[5] The Juárez Cartel was the dominant player in the center of the country, controlling a large percentage of the cocaine traffic from Mexico into the United States.
The Carrillo Fuentes brothers became the most powerful organization during the 1990s while Vicente was able to avoid direct conflict and increase the strength of the Juárez Cartel.
[12] The Juárez Cartel has been able to either corrupt or intimidate high-ranking officials in order to obtain information on law enforcement operatives and acquire protection from the police and judicial systems.
[15] Members of the cartel were implicated in the serial murder site in Ciudad Juárez that was discovered in 2004 and has been dubbed the House of Death.
The Juárez Cartel relies on two enforcement gangs to exercise control over both sides of the border: La Linea, a group of corrupt (current and former) Chihuahua police officers, is prevalent on the Mexican side, while the Barrio Azteca street gang operates in Mexico and in Texan cities such as El Paso, Dallas, and Houston, as well as in New Mexico and Arizona.
[citation needed] Prior to 2012, the Juárez Cartel controlled one of the primary transportation routes for billions of dollars worth of illegal drug shipments annually entering the United States from Mexico.
[25] However, Los Salazar, a powerful cell of the Sinaloa Cartel, had by this point managed to build a significant presence in Ciudad Juárez as well.
A fictionalized version of the Juárez Cartel plays a major role in the AMC television series Breaking Bad (2008–2013) and its prequel Better Call Saul (2015–2022).
It is secretly led by Mexican billionaire Jorge Rojas, who derived the name from its original founder Enrique Juarez.
After Juarez objected to the production, Rojas later had him killed in a skiing "accident" which allowed him to take over the company and turn it into a full-fledged drug cartel that made him one of the richest men in the world.
In this series, the Juárez Cartel is led by Fausto Galvan (played by Ramón Franco), a powerful, violent and brutal Mexican drug kingpin, who does not arouse suspicion, has a store called El Rey Storage.