He was the right-hand man to Pablo Acosta Villarreal who was killed in April 1987, during a cross-border raid by Mexican Federal Police helicopters in the Rio Grande village of Santa Elena, Chihuahua.
Mexican police reported that Carlos Maya Castillo, an official also working at the National Security and Investigation Center, assisted Aguilar with information and reservations, provided him with cell phones, and recruited corrupt police agents for Aguilar's criminal organization.
He was shot outside of Gypsys Restaurant on the city’s tourist strip as he returned from a submarine tour with family members.
Two days after threatening to reveal his high-level Mexican government contacts, Amado Carrillo Fuentes took over the reins of power in the Juárez cartel after assassinating Aguilar, [2] setting off the city's worst ongoing bout of criminal violence.
Aguilar's assets, seized by the Attorney General of Mexico (PGR), were valued at $100 million, and they included nightclubs, houses, and a 7000 m2 property in Acapulco.