one of the most notorious and smartest drug lords that ever existed.
Amado carrillo fuentes. a mexican drug lord and
leader of the infamous juarez cartel. His personal fortune which was estimated
to be $25 billion dollars as well as his powerful connections within law enforcement
and other government agencies made him to become popularly regarded as the most
powerful drug dealer in Mexico during the 90s . In today’s video we will dig into the mexican drug
lord amado carrillo fuentes’ life and background. How he built such an empire, And how he managed
his drug business staying among the top drug dealers in the world.
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Amado Carrillo fuentes was born on december 17th, 1956 to Walter Vicente Carrillo Vega and
Aurora Fuentes, in a small town Sinaloa Mexico . His family was crowded as he had eleven siblings.
Carillo was the nephew of Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, also known by the alias "Don Neto",
who was the Guadalajara Cartel leader. Eventually It was in this cartel under the
mentorship of his uncle Ernesto that amado became exposed to drug dealing and began
introducing some of his brothers into the business along with his son Vicente José Carrillo Leyva.
as a member of his uncle's cartel carrillo was sent to ojinaga chihuahua state
and was given the duty of overseeing the cocaine shipments of the cartel .
while in ojinaga he learnt about border operations under the tutelage of pablo acosta
Villarreal , who was known as the ohinaga fox . At that time Pablo Acosta Villarreal was
the leader of the Juarez cartel. In 1987 Pablo Acosta was killed and his
role as leader of the juarez cartel was filled by his right-hand man Rafael Aguilar Guajardo
who made Carrillo his second in command. While Amado Carrillo continued to work for
Rafael for years he helped to push the juarez cartel forward , with a great ambition hidden
in his head , this ambition would revealed in 1993 when he seized the chance to shoot
Rafeal aguilar guajardo who was his friend and boss at the same time , leaving him dead .
After killing Rafael , Amado Carrillo began to build his drug smuggling empire , the juarez
cartel was formerly heavily involved in smuggling marijuana and heroin with cocaine taking up just a
small part of their traffic . By 1994 the first change he made was shifting the focus of the
cartel operations to smuggling just cocaine . Unlike other drug lords , Carrillo was ahead of
his time , highly involved in the use of high-tech surveillance equipment to
spy on other cartels and their leaders . He knew how to fly planes and applied his
knowledge of aviation and flight routes into the expansion of his drug trade .
He was the first drug lord to use private planes to transport his
drugs through the skies which revolutionized the entire drug smuggling business and earned him the
nickname “ el señor de los cielos “ which translates to the lord of the skies .
The Juarez cartel leader owned an impressive fleet of private planes
including more than 30 Boeing 727s . but to build such an excellent and equipped empire and to pay
for this fleet carrillo set up an extensive money laundering operation in colombia .
During his career he worked with some of the biggest names in the illegal drug trade including
Pablo Escobar and Joaquin guzman-loera who is more commonly known by the alias el chapo .
Amado also worked with the Beltran leyva cartel and the arellano felix brothers
of the tijuana cartel . throughout his years in the drug
world he kept a very low profile as he didn’t get involved in the messes that drug lords usually
used to get into like shootouts ,and busts Neither attending parties that his drug lords
friends made unless it included business . Amado was smarter than the others as he carried
out his drug trade with a calm professionalism and organism as very few pictures of him
appeared on television or in newspapers , to the extent that the United States drug
enforcement administration described him as a kingpin who was from a new breed .
His low profile paid him well and kept him safe and rescued him from potentially fatal situations
as earlier on his career while his boss and mentor Pablo Acosta villarreal was still alive,
the u.s drug enforcement administration released a document that listed over 200
members of Acosta's organization . and yet Amando wasn’t mentioned or identified even though he
held a central position in the organization. Although carrillo admired staying out of sight and
followed the business man-like approach , he wasn’t any less ruthless than the other drug lords , he
was known by those who were familiar with him for his lack of pity and compassion as he had a
no-nonsense outlook when it came to his business , which can be clearly seen in his murder of rafael
aguilar guajardo who was his boss and friend . he had no tolerance for snitches and would order
the murder of anyone who seemed to be hindering the progress of his organization’s trades and
illegal business as Records state that he ordered the assasination of more than 400 people .
Along with the innovative use of technology to spy on rivals and to transport his illegal goods
through the skies , another major contribution to his success was the protection he received
from the corrupt officials that were holding strong positions in the mexican government.
All of these paved the way for him to grow his empire quickly and make him huge
amounts of money on a weekly basis . To stay on the top of his drug game Amado
also had to give out an estimated 500 million dollars each year as a bribe to maintain his
safety from the authorities . At the peak of his career his net
worth was estimated to be 25 billion dollars easily making him one of the
richest drug lords to ever live . Amado had real estate property all
across Mexico , but the most popular of them was his mansion that was nicknamed the palace
of a thousand and one nights because of its middle eastern inspired architecture
which is still present to this day . Amado carrilo’s strategy of keeping a low
profile began to fade out eventually , his empire growth came with disadvantages , as the leader
of such an organization it was impossible for him to maintain his characteristic low profile
as he had gotten too big and inevitably he appeared on the radar of united states law
enforcement and mexican anti-drug forces which increased the pressure on him .
Following his identification by the two sides , they started to make serious attempts to set him
up . one of them was at his sister’s wedding at their family farm . when forces barged into the
wedding festivities to carry out their mission but the raid was unsuccessful as carrillo had
already been tipped off by a corrupt law enforcement official ,and ran away just
before the soldiers and police arrived . The pressure continued on carrillo and the
infrastructure of his business started to weaken , it was difficult for his trade to continue as
usual when the focus of the two different governments was placed on him , Moreover he
hardly saw his wife and children as he had to be almost constantly on the run reportedly he
made frequent trips abroad to places like turkey , russia , ecuador , argentina , chile , cuba
and costa rica . Amado also owned a house
just three blocks away from the residence of a prominent
mexican government official , a governor named Jorge carrillo olea , who had come
under pressure of his complacency concerning drug trafficking and related violence .
Protests were convinced that Jorge was involved in Carrillo illegal business
which caused a big pressure on him making him resign , after which he was arrested .
Amado’s hand was twisted as a result of this , which convinced him to take drastic measures . So
in a final attempt to escape the authorities for good , he decided to undergo an extensive
and complicated plastic surgery procedure which included liposuction , his aim was to change his
appearance drastically to avoid being spotted by the united states and mexican government .
On the 4th of july 1997 the surgery occurred at santa monica hospital in mexico city after he
checked into the hospital under a fake name , two of his close bodyguards were in the operation room
as he underwent the surgical procedure . Unfortunately for him the operation ended up
being the cause of his death, there is very little paperwork regarding his death, but he is said to
have died of complications during the surgery. consequently there were allegations that the
doctors involved in the surgery had intentionally killed the drug baron by giving him a mixture of
drugs that was against medical practice . Whether these allegations were true or not,
members of the juarez cartel didn't take the death of their leader lightly . the body of plastic
surgeon Jaime Godoy Singh who was in charge of Amado’s operation along with bodies of two other
people who are believed to have assisted jamie in the plastic surgery were found stuffed into
an oil drum and covered in cement , with signs of torture and beating on their corpses .
Amado carrillo fuentes was given a lavish public funeral that has been described as one of the most
extravagant and expensive funerals that Mexico has ever seen . The funeral was
held in sinaloa and lasted for days during which thousands of people were in attendance
to pay their tribute to the drug lord . After his death the authorities seized several
real estate properties including warehouses that they assumed were used by the juarez cartel
to store drugs and weapons ,furthermore ,officials also froze carrio's bank accounts
worth a total of over 10 billion dollars . Despite the killing of the plastic surgery
team , and the huge funeral that was held for carrillo’s memory , there are still some
speculations that the billionaire drug lord is still alive, some of these rumors were sparked
by Amado's cousin sergio carrillo who said that a Amado Carrillo was fine in his words
“amado is fine he is alive he had surgery practiced on some poor unfortunate person
to make everybody else believe it was him ” . Eventually to shut the rumours off , The u.s
drug enforcement administration released a graphic video of what was supposedly
Carrillo's corpse , however the face of the corpse was badly damaged and difficult to
identify , this further fueled the rumors. some of the conspiracy theories insist that
one of Amado's henchmen was made to look more like his boss and then killed weeks before his
death , and that Amado was planning three years before to escape to cuba
after he gained the trust of the cubian government as wealthy businessman who wanted to invest in
their country under a fake name and passport . According to mexican law enforcement agents,
travel records show that Carrillo had made frequent trips to Cuba
in the last three years before his death and he allegedly had a second family there,
a woman named Marta and her two-year-old daughter . Meanwhile some others believe that he is acting
as an informant to american drug officials. whether the rumors of Amado carrillo fuentes
being alive are true or not , we may never know ! but what we are sure about is that
he is off the radar of the authorities and new leadership has taken over the juarez cartel
Let us know your thoughts about his suspicious death in the comments below .
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and mysteries and much more interesting stories , i will see you in the next video ! take care!