Mateo Moreno, known by his nickname Cockroach, was a Chilean drug chemist and one of the founding members of the Medellín cartel.
Moreno fled Chile in September 1973 when the military junta began clamping down on drug traffickers, and they gunned down many drug dealers who were at a cocaine exporting center. The exporting center was hidden in deserts to hide the labs and miles of unpatrolled coastline to ship cocaine up north. After the military shot and killed the drug dealers Moreno knew, luckily the bullets missed him and wasn't killed on that day. Using his knowledge of cocaine production, he traveled to Colombia and partnered with smuggler Pablo Escobar. Sourcing raw materials from Peru, Moreno began producing cocaine, which Escobar sold in the United States for profit.
Using his newly acquired wealth, Escobar convinced other Colombian traffickers like José Rodríguez Gacha and the Ochoa brothers to join their organization, forming the Medellín cartel. Moreno was against Escobar working with the other traffickers, as he felt that his share of the revenue would decrease. While Escobar and his associates grew rich and began moving into various mansions across Colombia, Moreno was forcibly confined to the jungles, spending his time in several of the cartel's cocaine labs.
Dissatisfied with Escobar, Moreno leaks the details of Escobar's shipments from Peru to the DAS, resulting in confiscation of millions of dollars worth of Escobar's shipments in 1979. Moreno also began stealing from Escobar in the United States by hiring German Zapata, a plumber, to secretly sell Escobar's cocaine without his knowledge. However, Escobar comes to know of Moreno's treachery, and sends La Quica to kill Zapata in Miami. He then personally executed Moreno in the Colombian countryside and left his body in the soil.