Frontera NorteSur, November 1998
U.S. INDICTS JUAREZ DRUG CARTEL LEADER
       And Related News Briefs

Anne Marie Mackler, FNS Editor

On October 7, U.S. authorities announced the indictment of Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, 36, believed to be the leader of the Juárez drug cartel. Carrillo, the younger brother of the late Amado Carrillo Fuentes, has been indicted for 26 counts of drug trafficking and money laundering and is accused of transporting more than 8,140 pounds of cocaine and 9,000 pounds of marijuana from 1985 to 1997. If caught he will face multiple life sentences, forfeiture of more than $56 million in property or the amount of profits that would have been earned from street sales in U.S.cities, as well as millions of dollars in fines.  It is believed that Vicente Carrillo resides somewhere in central México.

Last November, U.S. officials gave Mexican authorities an extradition request along with a warrant for Carrillo’s arrest. Carrillo is also wanted on drug violations in México. Currently, the U.S. agents are, according to Robert Castillo, Director of Special Division of the DEA in El Paso, working closely with Mexican authorities.

According to Bill Blagg, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, Vicente Carrillo took over as leader of the Juárez Cartel upon the September 10, 1998 assasination of Rafael Muñoz Talavera in Cd. Juárez.  Talavera had allegedly led the cartel since the death of Vicente Carillo’s older brother, Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who is believed to have died during plastic surgery in a Mexican hospital in July 1997. Amado Carrillo Fuentes, said to have been the top drug trafficker in Mexcio, had built a fortune of over $25 billion U.S.

FNS reported in August 1997 that Vicente Carrillo did not take over for his brother after Amado Carrillo’s death because, according to a U.S. Justice Department official, Vicente Carrillo "is up to his [rear] in alligators right now trying to get all of his brother's money before the government or anyone else gets it."  Also, it was reported in U.S. News & World Report (August 4, 1997) that observers doubted that Vicente Carrillo had the business smarts, leadership skills or toughness to serve as leader. (See FNS archives August 1997).

Even with doubts about his leadership qualities, and the suspected fighting that continues within the cartel as a result of the deaths of its leaders, the cartel will survive.  According to Roberto Medina, special agent of Customs Services, the Juárez cartel will regain the power previously known because "the cartel remains well organized." Vicente Carrillo is currently at the same level as the Tijuana cartel run by the Felix Arrellano brothers and the Gulf cartel run by Juan García Abrego, according to Blagg.
 

Vicente Amado Carrillo is our number one target when it comes to drug crimes in southwestern Texas.  
-Bill Blagg, U.S. Attorney
 
Carrillo has been one of many targets of a multi-agency investigation that, in 1997, lead to preparations for an indictment of Amada Carillo.  With his death, however, and due to other judicial protocol postponements, grand jury documents were sealed as investigators waited to see how the cartel would re-organize itself.  Now, Bill Blagg said, "We thought it appropriate to reveal the accusations after the death of Muñoz Talavera."

"Vicente Amado Carrillo is our number one target when it comes to drug crimes in southwestern Texas," according to Blagg.  Officials have called for public assistance in the capture of Vicente Carrillo, and asked Carrillo to turn himself in.  Dave Alba, special agent in charge of FBI in El Paso wants Carrillo to know, "The jails in the United States are not that bad."

According to a new wanted poster published by the Western Division of Texas, Vicente Carrillo is "armed and dangerous."  The poster that claims Carrillo is wanted by the U.S. Marshalls, also lists his charges and the typical routes he uses for trafficking narcotics.  The poster will be placed on the international bridges, airports and in city buses on the border.
 

   
  RELATED NEWS BRIEFS 
 
PROGRESS IN ANTI-DRUG TRAFFICKING EFFORTS On September 29 it was reported that leaders from major political parties agreed with a recent initiative requiring that police officers that have failed drug tests go through rehabilitiation programs.  Both the PRI and PRD agree that public funds should not pay for the programs. Sergio Vásquez Olivas, president of the municipal PRI thinks agents should participate in rehabilitation but also be removed from their positions.  Hector Ruiz Morales, PRD, belives that agents should pay for their own rehabilitation. On October 1 it was reported that a  group of 17 drug traffickers, all from southern New Mexico, had been arrested on charges of narcotics possession, drug trafficking, and weapons possession.  This group operated out of Las Cruces, New Mexico but also had bases in Albuquerque and El Paso.  Miguel Manuel, alleged leader of this group, is said to earn up to $60 thousand U.S. a week in trafficking narcotics. On October 4 it was reported that the DEA will open a local office, the El Paso Field Division, with hopes of curtailing drug traffic on what Robert Castillo calls the "most used route for trafficking drugs in the southwest."  Castillo is special agent in charge of the El Paso DEA.  This office is the only field division on the border and will work from west Texas to the New Mexico/Arizona state line, and most agree that El Paso is the perfect location. John Kelly, U.S. attorney for New Mexico calls El Paso the epicenter for the nation's illegal drug trade. The office will also work to support regional law enforcement efforts. Federal investigators recently traced an extensive drug network in Iowa back to the El Paso-Juárez area, and Luis Gonzales was sentenced on October 6 to six years in prison for consipiracy to possess and distribute marijuana and cocaine.  Gonzales apparently received drugs delivered to her by the Royal Knights Transportation trucking business, an alleged front business owned by Armando and George Duron, to ship narcotics around the country, and would then transport them to Alabama.  She then returned to El Paso give money to high ranking drug runners such as the Duron brothers.  Ramon Acosta, attorney for Gonzales, said that she never had contact with the Duron family.  "People who are involved in these activities most often do not know the people on the other side of the transaction." The El Paso sector of the U.S. Border Patrol reported on October 6 that in 1998 they confiscated 137,722 pounds of marijuana and 2,348 pounds of cocaine.  In 1997 they had confiscated 129,827 pound of marijuana and 744 pounds of cocaine.  "Without a doubt we are dedicating as many resources as possible to the notion of interrupting alien smuggling activity in this area," El Paso Sector Acting Chief Alan Gordon said. It was reported on October 16 that Benjamin LeBron, a U.S. Customs agent, accepted a bribe of $20 thousand for promising to permit and assist an individual bringing marijuana across the U.S. México border.  However, when the truck carrying a ton of marijuana came through the border crossing it was stopped and taken into custody for LeBron had contaced the internal affairs office at Customs.  LeBron was rewarded with $10 thousand U.S. in Washington for his efforts.  "It wasn't something I was expecting, I only did it because I felt it was what I should do." It was reported on October 17 that the U.S. Congress, in a bi-partisan agreement, appropriated $17 billion, the highest amount ever, to the war on drugs for 1999.  Customs and INS will receive $80 million for equipment and technical aids along the border, $690 million will be used for emergency spending, $20 million will fund the encouragement of community based anti-drug organizations, $18 million will go to a pilot program run by the California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement to combat the manufacturing of metamphetamines, and grants will be awarded to small and medium-size businesses to set up drug-free workplace programs.  Also, Barry McCaffrey, Director of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, received authority to alter up to 3 percent of funding from one drug agency to another as needed.  His office must show a 50 percent decrease in drug use and drug-related crimes in the nation by 2003.

CONTINUED EXECUTIONS AND CONFLICTS

On October 2 it was reported that three Mexican anti-drug agents, all trained by U.S. officials, were killed in México.  The agents' names and phone numbers appeared in a phone book belonging to a leader of the Juárez cartel, according to the New York Times.

On October 8 the bodies of 2 men who were murdered in what is believed to be a drug-related incident were found in the trunk of an abandoned car.  Both were apparently strangled and had green ribbons tied around their necks, which police agents say is a drug trafficker's sign that these victims were police informants.

Fermín Castro Ramírez died on October 2 after remaining in a coma since the September 17 massacre on his El Rodeo Ranch outside of Ensenada Baja México.  The massacre resulted in the deaths of 18 members of Castro's family.  The massacre is believed to be drug-related.
 
Sources: El Norte de la Ciudad, El Diario, El Paso Times, Las Cruces Sun News