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 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.
Personal life and career 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.
López Falcón's cousin Rolando López Salinas ("El Rolis") was reportedly his personal assistant. López Salinas acted as López Falcón's personal bodyguard and head of his security services. Murder operations conducted by López Salinas were ordered directly by García Mena; López Falcón allowed this because he preferred not to be linked to that part of the business. According to Mexican security forces, López Falcón was not known to be a violent criminal leader. He reportedly avoided ordering murders, preferring to focus on drug trafficking and his other interests, which included promoting ranchera music and entertainment, cockfighting, managing his restaurant chains, and equestrianism and horse breeding. His affinity for breeding fine horses earned him the nickname "El Señor de los Caballos" (English: The Lord of the Horses). López Falcón was one of the wealthiest people in Miguel Alemán; he owned multiple properties, including an estate known as The Bougainvilleas (Spanish: Las Bugambilias), where he hosted the city's anniversary parties and multiple horse-racing events. García Mena and the Miguel Alemán mayor Raúl Rodríguez Barrera sometimes attended these events. Other invitees included local officials, members of the Mexican military, and bettors from across Mexico. Authorities suspected his horse-breeding business was a money laundering front and that he used a strawperson to manage it.
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.
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 tall and weighing . 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.
New alliances 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.
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.
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.
Downfall On 22 September 2000, the Gulf Cartel carried out an armed attack against López Salinas in Miguel Alemán. He was not 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.
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.
Assassination attempt