Pedro Avilés Pérez (April 11, 1931 – September 15, 1978), also known as "El León de la Sierra" (English: " The Mountain Lion"), was a Mexican

drug lord A drug lord, drug baron, kingpin, or lord of drugs is a type of crime boss in charge of a drug trafficking network, organization, or enterprise. Crime barons may be difficult to bring to justice: usually, they do not possess illegal goods. Ra ...

in the state of

Sinaloa Sinaloa (), officially the (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, compose the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 18 municipalities, and its capital city is Culiacán Rosales. It is located in northwest Mexic ...

beginning in the late 1960s. He is considered to be the first generation of major Mexican drug smugglers of

marijuana Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...

. He was also the first known drug lord to use an aircraft to smuggle drugs to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. In the Netflix series '' Narcos: Mexico'', Avilés was portrayed by actor Antonio Lopez Torres.

Biography

Second-generation Sinaloan traffickers such as Rafael Caro Quintero and

Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo (August 1, 1930), commonly referred to by his alias Don Neto, is a Mexican drug lord and former leader of the Guadalajara Cartel, a defunct criminal group based in Jalisco. He headed the organization alongside Miguel Á ...

would claim they learned all they knew about drug trafficking while serving in the Avilés organization. Killed in a shootout with the Federal Police in September 1978, some people believe Avilés was set up by Fonseca Carrillo, the cartel's treasurer. Caro Quintero, Aviles' foreman in Chihuahua, began acquiring marijuana and

poppy A poppy is a flowering plant in the subfamily Papaveroideae of the family Papaveraceae. Poppies are herbaceous plants, often grown for their colourful flowers. One species of poppy, '' Papaver somniferum'', is the source of the narcotic drug ...

plantations. Corruption of state officials was brokered by

Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo (born January 8, 1946), commonly referred to by his aliases ''El Jefe de Jefes'' ('The Boss of Bosses') and ''El Padrino'' ('The Godfather'), is a convicted Mexican drug kingpin who was one of the founders of the ...

, an emerging capo who had spent time in Sinaloa working as a Sinaloan State Police trooper and serving as

bodyguard A bodyguard (or close protection officer/operative) is a type of security guard, government law enforcement officer, or servicemember who protects an very important person, important person or group of people, such as high-ranking public offic ...

to Leopoldo Sánchez Celis, governor of Sinaloa.

References

Guadalajara Cartel traffickers Sinaloa Cartel traffickers 1978 deaths 1938 births Mexican cannabis traffickers {{crime-bio-stub