David Barron Corona was born in 1963 in the United States and raised in the Barrio Logan Heights neighborhood of San Diego, California. As a youth, he joined the Logan Heights Gang and quickly became immersed in the world of street crime. At just 16 years old, he committed his first murder, shooting a man who was sitting on his car. Barron was convicted of murder and served time in prison, where he later made connections that would link him to organized crime on a far greater scale. Released in the mid-1980s, Barron was again imprisoned in 1987 on weapons charges. During this period, he connected with associates of the Tijuana Cartel, including Arturo Páez Martínez ("El Kitty"), which paved the way for his later career as a cartel hitman.

After his release from prison in 1989, Barron Corona became an enforcer and bodyguard for the Arellano-Félix brothers, leaders of the Tijuana Cartel (AFO). He recruited dozens of gang members from San Diego to work as hitmen and kidnappers for the cartel. Trained in paramilitary tactics by the cartel, Barron became instrumental in the cartel’s brutal turf war against the rival Sinaloa Cartel led by Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán. Barron played a key role in several infamous cartel incidents, including the 1992 Puerto Vallarta nightclub shootout and the 1993 attempted assassination of Guzmán at the Guadalajara airport—a botched attack that resulted in the death of Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo, a killing that remains controversial. On November 27, 1997, Barron was killed in Tijuana during an attempted hit on journalist Jesús Blancornelas. Reports state that Barron died instantly after being struck in the eye by a ricocheted bullet, believed to have come from one of his own gunmen. His death marked the end of a violent career as a feared cartel hitman and gang enforcer.