Edelio López Falcón

Edelio López Falcón (1965 – 6 May 2003), commonly referred to as El Yeyo, was a Mexican suspected drug lord and former high-ranking member of the Gulf Cartel, a criminal group based in Tamaulipas, Mexico. Prior to his involvement in drug trafficking, López Falcón owned a flower business in Miguel Alemán. He was part of the cartel during the 1990s and was a trusted enforcer of the former kingpin Gilberto García Mena. López Falcón's role in the cartel was managing drug shipments from Tamaulipas to the United States. Security forces believed López Falcón was not a violent crime boss; he preferred to indulge in his personal interests, which included promoting music and entertainment, managing his restaurant chains, and running his horse-breeding business. After joining the cartel, he continued to pose as a legitimate businessman to keep a low profile.

In his new role, López Falcón continued to pose as a legitimate businessman. He was tasked with ensuring his new organization had political support and protection from the police, especially because they were operating in a locale they were not originally from. To gain political support in northern Mexico, López Falcón's new leaders tasked him with finding an influential politician to support them. López Falcón reached out to the National Action Party (PAN) politician Mauricio Fernández Garza, who was running for governor of Nuevo León in 2003. According to Fernández, López Falcón contacted him in early 2003 for a meeting; López Falcón once visited his office to deliver several suitcases filled with U.S. dollars. The money was reportedly intended to help Fernández finance his campaign in exchange for his political support and permission to operate in Nuevo León should Fernández win the election. Fernández said he did not accept the money.

On 14 March 2003, the Mexican Army arrested Cárdenas Guillén in Matamoros. Prior to his capture, the Gulf Cartel experienced several major blows from law enforcement crackdowns, including the arrests of some of Cárdenas Guillén's lieutenants such as García Mena, Adán Medrano Rodríguez, Rubén Sauceda Rivera, and José Manuel Garza Rendón. Authorities believed Cárdenas Guillén's possible successors were Peña Cuéllar, Víctor Manuel Vázquez Mireles, Gregorio Sauceda Gamboa, and Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez. They reiterated that one of the major targets was López Falcón, who they regarded as one of the top-three Gulf Cartel leaders in the past two years. They said unlike other gangs like Los Chachos, López Falcón had the operational capacity to confront the Gulf Cartel. The Army and the PGR thus refocused their efforts to apprehend him; they feared he had become one of the leading drug lords in northern Mexico and south Texas. They also suspected he no longer lived in Tamaulipas and had relocated to Nuevo León, where he reportedly owned several money laundering fronts.

On 6 May 2003, two gunmen murdered López Falcón in a restaurant in Guadalajara, Jalisco. The gunmen sat at a table close to López Falcón, who was having breakfast with horse breeder Óscar Alejandro Coker Preciado and an unidentified woman. López Falcón finished his food and chatted for over an hour afterwards. When he ordered the check, the gunmen stood up and began walking towards the restroom. On their way, they passed next to the table where López Falcón was sitting and shot him from behind. Investigators confirmed López Falcon was shot three times in the head at point-blank range and died at the scene. According to investigators, López Falcón arrived at the restaurant after being dropped off by someone else. He had no bodyguards with him. Authorities requested the closure of the restaurant until further notice so evidence from the crime scene could be gathered.

In late 2002, authorities seized multiple drug shipments reportedly owned by López Falcón's group. On 9 October 2002, former Tamaulipas State Police chief Carlos González Pamatz was arrested in Houston with 100 kg (220 lb) of cocaine from López Falcón's group. The following day, federal policemen stationed in China, Nuevo León, arrested suspected drug traffickers Jorge Calzada García and Patricia Rodríguez Madrigal, who were in possession of 33 kg (73 lb) of cocaine in a vehicle. In their police confession, Calzada García said he was hired by a man named Evelio or Edelio, who went by the alias El Yeyo. He said he did not recall this man's last name. Policemen suspected he was referring to López Falcón. Calzada García was paid US$4,000 to transport the drugs; he said he was told to collect the vehicle filled with drugs at a shopping center in San Pedro Garza García and drive it to Reynosa, where he initially brokered the deal and received the vehicle's keys from El Yeyo. Rodríguez Madrigal said she was not aware of the drug deal. The couple was driving a Peugeot that was bought in the state of Jalisco but had Tamaulipas license plates. Investigators began investigating a drug link between Monterrey, Reynosa, and Guadalajara. While facing a judge, however, Calzada García retracted his statement and said he did not recall the exact name of the man who hired him. He said the man's name was Edelio Ramírez or Rodríguez, that his nickname was La Yeya, and that he lived in McAllen, Texas. This was the second largest drug seizure in Nuevo León in 2002 and showed the PGR López Falcón was likely operating in Monterrey and trying to take over the turf from Cárdenas Guillén. Reynosa was generally considered a turf controlled by Cárdenas Guillén.

On 9 April 2001, the Mexican Army arrested García Mena after a week-long manhunt in Guardados de Abajo, Camargo. The Gulf Cartel suspected López Falcón plotted against him by informing Mexican authorities of his whereabouts. They also believed the way security forces raided several properties containing drugs and the house where García Mena was hiding was unusually specific, which led them to believe López Falcón had betrayed them. The Gulf Cartel thus carried out a search to kill López Falcón and other aligned with his faction. To increase law enforcement and media attention against López Falcón and several of his accomplices, Cárdenas Guillén's lawyer Juan Jesús Guerrero Chapa leaked a false rumor that López Falcón was part of a new Nuevo León-based criminal group known as the Monterrey Cartel (Spanish: Cártel de Monterrey) to the national press in mid-2001. This media strategy was also employed to help ease the increasing law enforcement pressure the Gulf Cartel was experiencing in Tamaulipas following the arrest of García Mena and to help refocus their efforts against Cárdenas Guillén's turf competitors. Federal and state officials later stated that the Monterrey Cartel did not exist.

On 13 May 2001, López Falcon attended a Vicente Fernández music concert inside a cockpit arena in Guadalupe, Nuevo León. At around 4:00 am, approximately fourteen gunmen from the Gulf Cartel's former paramilitary group Los Zetas stormed the arena searching for him. Authorities confirmed that the gunmen were carrying AK-47s and .38 calibre firearms, identified themselves as members of the army, and ordered people to stay on the ground. The gunmen entered the arena and fired their guns into the air to create confusion among the attendees and force López Falcón to flee outside, where the gunmen planned to kill him. Surveillance videos captured López Falcón in the front seats of the event sitting next to a blond woman. He was able to leave before the gunmen entered the arena after his bodyguards alerted him of the presence of armed men outside. López Falcón had at least twenty bodyguards posted inside and outside the arena. He left the premises escorted by his gunmen and by merging with the crowd of concert attendees. He did not suffer any injuries. Outside the premises, Los Zetas shot at multiple vehicles and injured a bystander but they failed to kill their intended target.

On 3 June 2001, a picture of López Falcón sitting in the arena's seats was published by the Monterrey-based newspaper El Norte. A few days later, an anonymous citizen issued a memo to the PGR and El Norte with pictures of López Falcón accusing López Falcón of being in public places in Miguel Alemán with armed men and that local authorities did nothing to stop him. Authorities suspect this memo was submitted by his rivals. Later that month, the PGR and Nuevo León authorities confirmed López Falcón did not have a pending arrest warrant or a formal indictment at a federal and state level. Both levels of government agreed to work together to formally start an investigation against López Falcón's alleged criminal activities. PGR investigator Mario Roldán Quirino opened an investigation against him. Roldán Quirino, however, was murdered on 21 February 2002.

Following the assassination attempt, authorities increased their efforts to arrest López Falcón, one of the most-wanted criminals in northern Mexico. On 5 June 2001, the Mexican Army carried out a secret operation in Mier, Miguel Alemán, and Camargo to arrest López Falcón and suspected Gulf Cartel trafficker Alesio García Peña ("El Huarachón"). They raided multiple properties, including two houses in Mier tied to García Peña, a ranch owned by García Mena, and a property in Camargo, where they seized 345 kg (761 lb) of marijuana. The Army also set up a checkpoint in front of López Falcón's estate but did not raid it. The PGR confirmed the drugs were not linked to the traffickers for whom they were searching and one person was arrested in the operation. The operation lasted less than a day; the federal troops returned to their barracks before midnight. Local authorities supported the measures carried out by the Army and the PGR, and stated that they expected more secret operations to be carried out in the area in light of the growing presence of organized crime activity in northern Mexico.

On 4 August 2001, a shootout between López Falcón's and López Salinas' gunmen broke out outside a cockfighting arena in Reynosa. According to police reports, the gunmen got into a verbal dispute at the parking lot of the arena after the Bobby Pulido music concert ended. Three people were injured in the attack. Authorities drew similarities with the shootout in Nuevo León months prior in which López Falcón was targeted. On 30 October 2001, approximately fourteen gunmen stormed an estate in Monterrey to kill Peña Cuéllar. One person was killed and two others were injured but Peña Cuéllar was not present when the incident occurred. According to police reports, the attack may have been ordered by López Falcón as vengeance after he discovered Peña Cuéllar had started the rumor that López Falcón was responsible for García Mena arrest. Security forces suspected that by framing López Falcón, Peña Cuéllar wanted to earn a high-ranking position within Cárdenas Guillén's chain of command. García Mena had originally framed López Falcón as his informant and blamed him for his capture.

On 20 November 2001, López Falcón's bodyguard Juan Martínez Torres ("El Banano") was kidnapped in Miguel Alemán. A few days later, López Falcón's lead accountant Jaime Barrera Peña was also kidnapped; police suspected they were probably kidnapped by Cárdenas Guillén's faction. On 28 November 2001, eighteen gunmen broke into an estate owned by Raymundo Garza Garza , a suspected Gulf Cartel member, in Cadereyta. The gunmen killed one of the property guards and injured two children. The PGR and the Mexican Army raided the property a few days later in search of López Falcón, and continued their searches in Monterrey to arrest him and several of his associates, including Mario Ramírez ("La Gata") and René García Solís ("La Pata de Garra"), Raymundo's sibling. The attack was reportedly carried out on López Falcón's orders because René was linked to Peña Cuéllar. The gunmen mistook Raymundo's estate for René's. On 13 May 2002, the Gulf Cartel kidnapped López Falcón's associate García Sánchez in Monterrey; he was tortured and killed, and his corpse was abandoned in Nuevo Progreso, Tamaulipas, a few days later. Killings and attacks between the Gulf Cartel and López Falcón's faction continued in Nuevo León through the rest of the year. The escalating dispute between both groups led to additional military deployments of the Mexican Armed Forces in Tamaulipas and Nuevo León.

One of López Falcón's last public appearances was on 22 June 2000 when he was seen at the opening of a restaurant in Monterrey; nine pictures of the event were leaked to the Monterrey-based newspaper Diario de Monterrey two years later. López Falcón appeared with multiple people, including the Nuevo León governor Fernando Canales Clariond. Other attendees included the Santiago mayor Eduardo Manuel García Garza and the priest Alejandro Leal, who conducted the inauguration blessings. López Falcón was with his girlfriend María Eugenia Garza Díaz, the daughter of the restaurant owner. When López Falcón was not attending his businesses in Tamaulipas, he spent his time in Texas, where he reportedly continued to run drug trafficking activities.

López Falcón forged an alliance with the Sinaloa Cartel, Milenio Cartel, and Juárez Cartel, which operated as a triangle organization. In 2000, the Attorney General's Office (PGR) confirmed an alliance between López Falcón and Arturo Beltrán Leyva, a kingpin who had ties with the drug lords Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and Ignacio Coronel Villarreal. According to information provided by United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), López Falcón also worked closely with the Milenio Cartel kingpin Armando Valencia Cornelio. López Falcón was reportedly the Milenio Cartel's main intermediary in Monterrey, Nuevo León. Investigators also believed López Falcón allowed the Milenio Cartel to smuggle drugs from Nuevo Laredo to Texas. Intelligence reports, however, indicated Valencia Cornelio did not fully trust López Falcón because he believed he was a law enforcement informant. To defend himself from the Gulf Cartel's front, López Falcón also sided with Dionisio Román García Sánchez ("El Chacho"), a former state police officer and head of a Nuevo Laredo-based smuggling group known as Los Chachos. Los Chachos had an alliance with the triangle organization López Falcón worked with and helped them smuggle drugs in Tamaulipas. Los Chachos also helped López Falcón's group fight off the Gulf Cartel's forces in their turf.

On 22 September 2000, the Gulf Cartel carried out an armed attack against López Salinas in Miguel Alemán. He was injured in the attack but his chauffeur Héctor Arias was wounded. The attack was presumed to be carried out on García Mena's orders. Five days later, six gunmen were arrested in Ciudad Camargo, Tamaulipas, following an anonymous tip provided to the Tamaulipas State Police. In their confession to the police, the gunmen said they were hired by López Salinas and were from the Sinaloan cities of Culiacán and Guamúchil. They also said they were stationed in Nuevo León and ordered to make incursions into Tamaulipas. This alarmed the police of the presence of organized crime members from other turfs outside Tamaulipas. On 27 November 2000, the Miguel Alemán Rural Police chief Pablo Gaytán Mejía was murdered by four gunmen, presumably on López Falcón's orders. Gaytán Mejía was reportedly a close friend of García Mena and helped facilitate his drug operations. After the attack, García Mena's henchmen killed the four gunmen. Fearing for his life, López Falcón fled Miguel Alemán and settled in Monterrey. His family fled the area after learning about his issues with García Mena. López Falcón's estate was abandoned but he continued to visit the city discreetly.

In the late 1990s, López Falcón encountered problems with García Mena, who sought the support of the cartel's leader Osiel Cárdenas Guillén to oust him. López Falcón broke ties with the Gulf Cartel and forged alliances with the Sinaloa, Milenio, and Juárez cartels. The Gulf Cartel reportedly blamed López Falcón for the April 2001 arrest of García Mena and plotted to kill him. He fled to Nuevo León, where he established his center of operations. López Falcón survived an attempt on his life a month later but he was killed in Guadalajara in May 2003. His murder remains unsolved, but investigators believe his killers were probably members of Los Zetas, the Gulf Cartel's former paramilitary group.

López Falcón and García Mena began having disagreements in the late 1990s. The differences started after López Falcón began diversifying the Gulf Cartel's portfolio and started smuggling cocaine to the U.S. from Tamaulipas. García Mena primarily smuggled marijuana through this corridor. García Mena sought support from Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, the top leader of the Gulf Cartel, to try to oust López Falcón. López Falcón sided with López Salinas and sought the support of rival organized crime groups. In mid-2000, López Falcón and López Salinas met with members of the Sinaloa Cartel and brokered a drug deal without the Gulf Cartel's approval. López Falcón eventually left the Gulf Cartel and formed an alliance with the Sinaloa Cartel, which promised López Falcón larger profits in exchange for allowing them to smuggle drugs in Tamaulipas. This prompted García Mena and the Gulf Cartel to fully cut ties with López Falcón and his group.

On 9 May, López Falcón's sister traveled from Roma, Texas, to Guadalajara to confirm the identity of the corpse. She was accompanied by her two attorneys to start the body reclamation process. The UEDO interviewed his sister before meeting with the Jalisco Institute of Forensic Sciences, who gathered her blood samples and conducted DNA tests on the body. The test results were expected to be ready in one or two weeks, and Jalisco authorities stated that the corpse would not be given to relatives until their family link was confirmed. The PGR were responsible for setting the date when the body would be given to López Falcón's family. After the DNA tests, his sister returned to Texas and awaited the notification from Mexican authorities. The police thought his family would hold a wake in Miguel Alemán or Mexico City, and that López Falcón would be buried in Guardados de Arriba, a rural community in Miguel Alemán where his wife, who died in the 1990s, was buried.

López Falcón, who is commonly referred to by his nickname El Yeyo, was born in Miguel Alemán, Tamaulipas, Mexico, in 1965. Before becoming involved in drug trafficking, López Falcón owned a flower business in Miguel Alemán. He later joined the Tamaulipas-based criminal group the Gulf Cartel and worked as a smuggler under the kingpin Gilberto García Mena ("El June"). López Falcón and García Mena worked with the drug trafficker Fidel Hinojosa ("El Choco"); Ricardo Garza Manríquez, the former Miguel Alemán Public Security Department head; and Zeferino Peña Cuéllar ("Don Zefe"), the former head of the Miguel Alemán Municipal Police. In the Gulf Cartel, López Falcón was reportedly responsible for coordinating drug trafficking shipments from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, to the United States. In 1999, the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA) identified López Falcón as a rising drug smuggler. Security forces suspected he kept a low-profile status and posed as a businessman. He used the pseudonyms Gilberto Salinas and Edelio Flores to hide his real identity.

According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, López Falcón was a legal U.S. resident and lived at a house in Houston with a female named Yolanda and a male named Roberto Pérez López. Security forces suspected that López Falcón used Houston as a safe haven; he had a criminal background in Houston where he was identified as an illegal people smuggler. On his Texas driver's license, his name was listed as Adelio López Falcón. He was listed as being 1.75 m (5.7 ft) tall and weighing 83 kg (183 lb). His date of birth was listed as 26 June 1955, whereas in Mexico his year of birth was listed as 1965. The U.S. driver's license was once suspended by a Texan judge; López Falcón was released on parole and was re-issued with a new license with the same Houston address.