A VETERAN Mexican drug lord convicted of the murder of a US undercover agent has been granted house arrest due to his deteriorating health, authorities said yesterday.

Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo was considered Mexico’s most powerful drug trafficker when he was arrested for the murder of US Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in 1985.

Known as the “Boss of Bosses” (Jefe de jefes), the 76-year-old founder of the Guadalajara cartel has been in prison since 1989 and is blind in one eye and deaf in one ear.

“He needs treatment that cannot be given in prison because he has many diseases,” Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told reporters.

“He takes a lot of medicine. He’s in a delicate situation,” Lopez Obrador added.

Felix Gallardo has served 33 out of a 40-year prison sentence.

His worsening condition prompted the National Human Rights Commission to intercede in his case.

A judge granted Felix Gallardo house arrest with a tracking device on the grounds that he is in danger of dying before completing his sentence, an official in the western state of Jalisco, Jose Antonio Perez, told AFP.

The attorney-general’s office has challenged the decision, he said.

Felix Gallardo’s organisation is considered the forefather of modern Mexican drug cartels.

It was one of the first cartels to establish contacts with Colombian drug lords, working to transport cocaine up from the South American country to the United States.

Last year, Lopez Obrador publicly thanked Felix Gallardo for his “good wishes,” after the ageing drug kingpin said in an interview that the leftist leader was slowly resolving the violence gripping Mexico. – AFP, September 14, 2022.