Drug lord died after getting plastic surgery to make himself unrecognisable

03 July 2023 , 18:15

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Amado Carrillo Fuentes (centre) with other members of the Juarez cartel (Image: Commons)

A drug lord who was the most powerful and wanted in Mexico for 10 years died after getting plastic surgery to alter his appearance.

Amado Carrillo Fuentes was nicknamed the “lord of the skies” due to the fleet of planes he had to traffic drugs was a partner of the infamous drug king Pablo Escobar, leader of Medellin cartel in Colombia.

For ten years between 1987 and 1997 he led the Juarez cartel which was the most powerful in Mexico.

His uncle Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, known as Don Neto, had previously set up the Guadalajara cartel, where Amado had learnt the ropes and overseen drug shipments.

But Fonseca Carrillo and Rafael Caro Quintero were both captured and sentenced for the murder of DEA agent Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena leading to Amado becoming the boss of the Juarez cartel.

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José María Yazpik as Amado Carillo Fuentes in Narcos: Mexico season three (JUAN ROSAS/NETFLIX)

The planes he had at his disposal included several Boeing 727s which are believed to have been able to transport up to six tonnes of drugs - while at the same time passing unnoticed through airports in Latin America having bought landing rights.

And during the height of his powers, Carrillo Fuentes is alleged to have been behind 60 per cent of the drugs coming from Colombia into the US, according to American authorities.

Unlike some of the other drug bosses, Carrillo Fuentes was known for keeping out of sight and under the radar to avoid capture.

Carrillo Fuentes’ main rivals were the Sinaloa and Tijuana cartels but neither were the reason for his death aged 49.

In fact he died of a cardiac arrest on July 6, 1997, after eight hours of plastic surgery.

He was one of the most wanted people on the planet and had undergone the operation at the Santa Monica hospital, in Mexico City, to change his appearance.

Carrillo Fuentes died following plastic surgery (La Reforma Archives)

But a few hours after the surgery he collapsed and died, stated Mexican authorities.

His body was flown to Sinaloa and many conspiracy theories started with claims from forensic scientists that the body did not belong to the drug boss.

And still since the debate continues over whether it was actually his body that was examined.

An intelligence officer told Mexican television that the body did not belong to Carrillo Fuentes. At the same time Jorge Alfredo Andrade Bojorges, in his book “The secret history of the narco: I come from Navolato” gave various sources claiming that the drug lord had not died and that it was just an elaborate plot to evade his capture.

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Other conspiracy theories claim that Carrillo Fuentes did die but at the hands of drug rivals but whatever is the truth, the two doctors that carried out the plastic surgery came to gruesome end as their bodies were found on November 7, 1997,

Amado's grisly end led to two more gruesome deaths entombed in concrete-filled steel barrels.

Tim Hanlon