Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, known widely as “Don Neto,” has regained his freedom at the age of 95 after spending decades in custody for his involvement in the infamous 1985 murders of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena and Mexican pilot Alfredo Zavala. Though he had been under house arrest since 2016 due to poor health, his release marks the official end of a prison sentence that spanned nearly forty years.
Fonseca Carrillo was one of the key figures in the formation of the Guadalajara Cartel, a criminal organization that transformed Mexico’s role in the international drug trade. Alongside Rafael Caro Quintero and Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, he built an empire that went beyond marijuana and heroin, integrating cocaine trafficking and expanding operations through calculated alliances and widespread corruption. This cartel would later fragment into powerful groups like the Sinaloa Cartel, changing the face of organized crime in the region.
Originally from Badiraguato, Sinaloa—a region notorious for producing drug kingpins—Fonseca began his career in the drug trade working with earlier traffickers such as Pedro Avilés. He relocated to Guadalajara in the 1970s, where the new generation of traffickers found a more strategic urban base. Innovations in marijuana cultivation, such as Caro Quintero’s development of high-yield seedless plants, and the establishment of transportation routes for Colombian cocaine, helped the cartel dominate the market and supply the growing demand in the United States.
Their operations thrived due to a complex network of bribery and cooperation with political figures and law enforcement. One of the cartel’s most ambitious ventures was the El Búfalo marijuana plantation in the Chihuahuan Desert, where thousands of tons of cannabis were grown using sophisticated irrigation systems. The plantation’s discovery and destruction by Mexican forces, aided by DEA intelligence gathered by Camarena and Zavala, triggered a brutal response from the cartel.
Three months after the plantation’s destruction, Camarena and Zavala were abducted. They were held captive and tortured for weeks before their bodies were found miles from Guadalajara. The murders set off an international investigation. Fonseca Carrillo was arrested shortly afterward at a luxurious property in Puerto Vallarta. At the time of his arrest, he publicly distanced himself from the killings, blaming his partners and calling the act a serious mistake.
The consequences of those events reverberated for years. Caro Quintero, initially arrested in 1985, was controversially released in 2013 and later recaptured in 2022. He has since been extradited to the United States, where he faces serious charges that may result in a death sentence. Félix Gallardo, apprehended in 1989, remains in prison, in declining health and mostly blind, having failed to secure a reduction in his sentence.
Throughout his later years, Fonseca Carrillo remained largely out of the public eye. He gave no interviews and avoided the media spotlight. His health deteriorated significantly, with reports citing numerous medical conditions including colon cancer, arthritis, and vision impairment. Visual comparisons between his photos from the 1980s and recent years reflect the toll of time—once seen smiling and flashing peace signs with thick curls and dark sunglasses, his more recent image shows a frail man with a stern expression, thinner hair, and glasses for vision instead of style.
Though released from custody, Fonseca Carrillo remains a controversial figure. He is still considered a fugitive by U.S. authorities for the murder of a federal agent. His release may close a legal chapter in Mexico, but the legacy of the cartel he helped build continues to shape the nation’s ongoing struggles with organized crime.
