Gal Shefrau was born in a small village in Ethiopia and grew up in an orphanage and with relatives until the age of nine, when he immigrated to Israel and reunited with his family. He spent his youth in poverty and boarding schools until the age of 18, when he enlisted in the IDF. He was accepted into Israel’s elite naval commando unit and later became an officer in the Golani Reconnaissance Unit.

After his military service, Shefrau spent several years involved in international projects, training local militias and taking part in high-level security operations across various conflict zones. Eventually, he settled in Mexico, where he founded his own security company. But gambling with the wrong people put him in the crosshairs of the Mexican cartels—and ultimately led him to Cadereyta—one of Monterrey’s most notorious maximum-security prisons.

During his time in Cadereyta, Shefrau became the leader of the prison’s local cartel. He chronicles his extraordinary journey in Becoming La Pantera – his original autobiography.