Mexican police have detained the alleged leader of the New Juarez Cartel, a 47-year-old man known as “Ugly Betty,” authorities said on Sunday.
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 said on condition of anonymity.
He faces charges of drug trafficking, murder and organized crime. The official declined to provide more details.
THE VICEROY
Carrillo Fuentes is believed to have taken over the drug cartel named after Ciudad Juarez, the city bordering Texas, after his brother, Vicente “The Viceroy” Carrillo Fuentes, gave up the job.
The original 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.
DROP IN MURDER RATE
The city was once considered the world’s murder capital, but the murder rate has dropped since a peak of more than 3,000 in 2010.
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 Aug. 17.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their