Gus' Hitmen were a group of assassins sent by Gustavo Fring in 2004 to kill Lalo Salamanca at his Chihuahua home.
History[]
Better Call Saul[]
Season 5[]
The mercenaries are hired by Gustavo Fring through a middle man to assassinate Lalo Salamanca once he returns home to Mexico. With the reluctant assistance of Nacho Varga opening the back gate, the men gain access to Lalo's home, killing his staff. However, while distracted by a cooking fire started by Nacho, Lalo spots the mercenaries coming and he uses Ciro as a human shield. Lalo burns the face of one of the mercenaries with cooking oil, but he is shot in the leg by another hitman. Taking a gun off of Miguel's dead body, Lalo flees through a hidden escape tunnel and then makes his way back into the compound where he kills one of the men outside of the escape tunnel. As two more crawl through the tunnel, following Lalo's blood trail, Lalo unloads an M4A1 Carbine down the tunnel from the entrance, killing both men. He subsequently kills another mercenary outside of the entrance to the tunnel.
With all of the other mercenaries dead, Lalo approaches the one whose face he had scalded. The mercenary reveals that he doesn't know who hired them as it was through a middle man, but Lalo already knows that it was Gus. Lalo orders the hitman to call the group's contact and report that they were successful and that Lalo is dead. Lalo then kills him before leaving and is enraged to find out that the mercenaries had murdered Yolanda. ("Something Unforgivable")
Season 6[]
Lalo subsequently fakes his death, killing Mateo Ramos, burning his body and planting it in his house in place of his own. When the Cousins arrive to investigate, they briefly stop by the corpse of the man who had called in the mercenaries' success before moving on to see "Lalo's" body. The Mexican Federales are by this point removing the bodies of the hitmen and all of their victims.
Juan Bolsa later reports the attack to Gustavo Fring. Gus asks Tyrus Kitt about the man who had made the report of their success and Tyrus tells Gus that he was already wounded when he made the report and the Federales had found the man dead at the scene, but the mercenaries had gotten Lalo. Gus is left dubious that the mercenaries are dead to a man and yet their mission was a success. Mike Ehrmantraut tells Gus that "it has been known to happen," suggesting that the mercenaries had still succeeded despite them all being killed. ("Wine and Roses")
Gus later has evidence planted implicating Nacho as having been paid by a rival Peruvian cartel to let the mercenaries in. However, he realizes that Lalo is still alive based on Hector Salamanca's reaction to the news. ("Carrot and Stick")
Trivia[]
- Gus refers to the mercenaries as sicarios, suggesting that they are from a rival cartel. It's possible that they were hired by Gus from Alvarez's Peruvian cartel that is mentioned in "Rock and Hard Place" as part of Gus' cover story relayed by Nacho Varga and to whom Gus had proof planted linking Nacho to in "Carrot and Stick".