Family members and lawyers of Eduardo Teodoro García Simental, alias “El Teo” or “Tres Letras,” a former lieutenant in the Tijuana Cartel, protested on July 27, 2026, at the El Dorado tollbooth on the Toluca-Atlacomulco Highway in the State of Mexico. They raised the toll barriers to allow motorists to pass freely, demanding urgent medical attention for the drug lord, who is incarcerated at the Federal Social Rehabilitation Center (CEFERESO) No. 1 “El Altiplano.”
A man who identified himself as the convicted man’s lawyer stated that his client’s health is deteriorating and that prison authorities are denying him medical care. The defense attorney directly blamed the prison director, Luis Fernando Mendoza Castellanos.
“He suffers from hypertension, diabetes, and has an abdominal hernia and two inguinal hernias, one of which is on the verge of capsular contracture. He is prescribed anticoagulants for life, and if he undergoes emergency surgery, he could die because his blood will not clot due to the medication he is taking,” the lawyer explained.
The attorney added that the legal appeals filed have been obstructed. “We have filed several appeals, but it seems that this person’s influence—I don’t know if it’s political or personal—reaches wherever we operate and blocks all our efforts. That is why, without finding a solution, we fear he will die,” he stated.
Complaints about the lack of medical attention are not new. Since January 2022, the drug lord, born in Culiacán, Sinaloa, filed a complaint with a federal court regarding the lack of medical attention he received at the CEFERESO No. 1 prison, located in Villa de Almoloya de Juárez, State of Mexico. On April 14, 2023, a federal judge ordered his transfer to the “Lic. Adolfo López Mateos” Medical Center, located on Nicolás San Juan Avenue in the Ex Hacienda La Magdalena neighborhood of Toluca, without specifying the illness that prompted the court order.
García Simental underwent surgery for thrombosis on October 4, 2017. His lawyers have maintained that the drug lord suffered from neurological deterioration, with difficulty eating, speaking, and moving the left side of his body, as well as high blood pressure and hemorrhoids. During his incarceration, he also experienced fungal skin infections, anemia, cardiovascular problems, hemorrhoids, and chronic peptic ulcer disease.
