Mexico nabs aide to detained drug lord Vicente Carrillo Fuentes

Mexican authorities have arrested a personal assistant to captured Juarez cartel chief Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, the National Security Commission said.

David Aroon Espinoza Haro, who was captured in the northern town of Ahumada, Chihuahua state, was on a Mexican government list of 122 priority suspects.

National Security Commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido said Friday in a message to the news media that this latest arrest was a product of the same investigation that led to the Oct. 9 capture of Carrillo Fuentes in the northern city of Torreon.

Espinoza, 47, mainly operated in the cities of Chihuahua and Villa Ahumada, where he coordinated and supervised financial and security operations for Carrillo Fuentes’ family.

Rubido said that from a very young age Espinoza was part of the inner circle of Juarez cartel founder Amado Carrillo Fuentes, known for his fleet of smuggling aircraft as the “lord of the skies,” who died in 1997 after undergoing plastic surgery to disguise his identity.

After Vicente Carrillo inherited the leadership of the drug cartel from his late brother, Espinoza became his righthand man, the security commissioner said.

Two firearms were seized from the suspect, who, according to authorities, had taken over as the Ciudad Juarezbased cartel’s secondincommand after Vicente’s capture.

Conflict among rival cartels and between the criminals and security forces has claimed well over 100,000 lives in Mexico since December 2006, when thenPresident Felipe Calderon decided to militarize the struggle against the drug trade.