Narcoland: The Mexican Drug Lords and Their Godfathers (54 page)

Labastida Ochoa
, Francisco. Former governor of Sinaloa state and PRI candidate for president in 2000. As secretary of the interior in 1999, made a number of appointments that favored El Chapo.

Laborín Archuleta
, Clara Elena. Wife of Hector Beltrán Leyva and would-be society hostess.

Lazcano
, Heriberto, alias Z3 or El Verdugo (The Executioner). One of the founders and subsequent leader of Los Zetas, a breakaway group originally comprised of former Mexican Special Forces recruited by the Gulf Cartel. Reportedly killed by government forces in October 2012; the body was stolen by an armed commando a few days later.

Leaños Rivera
, Felipe. Guard at Puente Grande who denounced the corruption leading up to El Chapo’s escape. He was reportedly found dead in a sack, after disappearing from the prison, in 2007.

Lehder
, Carlos. Founder of Colombia’s Medellín Cartel alongside Pablo Escobar.

León Aragón
, Rodolfo, alias El Chino. Named head of PFJ by Carrillo Olea in 1991. He has been accused of direct responsibility for the killing of Cardinal Posadas Ocampo in 1993, and of being involved with Amado Carrillo Fuentes.

López Núnez
, Dámaso. Took over as assistant warden of Puente Grande in April 1999, bringing with him a whole team from Sinaloa. Allegedly in the employ of El Mayo Zambada and the Sinaloa Cartel.

Macedo de la Concha
, Rafael. Attorney general under President Fox.

Martínez Herrera
, Arturo, alias El Texas. Member of the Gulf cartel and associate of El Chapo Guzmán and El Güero Palma in Puente Grande.

Matta Ballesteros
, Juan Ramón, alias El Negro. Honduran drug trafficker, partner of Medellín Cartel and of Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo.

Medina Mora
, Eduardo. Former Televisa board member, appointed head of Cisen by President Fox, then secretary of public security during the last year of that adminstration. Became attorney general under Calderón

Milián Rodríguez
, Ramón. Chief accountant of the Medellín Cartel.

Millán Gómez
, Edgar Eusebio. Subordinate and close friend of García Luna. Replaced Javier Garza as coordinator of regional security in 2007. Shot dead in May 2008.

Morfín Otero
, María Guadalupe, known as Lupita. President of the Jalisco State Human Rights Commission, she tried to take action against the abuse of women and overall corruption in Puente Grande.

Mouriño
, Juan Camilo. Interior secretary under President Calderón, killed in an air crash on November 4, 2008, along with eight others. El Mayo Zambada is widely suspected of ordering his killing.

Nepomuceno
, Juan. Historic leader of the Gulf Cartel.

Ochoa
, Jorge Luis. Prominent member of Colombia’s Medellín Cartel, along with brothers Fabio and Juan David.

Ortiz
, Sergio Humberto, alias El Apá (Daddy). Former policeman and chief of Mexico’s biggest kidnap gang, La Flor, allegedly protected by García Luna and his cronies. Died in prison in 2009.

Palma
, Héctor, alias El Güero. A close associate of El Chapo Guzmán in the Guadalajara and Pacific organizations.

Pérez Díaz
, Juan José. Prison guard at Puente Grande who resisted being recruited by the drug traffickers.

Pérez Rodríguez
, Enrique. Became deputy director of the prison service in the SSP in 1999. Closely involved in the corruption that characterized the system.

Posadas Ocampo
, Cardinal Juan Jesús. Killed in a shootout in the car park of Guadalajara airport on May 24, 1993. His death was a national scandal. The official version, that he was caught in the crossfire during a clash between El Chapo and the Arrellano Félix brothers, was rewritten several times. This book suggests he was murdered by the security services because he knew too much about their connections with the drug trade.

Puga Quintanilla
, José Salvador. Former member of the Gulf Cartel, given the code name Pitufo when he made a sworn statement to public prosecutors on March 9, 2009.

Rodríguez Gacha
, José Gonzalo, alias El Mexicano. Another founder of the Medellín Cartel, who pioneered close dealings with the Mexican drug traffickers in the late 1970s.

Rodríguez Orejuela
, Gilberto and Miguel. Colombian drug traffickers.

Rosas Rosas
, Facundo. Under secretary for Police Strategy and Intelligence under García Luna during the Calderón administration.

Sahagún
, Marta. Spokesperson for, then second wife of, President Fox.

Salcido
, Manuel, alias El Cochiloco. Leader of the Guadalajara Cartel, killed in October 1991.

Salinas de Gortari
, Raúl. Brother of President Carlos Salinas. Arrested in 1995 on murder and corruption charges. Acquitted of murder in 2005, but still on trial for illicit enrichment.

Santiago Vasconcelos
, José Luis. Deputy attorney general for SIEDO, responsible for investigations into García Luna and his staff.

Seal
, Adler Berriman, better known as Barry Seal. Pilot for the Medellín Cartel in the 1980s and a CIA agent.

Tello Peón
, Jorge Enrique. An aide to Carrillo Olea in the early 1990s, he became under secretary for public security in May 1999, and continued in that post under President Fox. After a spell in business at Pemex, he returned in 2008 as Calderón’s adviser in the “war on drugs.” El Chapo identified him as one of three officials who facilitated his escape from Puente Grande.

Tostado Félix
, Pablo. Aide to Esparragoza and others in the Sinaloa Cartel. In 2005, questioned in prison by lawyers for the Guadalajara archdiocese seeking to clarify the killing of Cardinal Posadas, gave abundant details about the organization and its links to government. Found shot and hung in his cell in May 2009.

Treviño
, Miguel Ángel, alias El Muerto or Z40. Lazcano’s second-in-command and current successor as Zetas leader.

Valdez Villarreal
, Edgar, alias La Barbie. Sent by The Federation to Nuevo Laredo in 2002 to begin the war on the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas. Became the organization’s most violent enforcer, working mainly for Arturo Beltrán Leyva. After the latter’s death, began to develop own drug business. Was “captured,” or gave himself up, in 2010, apparently to save himself from Héctor Beltrán Leyva.

Valencia Fontes
, Jaime. El Chapo’s “private secretary” in Puente Grande prison. Organized a group of inmates as enforcers, known as The Plumbers.

Villanueva
, Mario. Former governor of Quintana Roo state, extradited to US in May 2010 on drug charges.

Villarreal
, Sergio, alias El Grande. Former policeman who began to work under Arturo Beltrán Leyva in 2000 and joined La Barbie in leading The Federation’s war on the Gulf Cartel. For a time he ran the organization’s operations at Mexico City Airport. After the split in The Federation and the death of Arturo Beltrán Leyva, was left defending the bastion of the Juárez Cartel against El Chapo.

Vizcaíno Medina
, Jesús. One of the Sinaloas, or police commanders linked to the Sinaloa Cartel who accompanied López Núnez when he became assistant warden at Puente Grande.

Hernández
, Zulema Yulia. one of the women El Chapo took as a partner while in Puente Grande prison.

Yunes Linares
, Miguel Ángel. Adviser in the SSP, then director of the prison service. In July 2000 became chief adviser to Gertz Manero, the first secretary of public security, while his friend Pérez Rodríguez took over as director of the prison service.

Zambada García
, Ismael, known as El Mayo. Leader of the Sinaloa cartel, regarded by some as the man behind El Chapo’s throne.

Zambada García
, Jesús Reynaldo, alias El Rey (The King). Brother of Ismael, helped run operations for El Mayo and El Chapo in the capital, especially the airport. Arrested along with his son and stepson after a confused shootout in Mexico City in October 2008 between different groups of policemen, some of them his bodyguards.

Zambada Reyes
, Jesús. Son of Jesús Zambada, turned protected witness for the PGR, with the code name Rambo III, after being arrested with his father in 2008.

Zuno Arce
, Rubén. Businessman and brother-in-law of former president Luis Echeverría. Accused of drug trafficking from the 1970s, and convicted by a Los Angeles court in 1990 of involvement in the murder of DEA agent Camarena.