Vicente Carrillo Fuentes

Infobox Person
name=Vicente Carrillo Fuentes


caption=Wanted. Reward of up to $5 million USD
birth_date=birth date|1962|10|16|mf=y

Vicente Carrillo Fuentes (b. October 16, 1962) is head of the Juarez Cartel in Mexico, which controls one of the primary transportation routes for billions of dollars worth of drug shipments entering the United States from Mexico annually.

Carrillo Fuentes is currently at large and is charged in a forty-six count indictment in the Western District of Texas with continuing criminal enterprise, importation and possession with intent to distribute cocaine and marijuana, conspiracy to import and possess with intent to distribute cocaine and marijuana, as well as with money laundering, and tampering with a witness, ordering the intentional killing of individuals to prevent communication of information by them to U.S. law enforcement, and murder in furtherance of a continuing criminal enterprise. The U.S. Department of State is offering a reward of up to $5 million USD for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Vicente Carrillo Fuentes. [ [http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/fugitives/cei/fuentes_vc.htm Vicente Carrillo Fuentes wanted by the FBI] ]

Family relations and aliances

The Juarez Cartel was founded by his brother Amado Carrillo Fuentes following the death of Pablo Acosta. Vicente was born to Vicente Carrillo and Aurora Fuentes in Guamuchilito, Sinaloa, Mexico. He was the third of four brothers Cipriano, Amado, Vicente and Rodolfo. All were the nephews of Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo.

Cipriano Carillo Fuentes died in the mid 1980s by gunshot under mysterious circumstances. Amado began in the drug business under the tutelage of his uncle and eventually formed the Juarez Cartel by 1993. Amado brought in his brothers and eventually his son Vicente Carrillo Leyva.

It has been stated many timesFact|date=June 2008 that Amado had amassed a fortune of $25 billion dollars, however this has been disputed and seems unlikely given that he only controlled the cartel for four years. Whether Vicente was able to gain control of his brother's finances after his death is unknown.When Amado died following complications from plastic surgery, a brief turf war began in Juarez over the leadership of the cartel. Vicente would emerge as the victor after defeating the Muňoz Talavera brothers for control of the cartel. Vicente formed a partnership with Juan José Esparragoza Moreno, his brother Rodolfo Carrillo Fuentes, his nephew Vicente Carrillo Leyva, Ricardo Garcia Urquiza and the Beltran Leyva brothers. He kept in service several lieutenants formally under his brother, such as "el chacky" Hernandez.

When Vicente took control of the cartel, the organization was in flux. The death of Amado created a large power vacuum in the mexican underworld. The Arellano Felix brothers became the most powerful organization during the 1990s while Vicente was able to avoid direct conflict and increase the strength of the Juarez cartel. The relationship between the Carrillo Fuentes clan and the other members of the organization grew unstable towards the end of the 1990s and into the 2000s. In 2001 after the escape from prison by Joaquin Guzman Loera, many of the Juarez cartel members defected to Guzman's Sinaloa cartel.

In 2004 Rodolfo Carillo was killed outside of a movie theatre allegedly at the behest of Guzman Loera. Vicente Carrillo responded by having Guzman Loera's brother "el pollo" assassinated in prison. This sparked off a turf war, however it seemed that the war between the two was on hold during 2005 and 2006 because the Sinaloa Cartel was engaged in a vicious war with their rival Gulf Cartel. During this time the leadership of the cartel was between Vicente Carrillo and Ricardo Garcia Urquiza, who was arrested in 2004. The cartel had become factionalized between the groups loyal to the Carrillo family and the groups loyal to Juan José Esparragosa Moreno and Guzman Loera's Sinaloa Federation.

The Juarez cartel, under the control of Vicente Carrillo Fuentes and his nephew Vicente Carrillo Leyva was placed under a large degree of pressure following the house of death case in which the organization was penetrated by law enforcement but was corrupted by the fact that the informant participated in murders and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement tacitly allowed him to continue the operation. In 2008 200 murders occurred in the first three months and it appeared that the war between the Sinaloa Federation and the remnants of the Juarez Cartel was back on. President Calderon sent thousands of troops to Juarez. The Juarez Cartel at one time the most powerful in Mexico is a shadow of its former self.

The whereabouts of Vicente Carillo Fuentes and Vicente Carrillo Leyva remain unknown, however rumors have stated that they are in El Paso, Chile, Argentina or Central America. Vicente Carrillo Fuentes remains among Mexico's most powerful drug lords to this day.

See also

*Mexican drug war
*Juarez Cartel
*Drug lord
*House of Death
*Mérida Initiative

Resources

* http://www.state.gov/p/inl/narc/rewards/42957.htm
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ju%C3%A1rez_Cartel
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amado_Carrillo_Fuentes
* http://www.nmsu.edu/~frontera/old_1997/aug97/897amado.htm
* http://www.nmsu.edu/~frontera/old_1998/nov98/1198drug.htm
* http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,176312,00.html
* http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-7162(200207)582%3C134%3AMWODNM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-7
* http://glasgowcrew.tripod.com/dea.html
* http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9902E3D91639F934A35754C0A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

References