'El Chuyín', Notorious Drug Lord of Chihuahua, Is Dead

In a dramatic turn of events, Jesús Salas Aguayo, infamously known as 'El Chuyín,' has died in the municipality of Ahumada, Chihuahua—a town he reportedly dominated with an iron grip. His death marks the end of a career steeped in violence, controversy, and a legacy that casts a long shadow over the region.

Sources from the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) confirmed his demise, closing the final chapter of a man once considered the lynchpin of the Juárez Cartel’s operations and a major driver of violence in Mexico's northern borderlands.

Jesús Salas Aguayo’s ascent within the criminal underworld began under the tutelage of Vicente Carrillo, the then-leader of the Juárez Cartel. Tasked with overseeing operations in key territories such as Ahumada, Buenaventura, and Galeana, Salas quickly rose to prominence, carving out his domain within the cartel’s sprawling empire.

His influence grew further after the arrests of Vicente Carrillo Fuentes and David Aarón Espinoza Haro in 2014, which left a leadership void that Salas was quick to fill. By then, his reputation as a ruthless enforcer was well-established, punctuated by incidents like the brutal 2012 massacre of 15 people at the Colorado Bar—a chilling demonstration of his control and the cartel’s reach.

Under Salas’s leadership, the New Juárez Cartel, often associated with the violent La Línea faction, became a defining force of instability in Chihuahua. Salas’s name was linked to numerous heinous acts, including the notorious 2010 car bomb attack in Ciudad Juárez. This calculated act of terror, involving explosives provided by Salas, claimed the lives of two federal police officers, a doctor, and a paramedic—an event etched into the memory of a city already scarred by cartel violence.

Beyond Juárez, Salas’s reach extended deep into the Golden Triangle, a region synonymous with drug trafficking. His operations spanned narcotics smuggling, arms trafficking, and kidnapping, as well as a campaign of targeted assassinations, such as the 2009 murder of José Daniel González Galeana, a U.S. government informant, in El Paso.

From Capture to Conditional Freedom

In April 2015, Salas’s reign was temporarily halted when federal authorities captured him during an operation in Villa Ahumada. Accused of a litany of crimes, including drug trafficking, homicide, and illegal possession of military-grade firearms, Salas was sentenced to 11 years, eight months, and 13 days in prison. However, his legal team successfully appealed the sentence, reducing his term to eight years and three months.

By July 2018, Salas had secured conditional release, equipped with an electronic monitoring bracelet—a measure that would later prove inadequate. In January 2020, he removed the bracelet, triggering a re-arrest warrant and placing him once again on Interpol’s radar.

Despite the arrest order, Salas remained elusive, with locals in Ahumada referring to him as the “owner of almost the entire town.” His ability to evade capture, even with international scrutiny, underscored his deep-rooted connections and the pervasive culture of fear he cultivated in the region.

In March 2020, Mexican authorities renewed efforts to apprehend him after the Judiciary alerted the Attorney General’s Office of his disappearance. Yet, Salas continued to slip through the cracks of the justice system.

Jesús Salas Aguayo’s death brings a measure of closure to an era marked by his unrelenting grip on northern Chihuahua. Known as much for his brutality as his cunning, Salas leaves behind a fractured community, struggling to recover from decades of cartel-driven violence. For the residents of Ahumada, where he was both feared and begrudgingly acknowledged as the town's “owner,” his passing is likely to provoke a mixture of relief and uncertainty.

Will his death signify the end of an era, or will it open the door to further power struggles within the Juárez Cartel? One thing remains certain: the scars of El Chuyín's reign will not fade easily.