El Chapo’s Former Boss Nicknamed ‘The Godfather’ Who Killed US Agent Granted House Arrest

Prosecutors said that El Chapo’s former boss Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, 76, was granted house arrest by a district judge.

The Mexican drug lord, who is co-founder of the Guadalajara cartel, was a pioneer in trafficking large shipments of cocaine to America in alliance with the deceased Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, reported Reuters. In 1989, Gallardo, a former cop, was jailed for the murder of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Enrique Camarena, and then he spent three decades in prison. Nicknamed "The Boss of Bosses" and "The Godfather," Gallardo was also charged with drug smuggling, racketeering and many violent crimes. He has always denied involvement in the murder of Camarena.

Gallardo has been spending time in hospital and is reportedly in poor health. Among various health problems, he is deaf in one ear, blind in one eye and has cataracts in the other. So, taking his advanced age and poor health into account, a Mexico City-based federal judge ruled that he could complete his 40-year sentence at a residence in Zapopan, Jalisco. Daily Star reported that on Monday, prosecutors announced that he would be allowed to see out the rest of his sentence at home, but under house arrest.

Mexico News Daily reported that the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) has challenged the ruling. It prevents the release of the former cartel boss.

The news of his house arrest comes after Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said in 2021 that he was open to releasing Gallardo on the basis of poor health and old age. Lopez Obrador said at the time that he did not want "anyone to suffer. I do not want anyone to be in jail." He has also previously backed the release of thousands of inmates who are elderly, suffered from health problems or victims of torture.

Gallardo gained wide recognition after he was portrayed as a protagonist in the popular Netflix series "Narcos: Mexico," which started in 2018.

In a 2021 interview, Gallardo described his health as “terrible.” He indicated that he expected to die soon. He said that his family was preparing “a hole” in which to bury him. He said that he was a corpse who didn’t "aspire to anything more than being buried … (beneath) a tree."