By
The Associated Press
EL PASO, Texas - The alleged leader of a powerful Mexican drug cartel has been charged with killing 10 people, seven of whom were found dead last year at ranch sites near a Mexican border city, the Justice Department said yesterday.
Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, believed to be in control of virtually all drug trafficking in the border city of Ciudad Juarez and nearby El Paso, ordered the killings to silence the victims, Justice Department officials said.
Carrillo Fuentes, who was already wanted by the federal government for a 1997 drug trafficking indictment, is still at large.
"Stepping up the pressure definitely affects Vicente Carrillo Fuentes," U.S. Attorney Bill Blagg said. "Eventually, he'll be captured or he'll be killed by his rivals."
In a 46-count federal indictment, Carrillo Fuentes is charged with 10 counts of murder to further a continuing criminal enterprise and nine counts of ordering the intentional killing of individuals to prevent communication of information by them to U.S. law enforcement officers.
Last fall, dozens of FBI agents and Mexican military and federal judicial police began exhuming remains from clandestine graves situated on three ranches after a U.S. government informant told authorities as many as 100 bodies might be found at the sites.
Eventually, the remains of nine individuals were found. Carrillo Fuentes was charged in the murders of the seven who were identified.
Carrillo Fuentes also has been charged with ordering the death of Jose Refugio Rubalcava, the former head of the Juarez State Police, and his two sons. Their bodies were found Nov. 27, 1994, in the trunk of an abandoned vehicle on the Bridge of the Americas.
In addition, the indictment accused Carrillo Fuentes of importing and distributing tons of cocaine and marijuana into the United States since 1985. The indictment is based on evidence from seizures of nearly 43,000 pounds of cocaine and 7,000 pounds of marijuana.
Carrillo Fuentes is the younger brother of Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who for years ran the Juarez cartel. Amado Carrillo Fuentes, known as the "Lord of the Skies" for using jets to carry narcotics into the United States, was Mexico's top cocaine trafficker before he died in July 1997 after botched plastic surgery.
After his death, dozens of people were killed, including six at a restaurant and three at a neighboring bar, partly in a battle for control of the cartel.
