Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, alias ‘The Viceroy,’ former head of the Juárez Cartel, appeared today at a preliminary hearing in the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, as part of his legal proceedings for organized crime and drug trafficking, in which he is already negotiating a plea agreement with authorities.
During the fifteen-minute hearing, it was established that the 63-year-old Mexican will return to court on April 28 at 11:00 a.m. before Judge Joan M. Azrack for a review of the progress in the negotiations he is holding with the US Attorney’s Office for a plea agreement.
Carrillo was represented by his lead attorney, Rubén Oliva, a Miami criminal specialist who has previously represented other defendants, including members of the Sinaloa Cartel. Representing the U.S. government were prosecutors Erik Paulsen and Katherine Onyshko, and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents Damian Mazzaferro and Dan Martinez.
It was also established that for the next hearing, both parties must provide information regarding any potential conflict of interest arising from Oliva representing Carrillo Fuentes, who faces four charges: cocaine trafficking, organized crime, firearms possession, and money laundering.
According to the indictment presented by a U.S. grand jury, between 1997 and 2014, Vicente Carrillo led the Juárez Cartel after the death of his brother Amado, “The Lord of the Skies.” The criminal group trafficked tons of Colombian cocaine by air from Central and South America to Mexico and then to various cities in the United States via the corridor connecting Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, with El Paso, Texas.
“Under the leadership of both Amado Carrillo and the defendant Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, the Carrillo Fuentes Drug Trafficking Organization received several tons of cocaine in Mexico from the North Valley Cartel in Colombia, as well as from other cocaine suppliers,” states the federal indictment against Vicente Carrillo.
The Viceroy was extradited to Washington along with more than 20 other prisoners on February 27, 2025, in a deal that allowed the United States to present them before judges in various courts to face several criminal charges, including drug trafficking and organized crime.
