Editing Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo (section)

== Connections to Colombian cartels ==
In the early 1980s, drug interdiction efforts increased around Florida, 
which was then the major shipping destination for illegal drug 
traffickers. As a result, the Colombian cartels began to utilize Mexico 
as their primary transhipment point. Juan Matta-Ballesteros was Gallardo's primary connection to the Colombian cartels.

Matta-Ballesteros had originally introduced Gallardo's predecessor, 
Alberto Sicilia-Falcon to Santiago Ocampo of the Cali Cartel, the head of one of the largest U.S. cocaine smuggling rings. Rather 
than taking cash payments for their services, the smugglers in the 
Guadalajara cartel took a 50% cut of the cocaine they transported from 
Colombia. This was extremely profitable for them, with some estimating 
that the trafficking network operated by Felix Gallardo, [[Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo]], and [[Rafael Caro Quintero]] was pulling in $5 billion annually.<sup>[5][2][6][7]</sup>

Until the end of the 1980s, the Sinaloa coalition headed by Felix 
Gallardo (composed of what is today the Sinaloa, Tijuana, Juarez, and 
Pacifica Sur cartels) had an almost complete monopoly on illegal drug 
traffic in Mexico.<sup>[8][9]</sup>