Crossword-Solution: CUADRILLA 9 letters, 2 clues 🏆 scrabble score: 12

And he heard Melchardo put the whole cuadrilla de morfinistas under orders to draw a net around the man who had fled with the precious powder of the new drug and the girl who knew too much.

Thus the first time Mauro ever appeared before a public assembly was a chief espada of a cuadrilla of his own, at Valladolid.

For several years most generous offers had been made _El Tigre_ to bring his _cuadrilla_ to Mexico, but, surfeited with fame and rolling in riches, he had declined them.

And so, late in April of that year _El Tigre_ arrived in Mexico with his _cuadrilla_ and (as stipulated in his contract) sixty great Utreran bulls, for the bulls of Utrera are famed in _toreador_ history and song as the fiercest, most desperate fighters _espada_ ever confronted.

Marching to the time of the music in long tragic strides, heads proudly erect, right arms swinging and shoulders slightly swaying in the challenging swagger which _toreadores affect_, the _cuadrilla_ crossed the arena and halted, close to the barrier, in front of the _Presidente's_ box, bared their heads, gracefully saluted the _Presidente_, and received the key to the bull pen and his permission to begin the fight.