Gustavo "Gus" Fring (played by Giancarlo Esposito) is a successful yet low-key drug distributor from South America, controlling meth distribution in New Mexico and several neighboring states with connections to the Juarez cartel in Mexico. He owns and operates several legitimate businesses, including an industrial laundry facility and several fast food restaurants, as fronts for his drug operation. He has been a distributor for 20 years and has never been caught, and indeed very few people know what he looks like.
Saul manages to arrange a meeting between Walter, Jesse, and Gus at a fast food restaurant called "Los Pollos Hermanos" ("The Chicken Brothers"). While Gus seemingly never shows up, Walter later deduces Gus to be the restaurant proprietor, who had purposely scheduled the meeting at his own restaurant to be able to observe Walter and Jesse. After initially dismissing them as unreliable, Gus buys 38 pounds of Walter and Jesse's meth for $1.2 million. Pleased with how well Walter's product sold, Gus offers Walter $3 million for three months of his time.
Though he respects and appreciates Gus' all-business approach, Walter initially declines the offer, telling Gus that he no longer wants any part of the drug trade. When Gus learns of the Juarez cartel's attempt to kill Walter, he intervenes at the last moment, narrowly saving an oblivious Walter's life. During a subsequent sit-down, the head of the cartel Juan Bolsa explains that the cartel believes Walter to be responsible for Tuco's death. Gus explains that he has business with Walter and promises that the cartel may kill him as soon as their business has concluded. Bolsa reluctantly agrees, but urges Gus to wrap up his business with Walter soon and warns him that any delay would strain Gus' good graces with the cartel. Undeterred, Gus eventually persuades Walter to accept his offer by showing him the true nature of the work: operating a "superlab" housed under an industrial laundry facility that he owns, outfitted with top-of-the-line equipment and capable of producing at least 200 pounds of meth a week.
As the cartel pushes back against Gus' protection of Walter, Gus offers the cartel hitmen permission to kill Walt's brother-in-law, Hank Schrader (who, as a DEA agent, had previously been off limits). However, Hank survives the hit, killing one hitman and critically injuring the other. After learning of the failed hit, Bolsa begins to suspect that Gus orchestrated the entire fiasco. His suspicions are strengthened when the Mexican Federales raid his home, presumably in retaliation for the attack on Schrader. In a frantic telephone call moments before he is killed by the Federales, Bolsa angrily accuses Gus of trying to cripple the Mexican cartel and take over the entire methamphetamine market.
Meanwhile Walter, after learning that Hank had received a phone call warning him of the impending hit one minute before he was attacked, also deduces Gus' plan and requests a meeting with Gus to discuss the future of their arrangement. Gus offers to extend their agreement to a long-term, $15 million a year deal, which Walter accepts. Gus reluctantly agrees to allow Walter to hire Jesse as his assistant. Gus makes it clear throughout his dealings with Walter that he dislikes Jesse and only tolerates him because he respects Walt's meth-cooking genius.
Walter's relationship with Gus is jeopardized when Walter kills two of Gus' dealers to protect Jesse. Gus, along with Mike and Victor, meets Walt in the desert and demands that he explain himself. Walt implies that he suspects Gus of having ordered the dealers to kill 11 year old Tomas, which infuriates Gus. Gus seemingly accepts Walter's plea to regard the episode as a "hiccup" and allow him to continue cooking meth. Gus re-appoints the first lab assistant for Walt, Gale Boetticher, and surreptitiously instructs him to learn Walter's formula so as to be able to replace Walter (telling the clueless Gale that Walt has cancer and could die any day). Walter again deduces Gus' true intentions and plots with Jesse to kill Gale. Walter surmises that any delay in production would weaken Gus' position and that without Gale, Gus would be forced to retain Walter as the only cook capable of producing the high-quality meth needed to sustain his operations, and Gus knows that rival dealers have already tried and failed to enter his territory. Gus presumably OKs the planned murder of Walt when he learns that Jesse hasn't fled the area, but the plan seems to have failed when Jesse shows at Gale's apartment, and kills him. In the season 4 opening episode "Box Cutter", Gus slits the throat of Victor, one of his henchmen, (after Victor was seen by witnesses at Gale's murder scene) in front of Walt and Jesse as a violent show of power.
In season 3 during a dinner with Walter White it is implied that Gus grew up in Chile and that he has children.
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