Overview
- Federal Judge Joan M. Azrack scheduled a July 28 status hearing in Brooklyn after prosecutors said plea negotiations with Vicente Carrillo Fuentes are still underway.
- Carrillo Fuentes, extradited from Mexico in February 2025, remains jailed in New York as the case proceeds in the Eastern District of New York.
- He faces seven federal counts that include running a continuing criminal enterprise, a murder conspiracy, four cocaine distribution conspiracies, illegal use of military‑grade firearms, and a money‑laundering conspiracy.
- If no agreement is reached and he is convicted at trial, he could receive a life sentence under U.S. law.
- The indictment says he led the Juárez cartel from 1997 to 2014 and moved tons of Colombian cocaine by air into Mexico and then into U.S. cities through the Ciudad Juárez–El Paso corridor, and the court is also reviewing a possible conflict involving his lawyer, Rubén Oliva.