Pedro Avilés Pérez

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Avilés and the second or maternal family name is Pérez.

Pedro Avilés Pérez (April 11, 1931 – September 15, 1978), also known as "El León de la Sierra" (English: "The Mountain Lion"),^[3][4] was a Mexican drug lord in the state of Sinaloa beginning in the late 1960s.

Pedro Avilés Pérez
Born	(1931-04-11)April 11, 1931 Tamazula, Durango, Mexico[1]
Died	September 15, 1978(1978-09-15) (aged 47)[2] Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico
Cause of death	Gunshot wounds
Other names	El Leon de la Sierra, Sneaky Pete
Occupation	Drug trafficking
Known for	Drug lord; pioneered the use of aircraft to smuggle drugs to the United States
Partner(s)	Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, Juan José Esparragoza Moreno, Rafael Caro Quintero
Children	Atani Perez

He is considered to be the first generation of major Mexican drug smugglers of marijuana.^[5] He was also the first known drug lord to use an aircraft to smuggle drugs to the United States.^{[6][unreliable source?]}

In the Netflix series Narcos: Mexico, Avilés was portrayed by actor Antonio Lopez Torres.

Biography

Second-generation Sinaloan traffickers such as Rafael Caro Quintero and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo would claim they learned all they knew about drug trafficking while serving in the Avilés organization. Killed in a shootout with the Federal Police in September 1978,^{[6][unreliable source?]} some people^[who?] believe Avilés was set up by Fonseca Carrillo, the cartel's treasurer. Caro Quintero, Aviles' foreman in Chihuahua, began acquiring marijuana and poppy plantations. Corruption of state officials was brokered by Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, an emerging capo who had spent time in Sinaloa working as a Sinaloan State Police trooper and serving as bodyguard to Leopoldo Sánchez Celis, governor of Sinaloa.