Amado Carrillo Fuentes (17 December 1956 – 3 July 1997) was the boss of the Juarez Cartel in Mexico. He was nicknamed "the Lord of the Skies" due to his use of cargo planes to transport drugs from Colombia and the rest of South America into the United States and Canada via the "Mexican trampoline". Carrillo took over the cartel from Rafael Aguilar Guajardo, and he was succeeded by Vicente Carrillo Fuentes.
Biography[]
Rise to power[]
Carrillo Fuentes in 1984
Amado Carrillo Fuentes was born in Guamuchilito, Sonora, Mexico on 17 December 1956, the nephew of Guadalajara Cartel boss Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo and the brother of Vicente Carrillo Fuentes and Rodolfo Carrillo Fuentes. He initially served in the DFS for two years, later becoming a pilot and working with Pedro Aviles Perez before becoming one of the top lieutenants of Guadalajara Cartel boss Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo. He was employed by the cartel as a pilot, and, in 1986, he was promoted to overseeing cocaine shipments in Chihuahua and shuttling Colombian drugs into Mexico for distribution to the local plaza bosses. Carrillo Fuentes went on to build a multi-billion dollar drug empire with Juan Matta-Ballesteros' former fleet of planes, making over $25 billion in his career and being nicknamed "the Lord of the Skies". Carrillo Fuentes worked with the powerful Chihuahua drug trafficker Pablo Acosta Villarreal for years, serving as his second-in-command. In 1987, Acosta was killed in the Santa Elena raid, and the former policeman Rafael Aguilar Guajardo took over the organization. In 1993, after being freed from prison, Amado had Aguilar murdered, taking over the Juarez Cartel and initiating a series of gang wars. Carrillo then partnered with Cali Cartel boss Helmer Herrera, smuggling South American cocaine into Mexico by air and then flying these drugs into the United States and Canada by making use of NAFTA's easing of border restrictions during the 1990s.
Disputed leadership[]
Carrillo Fuentes was arrested not long after Miguel Angel in 1989, and he was forced to cooperate with the Mexican government's liaisons Eugenio Blanco and Conrado Higuera Sol in order to ensure that he would not serve a life sentence. He was briefly released from prison in 1993 to eliminate the Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquin Guzman Loera amid his war with the Tijuana Cartel bosses Benjamin and Ramon Arellano Felix; he arranged for the Tijuana Cartel to launch an assassination attempt against El Chapo at Guadalajara International Airport. In 1995, the Arellano Felix brothers - who were opposed to Carrillo Fuentes assuming the position of "boss of bosses" - attempted to assassinate Carrillo Fuentes in the Bali-Bali restaurant shootout, but he and his wife managed to escape, and he then went into hiding. In 1997, he decided to undergo a liposuction and facial plastic surgery in Mexico City in order to hide his identity, but he died when his respirator malfunctioned. On 7 November 1997, months after his death, the two physicians who had operated on him were found dead in steel drums, encased in concrete.
Gallery[]
