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U.S. Authorities Take Custody of Drug Kingpin
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Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, 36, nicknamed "the Wildcat," was taken into custody aboard a U.S.-registered boat, the Dock Holiday, in international waters about 15 miles off the Baja peninsula. About 8:15 a.m. today, U.S. authorities escorted him by motorcade from the Coast Guard's waterside facility in San Diego.
Sharpshooters kept vigil from a nearby building as Arellano Felix was led away to a federal detention center in downtown San Diego, where he will await the charges expected to be filed.
Arellano Felix was traveling under an alias but acknowledged his identity to his captors, officials said Wednesday. The arrest was based on a 2003 U.S. indictment that charged him with conspiracy, smuggling and murder. A $5-million bounty had been offered for his capture as the reputed leader of the Arellano Felix organization.
At its height in the late 1990s, the cartel was believed to be responsible for supplying nearly half the cocaine sold in the United States.
...CONTINUED
Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, 36, nicknamed "the Wildcat," was taken into custody aboard a U.S.-registered boat, the Dock Holiday, in international waters about 15 miles off the Baja peninsula. About 8:15 a.m. today, U.S. authorities escorted him by motorcade from the Coast Guard's waterside facility in San Diego.
Sharpshooters kept vigil from a nearby building as Arellano Felix was led away to a federal detention center in downtown San Diego, where he will await the charges expected to be filed.
Arellano Felix was traveling under an alias but acknowledged his identity to his captors, officials said Wednesday. The arrest was based on a 2003 U.S. indictment that charged him with conspiracy, smuggling and murder. A $5-million bounty had been offered for his capture as the reputed leader of the Arellano Felix organization.
At its height in the late 1990s, the cartel was believed to be responsible for supplying nearly half the cocaine sold in the United States.
U.S. and Mexican authorities blame the cartel for at least a score of slayings of police officers, journalists and rivals, as well as the accidental killing of Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo at the Guadalajara airport in 1993.
Authorities say the Arellano Felix gang, though weakened by the killing of one brother and the imprisonment of another, remains one of Mexico's largest drug-smuggling organizations since joining forces last year with the Gulf cartel.
Prosecutors say the gang hired assassins to kidnap, torture and kill adversaries in a struggle to dominate lucrative smuggling routes that link Mexico and California.
"The Arellano Felix organization is the largest and most violent drug-trafficking operation in the Tijuana, Baja California, area," U.S. Deputy Atty. Gen. Paul J. McNulty said at a Washington news conference where the arrests were announced.
Acting on a tip, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration asked Coast Guard officers to board the Dock Holiday on Monday, McNulty said. Seven other adults and three juveniles were also taken into custody, he said.
U.S. authorities had hoped to delay announcement of the arrests until they brought Arellano Felix to San Diego, but Mexican news reports surfaced Wednesday.
"This was a perfectly planned and perfectly executed operation," said U.S. Atty. Carol C. Lam of San Diego, whose office filed the 2003 indictment. Authorities gave no details of how they knew about the fishing trip or what was found aboard the vessel. Mexican government officials declined to comment.
The indictment against Arellano Felix "specifies his role in the enterprise as the one who participated in the most major decisions," McNulty said.
Authorities said Arellano Felix began working for the cartel when he was 22. He faces life in prison if convicted on charges related to the cartel's alleged purchase of tons of cocaine from Colombia that was smuggled into California through Mexico via tunnels, vehicles, aircraft and backpacks beginning in 1986. The cartel is accused of trading money and guns for cocaine from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a leftist rebel group.
Arellano Felix is "one of the 45 most notorious, most wanted drug traffickers in the world," said Michael Braun, the DEA's assistant administrator for operations in Washington. The government is seeking forfeitures from him of nearly $290 million.
Arellano Felix and the cartel are accused of 20 homicides in the U.S. and Mexico, McNulty said, and allegedly "recruited, trained and armed groups of bodyguards and assassins" to carry out their day-to-day work. Francisco J. Ortiz Franco, an editor at Tijuana's crusading weekly newspaper Zeta, was killed two years ago after a series of stories on the cartel.
The Tijuana-based group is accused of smuggling heroin and methamphetamine, and authorities believe it built an elaborate 2,400-foot tunnel that crossed the U.S. border to a San Diego-area warehouse. The tunnel was discovered in January.
With the cartel's power diminished, Mexican officials are bracing for rival organizations to seek a takeover of the Tijuana and Mexicali smuggling corridors.
Hundreds of killings in Mexico in the last year are linked to the war between the Gulf cartel - now allied with Arellano Felix - and a Sinaloa-based group headed by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada.
At stake are Mexico's most lucrative trans-border smuggling routes to Texas, California and Arizona.
By Sam Enriquez and Greg Krikorian, Times Staff Writers
9:39 AM PDT, August 17, 2006
Authorities say the Arellano Felix gang, though weakened by the killing of one brother and the imprisonment of another, remains one of Mexico's largest drug-smuggling organizations since joining forces last year with the Gulf cartel.
Prosecutors say the gang hired assassins to kidnap, torture and kill adversaries in a struggle to dominate lucrative smuggling routes that link Mexico and California.
"The Arellano Felix organization is the largest and most violent drug-trafficking operation in the Tijuana, Baja California, area," U.S. Deputy Atty. Gen. Paul J. McNulty said at a Washington news conference where the arrests were announced.
Acting on a tip, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration asked Coast Guard officers to board the Dock Holiday on Monday, McNulty said. Seven other adults and three juveniles were also taken into custody, he said.
U.S. authorities had hoped to delay announcement of the arrests until they brought Arellano Felix to San Diego, but Mexican news reports surfaced Wednesday.
"This was a perfectly planned and perfectly executed operation," said U.S. Atty. Carol C. Lam of San Diego, whose office filed the 2003 indictment. Authorities gave no details of how they knew about the fishing trip or what was found aboard the vessel. Mexican government officials declined to comment.
The indictment against Arellano Felix "specifies his role in the enterprise as the one who participated in the most major decisions," McNulty said.
Authorities said Arellano Felix began working for the cartel when he was 22. He faces life in prison if convicted on charges related to the cartel's alleged purchase of tons of cocaine from Colombia that was smuggled into California through Mexico via tunnels, vehicles, aircraft and backpacks beginning in 1986. The cartel is accused of trading money and guns for cocaine from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a leftist rebel group.
Arellano Felix is "one of the 45 most notorious, most wanted drug traffickers in the world," said Michael Braun, the DEA's assistant administrator for operations in Washington. The government is seeking forfeitures from him of nearly $290 million.
Arellano Felix and the cartel are accused of 20 homicides in the U.S. and Mexico, McNulty said, and allegedly "recruited, trained and armed groups of bodyguards and assassins" to carry out their day-to-day work. Francisco J. Ortiz Franco, an editor at Tijuana's crusading weekly newspaper Zeta, was killed two years ago after a series of stories on the cartel.
The Tijuana-based group is accused of smuggling heroin and methamphetamine, and authorities believe it built an elaborate 2,400-foot tunnel that crossed the U.S. border to a San Diego-area warehouse. The tunnel was discovered in January.
With the cartel's power diminished, Mexican officials are bracing for rival organizations to seek a takeover of the Tijuana and Mexicali smuggling corridors.
Hundreds of killings in Mexico in the last year are linked to the war between the Gulf cartel - now allied with Arellano Felix - and a Sinaloa-based group headed by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada.
At stake are Mexico's most lucrative trans-border smuggling routes to Texas, California and Arizona.
By Sam Enriquez and Greg Krikorian, Times Staff Writers
9:39 AM PDT, August 17, 2006
Fransico Javier Arrelano Felix
