Born in Torres, Jaén, Garzón graduated from the University of Seville in 1979. He was appointed to the "Audiencia Nacional" in 1988, and rapidly made his name in Spain by pursuing the Basque separatist group ETA. In 1993, Garzón asked for an extended leave of absence as a judge and went into politics, running for the Congress of Deputies (the lower house of parliament) as an independent candidate on the party list of the then ruling party Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE). Prime Minister Felipe González appointed him head of a strengthened National Plan Against Drugs, but Garzón resigned shortly after being appointed, complaining of lack of support from the government, and returned to the "Audiencia Nacional". His 1994 investigation led to the conviction of José Barrionuevo Peña, a former Interior minister, as head of the Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL), a state terrorist group. Garzón made his name as a magistrate through several police operations centred on drug-trafficking in Galicia. Colombian cartels, such as the Medellín Cartel, were using the Galician mafia, already accustomed to smuggling tobacco, to smuggle drugs into Spain. In 1990, "Operación Nécora" led to the conviction of members of the clan led by Laureano Oubiña. The following year Garzón headed another investigation, "Operación Pitón", which led to the conviction of members of the Charlines clan. In 1999, he investigated Jesús Gil, the former mayor of Marbella and owner of Atlético Madrid, who was convicted in 2002 on grounds of corruption. Garzón has also presided in many trials against alleged ETA members. Falling back on the judicial presumption named "everything is ETA", he presided a case against Orain S.A., the Basque communication company that published the newspaper "Egin" and owned the radio station "Egin Irratia". Garzón ordered the closure of both and sent some of the company officers to prison, due to their alleged links with ETA. These charges were later dropped for lack of evidence, and the journalists were released. Many years later Garzón imprisoned them again under the allegation of being part of ETA in a "broader" sense. While "Egin" was allowed to reopen years later by the Audiencia Nacional, the state of ruin shown by the facilities made operation impossible.