MEXICO CITY: Mexican police arrested Juarez drug cartel boss Vicente Carrillo Fuentes on Thursday, catching a man known as "El Viceroy" whose gang's turf wars with enemies were blamed for thousands of deaths.
Wearing a short-sleeve blue shirt and jeans, Carrillo Fuentes was hauled in front of television cameras at Mexico City's airport and escorted into a helicopter by a masked federal police officer holding him down by the neck. On TV, he later denied killing anyone.
The hulking 51-year-old suspect had grey hair and lacked the thin black mustache that he sported in old pictures.
His capture gives President Enrique Pena Nieto another victory against major drug traffickers at a time of national outrage over fears that 43 students were killed by a police-backed gang in Guerrero state.
Carrillo Fuentes was arrested by federal police at a checkpoint as he drove in Torreon, a city in the northern state of Coahuila, thanks to intelligence work, said National Security Commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido.
He was with a bodyguard who was also arrested. No guns were fired in the operation.
The drug baron was found after the discovery of homes in Torreon that he used "in a discreet way," Rubido said.
The United States had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to the capture of the 51-year-old drug lord, while Mexico offered $2.2 million.
Carrillo Fuentes was wanted on charges of organized crime and drug trafficking, Rubido said.
After his arrest, the TV channel Televisa broadcast part of an interrogation of Carrillo Fuentes by a senior official of the attorney general's office.
In the footage the official sat next to the suspect and questioned him politely. Carrillo Fuentes denied having killed or ordered the killing of anyone.
Comments
Comments are closed.