Editing Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo (section)

== Early life and career ==
Born on a ranch in Bellavista on the outskirts of Culiacán, Sinaloa, Félix Gallardo first graduated high school and studied business in college. However he then took a job as a Mexican Federal Judicial Police agent.<sup>[1]</sup> He worked as a family bodyguard for the governor of Sinaloa state Leopoldo Sanchez Celis, whose political connections Gallardo used to help build his drug 
trafficking organization. Gallardo was also the godfather of Celis' son 
Rodolfo.<sup>[2][3][4] </sup>

In 1980, Gallardo and his fellow Sinaloans Rafael Caro Quintero and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo moved the base of their marijuana operation to Guadalajara, and recruited other marijuana smuggling gangs from across Mexico to form the [[Guadalajara Cartel]], in order to regulate the marijuana market and prevent clashes between trafficking organizations.