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.
He is considered to be the first generation of major Mexican drug smugglers of marijuana.
In the Netflix series Narcos: Mexico, Avilés was portrayed by actor Antonio Lopez Torres.
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.