Oldest Mexican Drug Cartel Leader Just Left Prison to House Arrest Nathaniel Janowitz - VICE News
go to original July 28, 2016

As Mexico's drug trafficking landscape adapts to the slow demise of its most legendary capos, one of the men who helped start it all is being released from prison.

Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo was moved to house arrest on Thursday after his family obtained a judge's order based on his old age and ill health. His exact age is unknown, with reports ranging from 73 to 86 years old.

Commonly known as 'Don Neto,' Fonseca has served 31 years of a 40 year sentence for his involvement in the 1985 kidnapping, torture, and murder of DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena.

A Don Corleone-esque figure, Don Neto helped pave the way for modern Mexican drug trafficking cartels.

He founded a group of traffickers known as the Guadalajara cartel in the late 70s along with his partner, the younger Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo. Initially they focused on Mexican heroin and marijuana, before forging connections with Pablo Escobar and other Colombian traffickers to move cocaine into the United States markets.

The illicit routes into the US they established still serve as popular transit points today.

Read the rest at VICE News

Photo: El Universal/JMA

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