Mexico: Cartel Leader, Brother of Boss Arrested

Published: 05 September 2013

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Mexican Federal Police arrested Juarez cartel figure Alberto "Ugly Betty" Carrillo Fuentes, 47, in the western state of Nayarit over the weekend.

Officials are holding Carrillo Fuentes, charged with murder, drug trafficking, and organized crime activities, in Mexico City.

Alberto is the brother of Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, head of the Juarez cartel. Vicente took over from his brother Amado Carrillo Fuentes who died in 1997 from complications during cosmetic surgery he had undertaken to conceal his identity. Police said that the role of Alberto, one of six brothers, in the cartel is unclear.

The Juarez cartel has been engaged in a life and death struggle since 2004 with the powerful Sinaloa cartel since Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman ordered the death of brother Rodolfo Carrillo Fuentes. The Juarez cartel allied with fellow drug gangs the Beltran Layva cartel and the Zetas in the turf battles with the Sinaloa cartel, believed to be the most powerful gang in Mexico.

The Juarez cartel has suffered from fighting, although it still maintains drug smuggling routes along the United States border and northern Mexico, according to the Associated Press.