Nephew of “El Señor de los Cielos” Arrested in Tulum

TULUM, Mexico — Marco Esteban Carrillo Figueroa, alias "La Rata Carrillo," the nephew of the late drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes, known as "El Señor de los Cielos," and a suspected operator of the Sinaloa Cartel, was captured in Tulum during a routine anti-drug operation. At the time of his arrest, he was found in possession of narcotics and a firearm and attempted to identify himself with a false name. After his true identity was confirmed, the Mexican Attorney General's Office (FGR) executed a federal arrest warrant against him and transferred him to Sinaloa to face pending criminal proceedings.

Tulum Arrest Reveals Heir to the Carrillo Fuentes Clan

The operation began on September 8, 2025, in Tulum, Quintana Roo, when municipal police detained two men suspected of distributing drugs in the tourist zone. One of them provided documents under the name "José Alfredo N," but authorities discovered he was actually Marco Esteban Carrillo Figueroa, alias "La Rata Carrillo," a member of a Sinaloa Cartel faction and nephew of the famed capo Amado Carrillo Fuentes.

Alongside Carrillo Figueroa, another individual originally from Sinaloa was detained; authorities seized 62 doses of cocaine and 34 packages of marijuana from them, indicating retail drug trafficking activities in the area.

They were initially placed in the Municipal Detention Center of Playa del Carmen but were released for the administrative offense. Carrillo Figueroa was immediately re-apprehended by federal agents who had already confirmed his identity and the existence of a pending court order against him.

Federal authorities confirmed the detention was carried out in coordination with local forces, underscoring that the capture resulted from intelligence work focused on dismantling high-profile criminal groups operating in Mexican Caribbean tourist destinations.

Esgar Aguilar Rico, Secretary of Public Security of Tulum, reported that "he was traveling in a taxi when he was detected and offered a large sum of money for his release, but here there is zero corruption, and we made them available to the competent authority."

The arrest of "La Rata Carrillo" is considered high-impact, not only due to his relation to "El Señor de los Cielos" but because it confirms the presence of criminal structures with national reach operating in tourist zones like Tulum, which has registered over 30 homicides linked to organized crime so far this year.

Criminal History: Drug Operator Denounced by His Cousin

Marco Esteban Carrillo Figueroa, nicknamed "La Rata," was featured in federal investigations for crimes against health (drug trafficking) and other offenses, though he had not been publicly detained until his recent capture.

According to police sources, his name had already surfaced in late 2024 when his own cousin, José Cruz Carrillo Jacobo, identified him in videos disseminated on social media as a member of a Sinaloa Cartel cell.

In those recordings, the young cousin accused "La Rata Carrillo" of acting as an operator (possibly a hitman or coordinator) for a cartel faction. This revelation triggered reprisals; shortly after, José Cruz Carrillo Jacobo (aged 24) was found executed by gunfire on December 19, 2024, on a road near Culiacán, Sinaloa. The young man's body showed multiple gunshot wounds, and his violent death evidenced internal strife within Sinaloan organized crime.

It is worth noting that José Cruz was the son of José Cruz Carrillo Fuentes (younger brother of Amado Carrillo Fuentes); that brother had also been "disappeared" and murdered in 2008 in Navolato, Sinaloa, in an episode attributed to armed men dressed as military personnel.

The identification of "La Rata Carrillo" as an alleged member of the Sinaloa Cartel suggests that part of the Carrillo Fuentes family aligned itself with criminal groups of national reach following the decline of the Juárez Cartel.

Reports indicate Carrillo Figueroa operated under the radar until his arrest, moving between Sinaloa (his native state) and tourist areas like Quintana Roo, likely collaborating with local drug trafficking networks (retail sales) linked to major cartels.

The federal arrest warrant pending at the time of his capture reflects that Mexican authorities were already seeking him for his participation in criminal activities, though no official public wanted notices in his name have been disseminated in Mexico or the United States.

To date, there is no record of Carrillo Figueroa appearing on international alerts or on the fugitive lists of U.S. agencies, unlike his famous uncle, who in his time was one of the men most wanted by the DEA and FBI.

In the case of "La Rata," his legal situation is concentrated in Mexico. Following his capture, he was transferred to Sinaloa and placed at the disposal of federal judges, facing charges that could include organized crime and crimes against health at the local and federal levels.

The Dynasty of "El Señor de los Cielos": From Amado Carrillo to His New Heirs

The trajectory of Marco Esteban "La Rata" Carrillo cannot be understood without the context of the Carrillo Fuentes clan, one of Mexico's most well-known criminal dynasties.

His uncle, Amado Carrillo Fuentes, nicknamed "El Señor de los Cielos," was the leader of the Juárez Cartel and one of the most powerful capos of the 1980s-90s. Amado earned his nickname from the fleet of airplanes he used to transport cocaine from South America to Mexico and the United States. Under his command, the cartel expanded its control over routes in Chihuahua and northern Mexico, managing shipments of tons of drugs in alliance with Colombian capos. However, his reign ended abruptly when he died in July 1997 during plastic surgery to change his face and evade justice.

Amado Carrillo was pursued by authorities from Mexico, the U.S., Colombia, and even had arrest warrants in other countries, given the scale of his operations.

After Amado's death, his brother Vicente Carrillo Fuentes assumed leadership of the Juárez Cartel in 1997. Known as "El Viceroy," Vicente remained at the helm of the organization during the years of the brutal drug war. He initially maintained an alliance with the Sinaloa Cartel, but in 2004 that alliance broke, triggering a violent dispute for control of northern routes and plazas.

That year, Rodolfo Carrillo Fuentes, another of the brothers (alias "El Niño de Oro"), was assassinated in Culiacán alongside his wife, in an attack attributed to rivals of the Sinaloa Cartel. In reprisal, Vicente allegedly ordered the execution in prison of Arturo Guzmán Loera "El Pollo," brother of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, intensifying the war between Juárez and Sinaloa.

The violence escalated especially in Ciudad Juárez, which became one of the cities hardest hit by the territorial struggle between both cartels.

The Carrillo Fuentes clan faced numerous casualties and judicial actions over the years. Vicente "El Viceroy" managed to evade authorities until 2014 when he was captured by Federal Police in Torreón, Coahuila. Currently, Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, considered the last great heir of the Juárez cartel, remains in prison serving accumulated sentences of over 28 years for drug trafficking and organized crime charges.

He even faced extradition requests to the United States, which were finalized on February 27, 2025, when Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, "El Viceroy," was transferred from the Puente Grande prison in Jalisco to a U.S. prison. The operation included 28 other high-profile Mexican drug traffickers, among them members of Los Zetas, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), the Gulf Cartel, the Michoacán Family, and the Beltrán Leyva Organization, who remained in different prisons across the country.

Another brother of the clan, Alberto Carrillo Fuentes (alias "Betty la Fea"), was arrested in 2013; he led a New Juárez Cartel for a time, allying with Los Zetas and the Beltrán Leyvas in a failed attempt to recover Chihuahua after the offensive by El Chapo Guzmán.

For his part, José Cruz Carrillo Fuentes, the youngest of the family, as mentioned, was a victim of forced disappearance and murder in 2008. The clan's matriarch, Doña Aurora Fuentes, denounced the Army for that disappearance and died in 2014 without seeing the crime against her youngest son solved.

Regarding the next generation, several descendants of the Carrillo Fuentes have also figured in police chronicles. Vicente Carrillo Leyva, the eldest son of Amado "El Señor de los Cielos," was arrested in 2009 in Mexico City; known as "El Ingeniero" among the narco-juniors, he was accused of laundering cartel money and operating front businesses after his father's death.

Carrillo Leyva received sentences for financial crimes, being one of the few family members prosecuted judicially at that time.

On August 14, 2020, the Sinaloa Prosecutor's Office confirmed the murder of Julio César Carrillo, alias "Cesarín," son of Amado Carrillo Fuentes, "El Señor de los Cielos." The incident occurred at a residence in the Alfonso G. Calderón neighborhood in Navolato, where he was found dead with gunshot wounds. His death was widely covered in national and international media, which identified him as part of the second generation of the Carrillo Fuentes clan. Although he was attributed links to drug trafficking activities, there is no public record of formal arrests prior to his execution.

Parallelly, various sources have pointed to the existence of another family member identified as Julio César Carrillo, alias "El Sexto Mes," alleged son of Rodolfo Carrillo Fuentes, "El Niño de Oro." This character has been mentioned as a nephew of Amado with participation within the remnants of the Juárez Cartel. However, unlike Amado's son, there is less official information available about "El Sexto Mes."

These cases, added to the recent capture of "La Rata Carrillo," illustrate how the curse of drug trafficking has reached most of the dynasty, with many ending up dead, detained, or pursued by justice.

Implications and Current Context of the Capture

The detention of Marco Esteban "La Rata" Carrillo Figueroa marks a new chapter in the history of the Carrillo Fuentes clan and has several implications.

First, it represents a symbolic blow: a member of the second generation of a family that once led one of the most powerful cartels in the world now falls in a modest anti-drug operation in a tourist resort. This reflects how the heirs of El Señor de los Cielos' empire have lost the power of yesteryear and, in some cases, have moved to collaborate with rival cartels (like Sinaloa) to survive in the current criminal landscape.

Second, the capture confirms the expansion of criminal cells in the Riviera Maya. Tulum, Playa del Carmen, and Cancún have become focal points of interest for drug trafficking due to the tourist flow; the presence of a high-profile Sinaloan operator in Tulum evidences that major cartels have infiltrated these zones, disputing local drug markets and money laundering.

In fact, Quintana Roo authorities have expressed concern over more than 30 murders linked to organized crime in Tulum during 2025, many related to the struggle between criminal factions for control of retail drug sales in tourist areas.

Finally, the case of "La Rata Carrillo" reaffirms the ongoing federal operations against remnants of old cartels. The FGR, by fulfilling the arrest warrant against Carrillo Figueroa, demonstrates that it keeps in its sights characters with historical ties to Mexican drug trafficking. Although Marco Esteban did not have the notoriety of his uncle Amado, his arrest could provide information on the current networks of the Sinaloa Cartel in Sinaloa and Quintana Roo, as well as the internal rivalries that led to the murder of his cousin in 2024.

Mexican authorities have indicated that investigations will continue to dismantle these networks; the transfer of Carrillo Figueroa to Sinaloa will allow progress in the pending judicial processes against him. It is not ruled out that, with his detention, recent criminal events in the region will be clarified and future acts of violence related to the dispute between criminal factions will be prevented.