"Seductive and merciless, Lalo is now the Salamanca family's best hope. Leaving a path of destruction in his wake, Lalo won't rest until his family's standing in the cartel is restored — no matter the cost."
— AMC's official description of Eduardo "Lalo" Salamanca
In the original series and its prequel, as Walter "Walt" White/Heisenberg and Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman, respectively, navigate the dangerous criminal underworld of Albuquerque, they encounter many particularly devious masterminds who always take full measures to ensure their success.
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Franchise-wide
- Gustavo "Gus" Fring is the affable, philanthropic owner of Los Pollos Hermanos, hiding his true persona as a ruthless criminal mastermind driven by vengeance. Having lost his best friend and lover Maximino "Max" Arciniega to the ruthless Hector Salamanca and Don Eladio Vuente of the Juarez Cartel, Gus builds a drug empire with his own connections, wits and intellect, utilizing entire groups who have no clue what their true purpose is to carry out his deeds then paying off or silencing those who contributed to his work. Gus launches a crusade for revenge against Eladio's cartel that spans years, slowly bringing the Salamanca family to ruin by using Mike Ehrmantraut as a lieutenant and Ignacio Varga as his puppet in his war against Lalo Salamanca, culminating in Gus outwitting and murdering Lalo with his own hands. Gus torments the now invalid Hector in his nursing home over the annihilation of his clan, having saved the man's life years ago purely to leave him a crippled victim. Gus controls the meth trade of Albuquerque with an iron fist, frequently seeing through Walt's plans and rendering Walt as helpless before him more than once. In his ultimate gambit, Gus uses the guise of a party to utterly destroy Eladio's cartel in one swift move at the risk of his own life, returning to New Mexico in triumph. Even after his death, the empire Gus has built endures and only Walt's incompetence manages to destroy it, while the many deeds of Gus stand the test of time as he is revealed to have established a peaceful, flourishing village for the less fortunate in honor of Max's memory. A suave, sophisticated, even friendly seeming man, Gus repeatedly shows why he is the true master in the game the others are playing.
- Michael "Mike" Ehrmantraut is a no-nonsense criminal who hires his services out with the noble goal of leaving money for his deceased son's wife and daughter. Once a Corrupt Cop who left the force after murdering several of his fellow officers as vengeance for their senseless slaying of his own son, Mike sets himself up in Albuquerque as a hired gun by night while serving as a jovial, doting grandfather to his son's family. Mike regularly outwits other criminals while rarely losing his casual disposition, always holding up his own sense of honor for guidance in his crooked career. Attracting the attention of Gus Fring after singlehandedly striking major blows against the Salamanca cartel, Mike becomes Gus's right-hand man, efficiently and ruthlessly carrying out his will in dismantling the Salamancas; constructing a meth superlab; and creating a vast network of security to stay on top of Lalo's murderous rampage. After years in the service of Fring and offering regular assistance to Saul, Mike works with Gus to wipe out the entirety of Don Eladio's cartel while doing his level best to manage the growing ego of Walter White. When Walt kills off Gus, Mike becomes the sanest ally of Walt's in their future successful efforts, culminating in Mike striving to leave the life of crime while he's ahead and decrying Walt for his arrogance and ignorance ruining their chances for a better fortune. Even when lethally shot by Walt, Mike uses his last moments to sit by a quiet river and snarl for the sniveling, babbling Walt to "Shut the fuck up, and let me die in peace."
- Old Joe is the seemingly doddering man in charge of Rocker Salvage, a junkyard used by criminals to destroy evidence. When Walt and Jesse attempt to destroy the RV and are confronted by Hank Schrader, Joe uses his knowledge of the Constitution, probable cause, and the need for a warrant to force Hank to back down, allowing him to successfully destroy the RV. Later on, Joe also uses his engineering knowledge to help build a giant magnet for Walt, Jesse, and Mike, successfully building one powerful enough to destroy an evidence room. In his final appearance in the franchise, Joe tries to help Jesse escape from the authorities, only to realize that his El Camino's Lo-Jack has been activated; realizing that the police are coming, Joe gives Jesse the advice he needs to escape the authorities before fleeing back to his junkyard, becoming one of the few of Heisenberg's allies to end the series just as well as when he started.
- Lawson is a veteran gun manufacturer who both legally and illegally sells guns when requested to and firmly supports the usefulness and security that they provide those who use them. At first working with Mike on allowing him access to shotguns and not charging him for anything when he changes his mind, Lawson then later sells a sniper rifle to Mike and helps to teach him how to properly use it as well—skills Mike definitely utilizes massively later on. When Walt later inquires about buying a thirty-eight snub, Lawson advises a legal purchase if it's not for anything illegal and then later sells an out-of-hiding Walt a new car with an M60 gun in the trunk along with instructions Lawson found online—that Walt soon uses to perfection for his elaborate revenge against Jack Welker and his gang—and after getting confirmation the gun won't cross the border or leave town, Lawson wishes Walt luck on his venture.
- Ira is a master thief whose services come highly recommended from Dr. Caldera and prove invaluable to other criminals. Hired by Jimmy to steal figurines from a copy shop, Ira easily breaks into the building, and even when the shop owner comes back and leaves him stuck, manages to stay still for several hours, sneak a phone call out to Jimmy for assistance, and then sneak back out unseen. Meeting with Jimmy to give him his honest share of the cut, Ira then reveals that he changes phones after every job, meaning that only the Vet has his contact information. Several years later, Ira runs Vamanos Pest, a pest extermination company that doubles as a thieving front; several weeks after cleaning houses, Ira either robs them or gives the alarm codes and keys to other criminals to rob, with the police never learning of his operation. When Walt, Jesse, and Mike use his business as a mobile meth lab, Ira keeps the legitimate half of the business running, with the DEA never discovering Heisenberg's cooking methods.
- Ed Galbraith is a vacuum repairman and salesman who uses this business to mask his criminal activities of "disappearing" anyone willing to pay the price, creating for them new identities and relocating them to new places with contingencies prepared should they ever be recognized. Successfully hiding away and creating new identities for both Jimmy and Walt despite their immense presence across national news, Ed learns how to perform chemotherapy to help Walt's cancer for an extra charge, and honors his word to keep his eye on Walt's family. Later striking a deal up with Jesse Pinkman, Ed sticks to his principles of his prices and turns Jesse away, shrugging off Jesse's attempts at garnering sympathy and repaying Jesse's aggression with mercy after chasing him off. Once Jesse gathers enough money to pay for Ed's services, Ed disappears Jesse to Alaska, promising to give the young Brock a final letter from Jesse and parting ways with Jesse in peace despite their conflicts.
- Ignacio "Nacho" Varga is a sympathetic, collected member of the Salamanca cartel who skillfully adapts to and navigates the treacherous war between the cartel and Gus Fring. Serving as a lieutenant and voice of reason to the vicious Tuco for a time, Nacho conspires to eliminate him from the picture, working with Mike to send Tuco to prison for years and leave Nacho to ascend further in the Albuquerque cartel ranks. Chafing under the abusive, hateable Don Hector's roof, Nacho deftly swaps Hector's heart medications for fakes and induces a brutal stroke in the man, leaving Hector crippled after he is narrowly saved from death. Though found out by Gus and blackmailed over his treachery to serve as a double agent, Nacho never loses his cool and skillfully dances around any suspicions to play both sides between Gus and the Salamancas, keeping himself and his father out of their sights. Further rising through the ranks, Nacho soon enough pulls the ultimate scheme as he sets up Lalo to die, evades the brutal Twins and Gus's own assassins, and orchestrates the situation to enable himself to secure his father's safety at the cost of his own life, willingly committing suicide after getting final, spiteful taunts to the Salamancas and Gus both. Nacho ends with arguably the most graceful death of any character in the franchise, his life and death treated with such reverence that a notably beautiful blue flower sprouts from the site of his demise.
- Dr. Caldera, "The Vet", runs an animal clinic where he does what he really loves while being a highly-successful and go-to intermediary for any and all criminal contacts. Being a regular advisor to Mike who he treats for a bullet wound, Caldera—while passionately checking out, tending to and treating Mike's adopted shelter dog—advises him on jobs he could get on the side that would provide a requisite amount of money including as a bodyguard or muscle to a loan shark. Advising Jimmy on a goldfish as well, Caldera is then recruited by him to provide a pickpocket—while showing he'll only arrange the job if the contact wants it—and then provides a drug that'll make Howard Hamlin look high. Caldera also breaks his rule about working with the Cartel in order to help Nacho with a life-saving surgery. Passing on all his well-hidden and coded criminal contacts to Jimmy in the future, Caldera makes the decision to get out of the game and focus on only being a veterinarian from that point forward.
- Eduardo "Lalo" Salamanca is an unfailingly upbeat, swaggering Don of the Salamanca cartel who strides into Albuquerque and shakes up the status quo forever. Assuming command of the Salamanca's operations following Hector's stroke, Lalo immediately begins working to undermine Gus's position in the cartel with clever deductions and his own investigations. Lalo puts Gus on the defensive for the tenure of his stay in Albuquerque, hunting down information on Werner Ziegler and damaging a variety of Gus's meth peddling functions. Upon his arrest for murder, Lalo uses a fake identity to skirt around further charges and manipulates Jimmy into getting him out on bail, at which point Lalo flees the country for Mexico. Lalo outwits and massacres an entire squadron of mercenaries dispatched by Gus to kill him and is revealed to have had an unsuspecting body double on standby in case he ever needed to fake his own death. After brilliantly using his own charm and wits to hunt down Werner's widow and former teammates, Lalo discovers Gus's superlab and uses Jimmy and Kim as his puppets to lure Gus into a trap, planning to expose Gus's treachery to Eladio and eliminate him for good. Lalo is the only man to ever make Gus truly hide in fear for his life, and even when shot dead in a risky tactic by Gus, Lalo can only laugh in amusement at the turn of events.
