On Sunday evening, Mexican officials announced that Jesus Salas Aguayo, the head of the Juarez Cartel, was put in custody. Salas and his cartel are key components in the crime activity that occurs in Ciudad Juarez, which has been overrun with crime.
Salas was arrested on Friday about 80 miles south of the border between Mexico and Texas. The leader of the cartel was protected by body guards in Villa Ahumada when officials apprehended him. Salas's bodyguards were killed by federal forces during the operation.
Jesus Salas Aguayo, 38 years of age, took control of the Juarez cartel after the previous leader, Vincent Carrillo Fuentes, was arrested in October of 2014. Salas is wanted by the United States Drug Enforcement Agency for accounts of drug trafficking, homicide, and involvement in several violent events. According to the D.E.A, Salas is one of their Most Wanted criminals. In 2009, Salas purportedly killed a protected witness in El Paso, Texas.
Carrillo, the previous leader, was also wanted for accounts of murder. The Juarez cartel has fueled drug addiction in both the United States as well as other parts of the world.
On the same day the Mexican police arrested Salas, Mexican authorities also apprehended the leader of the Gulf cartel, Jose Tiburcio Hernandez Fuentes. Hernandez was arrested in Reynosa, and about 60 of his cartel members attempted to free their leader in an exchange of gunfire with authorities that lasted for hours. The authorities were able to transfer Hernandez to Mexico City despite the resistance from the cartel.
The two cartels, Juarez and Gulf, were once the dominant drug organizations along the Texan border, but increased intervention from government as well as conflict with rival gangs have diminished the influences of these cartels.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has been true to his promises of targeting leaders of drug cartels. The vast majority of the Mexican public have been infuriated by the violence of drug cartels. The most recently prominent of which is the disappearance of 43 college students last September. Violent protests and demands by the public have pushed the government to crack down on government corruption as well as criminal organizations.
