Vicente Carrillo, 51, long-time head of the Juarez Cartel, was a fierce rival of Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel and the world's most wanted drug boss until his capture in February. A turf war between the two cartels in unleashed a bloodbath in Ciudad Juarez, in Chihuahua state on Mexico's border with Texas, making it one of the most violent places in the world. Carrillo, alias "The Viceroy," was captured after identifying himself with a false name at a checkpoint in the northern city of Torreon, national security commissioner Monte Rubido said in a press conference.
No shots were fired in his arrest, Rubido said, adding that Carrillo was wanted on five charges related to organized crime and drug trafficking. President Enrique Pena Nieto took office two years ago pledging to end a wave of violence that has killed around , people since the start of Although homicides have fallen on his watch, other crimes have increased, including extortion and kidnapping.
Pena Nieto has been under fire over the past week over the apparent massacre of dozens of trainee teachers in southwest Mexico at the hands of gang members and police. He hailed the capture on Twitter on Thursday. A keen horseman who used a network of cattle ranches in the northern state of Chihuahua to store shipments of Colombian cocaine, Carrillo took over the Juarez Cartel in after his brother Amado, known as "The Lord of the Skies," died during plastic surgery.
Carrillo's capture comes just days after Hector Beltran Leyva, one of the most notorious Mexican drug lords still at large, was captured by soldiers in a picturesque town in central Mexico popular with American retirees. It also comes as the government is grappling with public outrage at an apparent massacre of trainee teachers by police in league with gang members, which has triggered mass anti-government protests.
Alejandro Hope, an independent security consultant who used to work for Mexican state intelligence, said Carrillo and the Juarez Cartel were not as powerful as they used to be. Nonetheless, he added, the capture of Carrillo was part of larger phasing out of the era of the Mexican drug kingpin. Guzman was arrested in February, and most of his longtime business partners and enemies are now either dead or jailed. Carrillo, a devout Catholic, was seen as more discreet than his flamboyant brother, but his position was weakened by the violence in Ciudad Juarez that claimed nearly 12, lives between and alone.
