Cours Sup: Mexico just captured the leader of one of the country's oldest drug trafficking cartels

Mexico just captured the leader of one of the country's oldest drug trafficking cartels

Jesus Aguayo El Chuyin Juarez Cartel DEA

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican authorities said on Sunday they had captured a leader of the Juarez Cartel wanted by the United States government who took the helm after the organization's long-time chief was nabbed last year.

The leader, Jesus Aguayo, was detained on Friday by Federal troops in Villa Ahumada in the northern state of Chihuahua, which borders the United States and has played host to some of the worst drug trafficking-related violence in the country.

Aguayo, nicknamed "El Chuyin," provided the explosives for the July 2010 detonation of a car bomb which killed two police officers, a doctor and a paramedic, authorities said.

He assumed command of the organization following the capture of former Juarez Cartel chief Vicente Carrillo in October.

The United States accuses Aguayo of drug trafficking and involvement in the killing of José Daniel González, a protected witness killed in El Paso in 2009.

Mexico has sought his arrest for kidnapping, murder, drug trafficking and gasoline theft.

More than 100,000 people have died in gang-related violence in Mexico over the past eight years.

Capturan a Jesús Salas, ‘El Chuyín’, líder del cártel de Juárez y sucesor de Carrillo Fuentes http://t.co/gmuu439U4v http://ift.tt/1G9iEgd

— Pedro Ferriz de Con (@PedroFerriz) April 19, 2015

President Enrique Pena Nieto pledged to restore order when he took office in 2012, but although the homicide count has fallen and dozens of cartel leaders have been captured or killed, parts of the country remain mired in violence.

On Saturday Mexican authorities confirmed the capture of a leader of the Gulf Cartel, describing him as responsible for much of the violence in the U.S. border city of Reynosa in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas.