The cartel is based in Chihuahua, one of the primary transportation routes for billions of dollars' worth of illegal drug shipments entering the United States from Mexico annually.
He had seven siblings: Angélica, Amado, Cipriano, Guadalupe, Alberto, Rodolfo and José Cruz Carrillo Fuentes (Vicente being the fourth one).
[6][7] When Amado died on 7 July 1997 following complications from plastic surgery, a brief turf war began in Juarez over the leadership of the cartel.
The organization was in flux by the time Vicente took control of the cartel and the death of Amado created a large power vacuum in the Mexican underworld.
The Arellano Félix 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.
Carrillo Fuentes was charged in a forty-six count indictment in the Western District of Texas with continuing criminal enterprise, importation and possession with intent to distribute cocaine and marijuana, conspiracy to import and possess with intent to distribute cocaine and marijuana, as well as with money laundering, tampering with a witness, ordering the intentional killing of individuals to prevent communication of information by them to U.S. law enforcement, and murder in furtherance of a continuing criminal enterprise.
Departments of State offered a reward of up to $5 million USD for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Vicente Carrillo Fuentes.
[10] The act prohibited U.S. citizens and companies from doing any kind of business activity with him, and virtually froze all his assets in the U.S.[11] Carrillo Fuentes was arrested in a joint operation by the Mexican Army and Federal Police in Torreón, Coahuila on 9 October 2014.