Héctor Luis Palma Salazar

Héctor Luis Palma Salazar
Born	Jesus Hector Luis Palma Salazar (1940-12-25) 25 December 1940 (age 76)
Residence	Altiplano Prison, Mexico
Other names	El Güero (Blondy)
Occupation	Drug lord
Employer	Sinaloa Cartel
Known for	drug trafficking
Net worth	?
Spouse(s)	Guadalupe Leija Serrano
Partner(s)	Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán
Children	21
Notes
First arrest: 1978 in USA Second arrest: June 23, 1995 in Mexico

Héctor Luis Palma Salazar (a.k.a.: "El Güero Palma") is a former Mexican drug trafficker and former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel alongside Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán. Palma was arrested on June 23, 1995 and deported to the United States, where he served a jail sentence until June 2016. He was then extradited back to Mexico in June 2016 where he was charged with a double murder in 1995 in Nayarit.

Jesus Héctor Luis Palma Salazar was born in Noria de Abajo, Mocorito, Sinaloa, Mexico in the mid 1940s. Palma began his life of crime as a car thief eventually working as a gunman for Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo under the umbrella of the Guadalajara Cartel. Palma rose the ranks, and along with Eduardo "El Lobito" Retamoza and Gallardo, were leaders of the cartel. Following the loss of a large cocaine shipment, which was blamed on Retamoza and Palma, El Lobito was killed, and Palma was spared. Following Retamoza's death, Palma contacted and created an alliance with Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzman of the rival Sinaloa Cartel.

Palma splintered from the group which was handed down to Gallardo's nephews in Tijuana, who later formed the Tijuana Cartel (Arellano Félix Organization). Palma, along with a Venezuelan trafficker named Rafael Enrique Clavel, one time boyfriend of his sister Minerva Palma, began operating their own cartel.

In 1978, Palma was arrested in Arizona on drug trafficking and sentenced to eight years in a U.S. prison. Upon his release, Palma discovered his wife, Guadalupe Leija Serrano, had run off with Clavel and taken their two kids. Clavel forced Guadalupe to withdraw $7 million USD from a bank account and later decapitated her, shipping her head back to Palma. The two children, Jesús and Nataly, were taken to Venezuela and dropped off a bridge named Puente de la Concordia, on the border with Colombia. Clavel soon afterward went to work for Gallardo in the Tijuana Cartel. In retaliation, Palma executed Gallardo's lawyer and Clavel's three children.