Who Is Jesus Salas Aguayo? Juarez Drug Cartel Leader Captured By Mexican Police

Mexican police have arrested a leader of the Juarez drug cartel in Mexico's northern state of Chihuahua, security officials confirmed Sunday. Jesus Salas Aguayo reportedly led the gang’s operations following the arrest of Vicente Carrillo Fuentes last year.

Aguayo, nicknamed "El Chuyin," was captured Friday in the municipality of Villa Ahumada, about 80 miles south of the Texas border, National Security Commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido said, according to the Associated Press. He reportedly said that Aguayo’s bodyguards were killed during the operation conducted by federal forces.

The 38-year-old, who is wanted by the United States' Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) for drug trafficking, homicide and conspiracy, is linked to a 2010 car bombing in Ciudad Juarez that killed two federal police officers and a 2012 bar shooting that killed 15 people, according to the New York Times.

The news of Aguayo’s arrest comes days after Mexican authorities announced the arrest of another man, José Tiburcio Hernández Fuentes, who recently inherited the leadership of the Gulf Cartel.

The Juarez cartel, which largely controlled trafficking around Ciudad Juarez, was allegedly led by Carrillo. The 51-year-old kingpin was arrested in the northern city of Torreón in October 2014.

“Carrillo Fuentes…facilitated murder and violence in Mexico while fueling addiction in the United States and across the world,” Michele M. Leonhart, administrator of the DEA, said in a statement, at the time.

Mexico's crackdown on drug cartels have reportedly intensified following national outrage over the alleged gang-related abduction and murder of 43 college students in the Mexican state of Guerrero last September.