Adal Padrone

### Family Finances and Childhood

Adal, whose parents were ordinary textile workers, lived a poor life throughout his life. Because of his family's lack of financial means, he worked in the jobs he could find after school and during vacations throughout his education, starting from his primary school years.

Adal's father was a decent person and he was always kept away from the violence and illegal activities in the city. In the last years of middle school, many of his friends dropped out of school and started to work as cartel scouts. Adal was deeply affected when one of his best friends, Pedro Juarez, joined the armed cartel unit Genta Nueva in 2007. In January 2008, he learned that Pedro, whom he considered his brother, had been killed in an attack with AR-15 weapons. At the age of 16, Adal receives such devastating news and, fueled by rage, seeks revenge by reaching out to the young members of Gente Nueva, whom he blames for his friend's death.

### Cartel War Period

In 2008, a bloody period in Mexico, the cartels begin to buy people to die in their wars, regardless of age. Many of Adal's acquaintances have lost their lives in these wars. Not wanting to put himself and his family in the middle of this war, Adal cautiously continues his search for young members of Gente Nueva.

In 2010, after receiving information about an attack by the Gente Nueva in the Chihuahua region, Adal goes to the area in the hope of catching a gang member. Seeing three men with automatic weapons in a Toyota SUV in the area, pointing to a house in the distance and plotting something between them, Adal approaches the back door of the house and knocks on the door to warn the house pointed to. Opening the door with semi-automatic pistols in their hands, the men point their guns at Adal and ask him what he is doing here. Adal points to a red Toyota car and tells them that they are about to be attacked.

Not believing this, the gang members send one of their members to check the vehicle. When the spotter comes back, the gang members realize that Adal is telling the truth and leave the house with the music turned up. As they approach the vehicle with Adal, Adal tells the gang members that one of the attackers needs him alive and moves towards the vehicle. The gang members kill the two attackers in the driver's and passenger seats of the car with a direct shot and knock out the attacker in the back seat who is trying to reach for his gun by hitting him in the back of the head with the AK-47 buttstock. They start dragging the attacker towards the house.

Adal, who has kept himself away from the violence around him all his life and has always tried to be drawn into it, has stopped fighting back and wants to avenge his best friend. Bringing the attacker home, the gang members and Adal chat until he sobers up. Questioning which cartel Adal was loyal to, the gang members couldn't make sense of what was happening when they learned that Adal didn't work for any cartel. Adal simply dismissed the gang members by saying, "It's personal." Adal saw the word "Azteca" on the walls and in the tattoos of the gang members. He realizes that he is in a house belonging to the Barrio Azteca gang.

Adal poured a glass of water on the attacker's face to sober him up, but as soon as the attacker woke up, he squeezed his neck and cut his left ear. Writhing in pain, the attacker repeatedly asked Adal what he wanted from me, but he could only get one answer: "Personal." After torturing the attacker for a long time, Adal took revenge for his friend. When one of the members of the Barrio Azteca told Adal, "Finish him" and handed him a machete, Adal swung it at the attacker's skull and the machete lodged in his skull.

After this barbaric act, Adal, who was struggling with not knowing what to do, did not want to return to his family. Adal, who was already obsessively searching for Gente Nueva members, had to take money from his family instead of bringing money to his family, leaving his family in a difficult situation.

Realizing that his family was in a difficult situation and that the only way out was with cartel money, Adal started hanging out with the Barrio Azteca and became a small-time drug courier. Providing constant transfers to specific clients, Adal began to help support his family. Returning to the family home, Adal tells his family that he has done terrible things and is unable to look them in the face, and leaves after giving them money. Adal, who took money to his family at certain intervals, could never look his family in the eye during these visits.

### Attack by the Sinaloa Cartel

For years, Adal has been involved in the drug trade as part of the Barrio Azteca gang and has taken the lives of many others on his journey. In 2017, the capture by the United States of Joaquín Guzmán, nicknamed "El Chapo", the head of the Sinaloa Cartel, turned the streets into a war zone for his loyalist feadis, some of which spilled over into the Barrio Azteca gang, which sells on behalf of the Juarez Cartel. Many of Adal's acquaintances were brutally murdered by the Sinaloa Cartel. Adal soon found himself in the company of Eduardo Ravelo, the leader of the Barrio Aztecas, and informed Eduardo that he wanted to leave the area. Since Eduardo did not know Adal, he sent one of his Sicario's out to talk to Adal.

## Arrival in Los Santos

The Barrio Azteca decided to go underground and hide until the terror of the Sinaloa Cartel was over and, thinking that Adal's English language skills could be useful in their foreign operations, they sent him to the city of Los Santos to contact Varrios Los Aztecas, with whom they had a similar name, and told Adal to find Pedro Arlo Morales.

Tired of the Cartel terror, Adal put himself at Pedro's service instead of running the Barrio Azteca's drug operation in Los Santos. Until now, he has not heard from the Barrio Azteca.

### Forgetting his mother tongue

After being shot on 20.09.2021, Adal Padrone has completely forgotten Spanish and English as a result of the severe head trauma he suffered after the shooting, and when he woke up, he realized that he could only speak Turkish. For Adal, who sometimes speaks English and sometimes Turkish according to his mind, not being able to switch back and forth between English and Turkish languages has affected him a lot and he has entered a manic depressive period in his life. This really affected Adal deeply. After this incident, he decided to change his name to Adal Patron. Adal, who can now only speak Turkish, realizes that he will never feel the way he used to.