Mexico Catches Drug Cartel Leader Dubbed 'Ugly Betty'

Mexican police have detained the alleged leader of the Juarez drug cartel, a 47-year-old man known as “Ugly Betty,” authorities said.

Alberto Carrillo Fuentes was arrested by federal police in the western state of Nayarit and he was later questioned by prosecutors, an official from the attorney general’s office told AFP on Sunday, on condition of anonymity.

He faces charges of drug trafficking, murder and organized crime. The official declined to provide more details.

Carrillo Fuentes is believed to have taken over the cartel named after Ciudad Juarez, the city bordering Texas, after his brother Vicente “The Viceroy” Carrillo Fuentes turned down the job.

The group was founded by another brother, Amado Carrillo Fuentes, alias “The Lord of the Skies,” who died in mysterious circumstances following plastic surgery in 1997.

According to the weekly magazine Proceso, the Juarez gang was in an intense turf war in several northwestern states against the Sinaloa cartel led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, Mexico’s most wanted man.

The two cartels waged a fierce battle for control of Ciudad Juarez in recent years and Guzman is believed to have come out on top.

Carrillo Fuentes’s arrest marks the third capture of a high-profile drug lord since July.

Authorities detained Zetas cartel kingpin Miguel Angel Trevino, alias “Z-40,” on July 15, followed by Gulf cartel leader Mario Ramirez Trevino on August 17.