Pedro Avilés Pérez, also known as "El León de la Sierra" (English: " The Mountain Lion"), was a Mexican

drug lord A drug lord, drug baron, kingpin or narcotrafficker is a high-ranking crime boss who controls a sizable network of people involved in the illegal drug trade. Such figures are often difficult to bring to justice, as they are normally not directly ...

in the state of

Sinaloa Sinaloa (), officially the Estado Libre y Soberano de Sinaloa ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sinaloa), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is d ...

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

marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...

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

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

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

Biography

Second-generation Sinaloan traffickers such as

Rafael Caro Quintero Rafael Caro Quintero (born October 24, 1952) is a Mexican drug lord who co-founded the now-disintegrated Guadalajara Cartel with Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo and other drug traffickers in the late 1970s. He is the brother of fellow drug traffic ...

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 Áng ...

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 Chihuahua may refer to: Places *Chihuahua (state), a Mexican state **Chihuahua (dog), a breed of dog named after the state **Chihuahua cheese, a type of cheese originating in the state **Chihuahua City, the capital city of the state **Chihuahua Mun ...

, 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 opi ...

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 lord Kingpin. He was one of the founders of th ...

, 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 a person or a group of people — usually witnesses, high-ranking public officials or officers, w ...

Leopoldo Sánchez Celis Leopoldo Sánchez Celis (February 14, 1916 – August 7, 1989) was a Mexican politician who was governor of Sinaloa from 1963 to 1968. References

1916 births 1989 deaths Governors of Sinaloa 20th-century Mexican politicians People from ...

, governor of Sinaloa.

References

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