Mexico captures leader of Juarez cartel
AFP
April 20, 2015, 5:59 am
Mexico City (AFP) - The head of the once-powerful Juarez drug cartel has been captured, officials said on Sunday, confirming the most recent in a string of victories against Mexico's narco-traffickers.
Authorities on Friday captured Jesus Salas Aguayo, 38, at his ranch in the northern Mexican village of Villa Ahumada, some 120 kilometers (75 miles) from Ciudad Juarez.
Mexico's top law enforcement official, Monte Alejandro Rubido, in a press statement on Sunday said Salas Aguayo was one of the "top targets that the government had set its sights on."
Salas Aguayo became the head of the Juarez cartel after the capture last October of its then-leader Vicente Carrillo Fuentes alias "El Viceroy."
Salas Aguayo also was being sought by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for narcotics trafficking, and in connection with a 2009 murder in the city of El Paso, Texas which borders Ciudad Juarez.
