Meet Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo's wife, María Elvira Murillo

Meet Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo's wife, María Elvira Murillo

From 2018 to 2021, the Netflix drama series Narcos: Mexico depicted the rise and fall of Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, founder of the Guadalajara Cartel. The Mexican drug lord married María Elvira Murillo, whose story was revealed in the series. Hence, many people are curious and concerned about Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo's wife and her role in the life of the former drug lord.

María Elvira's ex-husband Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo
María Elvira's ex-husband, Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, was a notorious Mexican drug lord who founded the Guadalajara Cartel. Photo: @indiatimes on X, @AztecaJalisco on Facebook (modified by author)
Source: UGC

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Key takeaways

  • Chilean actress Fernanda Urrejola portrayed Maria Elvira in Narcos.
  • The series described María as a key player in establishing Gallardo's drug empire.
  • She was the second wife of Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, alias El Jefe de Jefes (The Boss of Bosses) or El Padrino (The Godfather).
  • Real images of the real-life Maria Elvira Murillo are not widely available or publicly circulated online.

Profile summary

Full name

María Elvira Murillo

Gender

Female

Place of birth

Mexico

Current residence

Mexico

Nationality

Mexican

Ethnicity

Mixed

Sexual orientation

Straight

Religion

Christianity

Hair colour

Black

Marital status

Divorced

Ex-spouse

Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo

Profession

Businesswoman

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Who is Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo's wife?

María Elvira Murillo is the ex-wife of Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, a renowned Mexican drug lord. She married Félix Gallardo in 1971 and initially supported his small-scale drug dealing before his imprisonment.

What is María Elvira Murillo’s age?

Her exact age and date of birth are unknown. She is a Mexican of mixed ethnicity.

Who are the parents of Maria Elvira Murillo?

Born in Mexico, María Elvira Murillo’s real-life parents were opium traffickers, but information on them is not publicly documented, not even in the Narcos: Mexico series.

Who are María Elvira Murillo's children?

Reports state that Gallardo had 17 children with Maria, but only two are mentioned: Abril Félix Murillo and Miguel Jr. Félix Murillo.

In an interview with Noticias Telemundo, one of Félix Gallardo's kids, Miguel, said he and Abril were present when their dad was arrested. He noted that they knocked down the door without any arrest warrant or search warrant, beating him down in less than a minute.

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In 2011, Miguel Angel Félix Gallardo's son and daughter, with their mother, wrote an open letter stating that their dad was not getting proper treatment. This prompted his release to a better prison.

Facts about María Elvira Murillo
Facts about María Elvira Murillo. Photo: @MiguelAngelGallardoFelix on Facebook (modified by author)
Source: Original

María Elvira Murillo's career

María Elena Félix Gallardo is a businesswoman. Not much is known about her career, but she was a stakeholder in Delia Real Estate alongside her husband. After her husband's arrest in 1989, the Attorney General's Office (PGR) seized Delia's Real Estate assets.

What is María Elvira Murillo’s net worth?

Her net worth is uncertain since she lost everything after her husband's arrest. Meanwhile, according to Oprah Daily, Miguel was worth $500 million.

Where is María Elvira Murillo now?

Information regarding the current whereabouts of María Elvira Murillo, the second wife of Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, is not publicly available. She has maintained a private life, disappearing from public view over three decades ago following the arrest of Félix Gallardo in April 1989.

What happened to María Elvira Murillo in Narcos Mexico?

In the Netflix series Narcos: Mexico, María Elvira Murillo is portrayed as a loving and supportive wife to her husband and his drug business. She even became increasingly disillusioned with his growing preference for the cartel over family and extramarital affairs.

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Why did Felix's wife leave him?

Based on the fictionalized account in Narcos: Mexico, Maria tried to persuade him to run the drug cartel from Sinaloa, but he refused. The pair would end up divorcing, and María relocated to Sinaloa with their children.

She even stopped Felix from seeing the kids while living in Sinaloa. The couple would later reunite after he rigged the 1988 elections in favour of the PRI, the party of Carlos Salinas.

Why did Felix's wife leave him?

Felix and María's reunion was short-lived due to his involvement in the tragic murder of Guadalupe Leija Serrano, the wife of a rival cartel leader, and her two kids. Maria even stabbed Felix with a knife due to the argument. The duo later parted in 1989 after his arrest for the murder of a DEA agent .

What happened to Félix Gallardo?

According to the real-life events and Narcos: Mexico's storyline, he was one of the founders of the Guadalajara Cartel alongside Rafael Caro Quintero and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo.

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They controlled much of conveying drugs illegally in Mexico and the US-Mexico border in the 1980s. The cartel reportedly made $5 billion annually from smuggling drugs.

Before this, Gallardo worked as a family bodyguard for the governor of Sinaloa state, Leopoldo Sánchez Celis. In 1985, as per the Los Angeles Times, Félix Gallardo ordered the kidnapping and murder of DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena.

How did Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo get caught?

Gallardo was eventually arrested in 1989 and sentenced to 40 years in prison for the murder of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena. While incarcerated, Félix continued to run his organisation using a mobile phone.

Due to health issues, he was transferred to a medium-security facility in Guadalajara in 2014 and imprisoned at a maximum-security prison in Mexico for an additional 37 years in 2017 after a retrial.

In 2021, during his first-ever interview since confinement, Félix told Noticias Telemundo:

My health is terrible. My family is digging a grave so that I may be buried next to a tree. My life expectancy is nonexistent. I lost everything: I lost sensitivity, my hearing, my eyesight.

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Is Miguel Félix Gallardo still alive?

The former drug lord is reportedly alive and still serving his sentence under house arrest, though he is elderly and has faced serious health issues while serving his sentence.

When will Félix Gallardo be released?

There is no officially confirmed release date since Gallardo is not scheduled for full release, but was granted house arrest in September 2022 due to failing health.

Although he was allowed to transfer to a home setting to serve the remainder of his sentence, he remains a convicted prisoner. His release date is not public, and he was previously denied early release requests.

What happened to Felix Gallardo's first wife?

Gallardo's first wife died of leukaemia before he married María Elvira.

Who is Miguel Angel Felix's third wife?

While publicly available records do not confirm a third wife, the series Narcos shows a character named Daniela as his third wife, and that she had one child for him in 1986.

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Daniela appears early in the season as the new, younger spouse after Félix divorces his previous wife, Maria Elvira. She is depicted as living with him before their relationship fades in the storyline.

Who played Daniela in Narcos Mexico?

Mexican actress Alejandra Guilmant played the character Daniela in Narcos: Mexico.

Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo during his wedding
María Elvira Murillo was a loving and supportive wife to her husband and his drug business. Photo: @CrimeFamilyPhotos (modified by author)
Source: Facebook

Where is Sandra Avila Beltran now?

Sandra Ávila Beltrán, known as "La Reina del Pacífico" (The Queen of the Pacific), was released from Mexican federal prison in 2015.

Following her release, she has reportedly been living in the city of Guadalajara, Mexico. She is no longer in custody after serving time in both Mexico and the United States.

Sandra Ávila Beltrán is the niece of Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, the former Guadalajara Cartel leader, who was known as the "boss of bosses" in the Mexican drug trade.

What happened to Guillermo Pallomari's wife?

Patricia Pallomari, Guillermo Pallomari's wife, was killed prior to Guillermo's testimony in the 1997 federal drug trial in Miami (Operation Cornerstone). Reports indicate that cartel leaders ordered her murder, which was carried out by assassins in Colombia, with one report suggesting her body was never found.

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Guillermo Pallomari, the former chief accountant for the Cali Cartel, turned himself over to the DEA in August 1995 and entered the witness protection program to testify against the leaders and associates of the cartel. He is still under the Witness Protection Program of the United States.

Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo and Pablo Escobar were not related by blood or family, though they were contemporaries in the international drug trade during the 1980s.

What is Sofia Conesa known for?

The Mexican journalist and photographer who conducted rare interviews and documented Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo while he was in prison.

What is María Elvira Murillo’s Instagram page?

There is no public Instagram account for the real-life María Elvira Murillo, the wife of Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo.

Facts about María Elvira Murillo

  • She was raised in a devout Catholic family.
  • She was part of the traditional Sinaloan elite, raised within the Sinaloa drug culture.
  • She became part of the criminal or narcotraficante elite through her marriage to Gallardo.
  • She married Félix Gallardo when he was a rising figure (a bodyguard to the former Sinaloan governor).
  • As Gallardo built the Guadalajara Cartel, it became part of the top tier of the criminal establishment, often rubbing shoulders with politicians and elite families.

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Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo's wife, Maria Elviria, was the backbone during his days of conveying drugs illegally. His murder crimes separated them when he was imprisoned, and she has been quietly living her life off the public radar.

As published on Briefly.co.za, El Chapo is a former Mexican drug lord and one of the most powerful drug traffickers in the world. He was also the head of the Sinaloa Cartel, the largest drug-dealing empire in the world, with distribution centres across the globe. Discover more about his net worth by clicking the above link.

Source: Briefly News

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Favour Adeaga (Lifestyle writer) Dr. Favour Adeaga is an author, speaker, and coach. He graduated with a degree in Mass Communication from The Polytechnic, Ibadan, Nigeria. He did his internship at The Nation Newspaper and taught diploma students in Newspaper and Magazine courses at the Nasarawa State University, Keffi. He has curated the facts and life hacks category since 2018. Dr Favour is the author of several books available on Amazon. He currently lives in Nigeria. Email: favouradeaga@gmail.com

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Peris Walubengo (Lifestyle writer) Peris Walubengo has vast experience in search engine optimization through digital content generation, research, editing, and proofreading. She joined Briefly.co.za in November 2019 and completed the AFP course on Digital Investigation Techniques. You can email her at perisrodah254@gmail.com.