Mexico Says Suspect Isn’t Drug Kingpin

Mexican authorities said Monday that they thought they had arrested the leader of the Juarez drug cartel, but later said tests showed it was a case of mistaken identity.

The determination that the detained man was not Vicente Carrillo Fuentes dashed hopes of a rare instance of good news for Mexico’s anti-narcotics forces amid an upsurge of violence.

It was also the second high-profile error in the last two weeks.

In June, Mexican federal authorities detained a British citizen of Lebanese descent on suspicion that he was connected to terrorist organizations behind the Sept. 11 attacks. But that suspect, Amer Haykel, turned out to be simply a tourist.

Mexico’s Federal Agency of Investigation reported that the suspect had been arrested at an upscale Mexico City shopping mall Saturday, said Ruben Aguilar, spokesman for President Vicente Fox.

Aguilar said prosecutors conducted fingerprint analysis and DNA tests to determine the identity of the man, who gave his name as Joaquin Romero Aparicio and who local media said had undergone extensive plastic surgery. As it turned out, he had given his true name.

Maria Romero, his sister, said, “My brother is a respectable person, married and with a family. He is an architect. They have done him an injustice. How is it possible that they have detained him without proof? I can assure you that my brother has nothing to do with drug trafficking. It’s an injustice.”

Carrillo’s brother Amado, once considered the most powerful drug lord in Mexico, is believed to have died in 1997 during botched plastic surgery to change his appearance. Experts said capturing Vicente Carrillo Fuentes would have dealt another blow to a drug gang that had lost influence and cohesion since Amado’s death. Another Carrillo brother, Rodolfo, 29, was killed by hit men in Sinaloa state in September.

The arrest of Carrillo would have been a boost for Fox, who has been under pressure from the United States to stem a tide of drug-related violence that has claimed more than 600 lives this year, many along the border. Bodies are turning up almost daily from Tijuana to Cancun, many of them bearing marks of torture and mutilation that are the calling cards of organized crime.

Fox has vowed the “mother of all battles” against narcotics traffickers, with 18 top leaders toppled during his administration. Veteran observers call that record impressive, but they say it has done nothing to restrict the flow of drugs into the United States and has ratcheted up tension among gangsters.

For example, authorities trace recent violence in the border town of Nuevo Laredo to the 2003 arrest of Osiel Cardenas, alleged leader of the Gulf cartel. Sensing the opportunity to take control of a key smuggling route to the United States, his rivals, led by Sinaloa-based Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, moved in, setting off a bloody turf war.

Jorge Chabat, a Mexico City political scientist and an expert on organized crime, said that though the United States would welcome the capture of Carrillo, his arrest could provoke even more killing as aspiring kingpins scramble to take his place.

The Juarez cartel, which takes its name from the border city of Ciudad Juarez, flourished in the 1990s under the leadership of Amado Carrillo.

Nicknamed the “Lord of the Skies,” he became a legend by ditching the small boats and prop planes used by his predecessors, instead ferrying cocaine by the ton from South America in large jets.

But his death is believed to have loosened the confederation of traffickers that once formed the core of the cartel. The killing and jailing of major drug trade figures throughout Mexico have destabilized rival gangs as well, so that no cartel predominates.