MEXICO: DNA TESTS CONFIRM ID OF MAN FOUND AS AMADO CARRILLO FUENTES

Описание: (11 Jul 1997) Spanish/Nat

A DNA test has confirmed that a man found dead in a Mexico City hospital last week was drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes.

Fingerprints matched records kept for Carrillo Fuentes and other forensic tests also confirmed the identity.

Known as the "Lord of the Skies", Carrillo Fuentes was suspected of ferrying loads of South American cocaine northward on jetliners as reputed head of Mexico's Juarez cartel.

The announcement came five days after police said they suspected Carrillo had died and warned of a likely turf war among Mexico's drug cartels.

The body of Amado Carrillo Fuentes being handed over to his relatives on Thursday.

Prosecutors had finally given formal confirmation of what authorities had suspected for days - the drug-trafficking kingpin was dead.

Positive confirmation came only after a battery of tests that included DNA and fingerprinting as well as checking scars and the shapes of the ears.

At a news conference on Thursday, special anti-drug prosecutor - Herran Salvatti - said Carrillo died on July 4, hours after he apparently underwent liposuction and extensive plastic surgery on the face.

He denied one Mexican report that Carrillo may have been strangled in his hospital bed and added that he had no further information on the cause of death, but the investigation was continuing.

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"At midday today the attorney general's expert services office, with the help of the medical staff at the Central Military Hospital of the national defence department, and of federal district prosecutor general's expert services department, gave the interior ministry the report of the genetic testing, also known as DNA, which states the following: that the adult male cadaver in the name of Antonio Montes Flores matches that of the Carrillo Fuentes family. The cadaver is therefore identified genetically as that of Amado Carrillo Fuentes, alias 'The Lord of the Skies'."
SUPER CAPTION: Mariano Herran Salvatti, anti-drug prosecutor, Mexican Attorney General's Office

On Tuesday reporters were permitted to see the corpse, displayed in a silver-coloured coffin trimmed with silk.

Carrillo Fuentes - known as the "Lord of the Skies" - headed the so-called Juarez Cartel that smuggled tonnes of cocaine into the United States each year.

US officials believe he was the most powerful man in the Mexican drugs trade.

They predict his death will leave the cartel with a power vacuum.

One possible successor could be Carrillo Fuentes' younger brother Vicente, 34, who is listed on the Drug Enforcement Administration's list of 20 top Mexican traffickers.

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