context
Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, a founder of the Guadalajara Cartel, died at age 80 on Sunday after being hospitalized in Guadalajara, according to UDGTV. The outlet cited Jalisco’s Security Secretariat as confirming that he died at about 2 p.m. from multiple organ failure.
UDGTV reported that Félix Gallardo had been admitted to a private hospital in the Lomas del Country neighborhood on Friday, November 13. State authorities said he was transferred urgently from the Puente Grande prison complex under guard and remained under medical observation with a guarded prognosis.
The Security Secretariat attributed the death to multiple organ failure identified by the medical team treating him, the report said.
Known as “El Jefe de Jefes,” Félix Gallardo helped form the Guadalajara Cartel with Rafael Caro Quintero and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, known as “Don Neto.” According to UDGTV, the organization controlled major drug-trafficking routes to the United States during the period in which he was a leading figure in the 1970s and 1980s.
He was arrested in April 1989 and later convicted of several offenses, including involvement in the murder of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena. The outlet put his combined prison sentences at 77 years. Its account also linked him to the February 1985 kidnapping and killing of Camarena and Mexican pilot Alfredo Zavala.
In 2022, a federal judge authorized house arrest because of his age and health, UDGTV reported. The measure was never implemented, and he remained imprisoned at Puente Grande.
Original reporting: UDGTV.