Federal drug agents and the Coast Guard arrested Mexican drug lord Javier Arellano-Felix, a leader of a violent gang responsible for digging elaborate tunnels to smuggle drugs under the U.S. border, a Justice Department official said Wednesday.
The official said the Arellano-Felix, 37, was apprehended off the Southern California coast. He is wanted in both the United States and Mexico for his role as a leader in the violent and sophisticated Tijuana-based Arellano-Felix gang, which includes seven brothers and four sisters from the Arellano family. The official requested anonymity because he spoke before the official announcement of the arrest.
The Justice Department called an afternoon news conference with Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen, and Drug Enforcement Administration Chief of Operations Michael Braun to announce what it called "the arrest of a high-profile narcotics target."
Arellano-Felix was named in a federal indictment that was unsealed in California in July 2003. The State Department has offered $5 million in rewards for the capture of him or his brother Eduardo.
Their gang is believed to be responsible for the massive, sophisticated drug tunnels discovered last January. The DEA says the gang is also responsible for multiple murders and the smuggling of tons of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines over the last decade.
The official said the Arellano-Felix, 37, was apprehended off the Southern California coast.
i suppose he was on a large yacht?
There is little organizational difference between a drug cartel and an Islamic terrorist organization. Mr. Felix has likely already been replaced.
sounds like he was fishing off of the Baja peninsula..
Here's an update to earlier article and another article as well about him being the cartel's violent hand
Feds catch major Mexican drug kingpin on fishing outing off Baja
http://www.bakersfield.com/119/story/68047.html By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN - ap
The Coast Guard caught Mexican drug lord Francisco Javier Arellano-Felix deep-sea fishing off Mexico, decapitating a murderous gang that dug smuggling tunnels under the U.S. border, officials said Wednesday.
Arellano-Felix, 36, was captured when the crew of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Monsoon boarded a U.S.-registered sport fishing boat at 9 a.m. Monday about 15 miles off the coast of Mexico's Baja California peninsula, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen told a news conference.
"We've taken the head off the snake," said Michael Braun, chief of operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration. DEA agents discovered Arellano-Felix's fishing plans and asked the Coast Guard to seize the boat in international waters.
"This is a huge blow" to one of the three largest Mexican drug cartels, Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty said. But, he said, "much more remains to be done."
Braun added, "We're piling on this organization because they are extremely vulnerable right now."
The gang was once led by seven brothers and four sisters, but Braun noted that Javier's brother Ramon was killed in a shootout with police in 2002, his brother Benjamin is in a Mexican prison and brother Eduardo, while at large in Mexico, is not considered "capable of leading the organization at this time."
"That's not to say that there aren't one or more others capable of stepping up and running it," Braun said.
The cutter Monsoon was towing the fishing boat, the Dock Holiday, back to San Diego where DEA agents will formally arrest Arellano-Felix and others among the eight adults and three juveniles who were captured on board.
Officials anticipated announcing additional charges against the group in San Diego on Thursday.
Arellano-Felix is wanted in both the United States and Mexico for his role as leader of the violent and sophisticated Tijuana-based Arellano-Felix gang, which McNulty said was blamed in a 2003 U.S. indictment for 20 murders in the United States and Mexico.
One law enforcement official said two suspected assassins for the Arellano-Felix gang were among those aboard the Dock Holiday. He requested anonymity because he was speaking before officials officially released the list of passengers.
The Arellano-Felix gang, along with the Gulf Cartel and the Federacion, are the largest Mexican drug cartels. The Arellano-Felix gang is believed to be responsible for the huge drug tunnels discovered last January.
The tunnels ended in a warehouse in San Diego's Otay Mesa industrial district. The DEA says the gang is responsible for the smuggling of tons of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines over the last decade.
Braun said the Arellano-Felix gang was involved in smuggling multiple tons of cocaine from all three major cocaine-producing countries in Latin America - Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. McNulty said the gang received some cocaine from FARC, a leftist revolutionary guerrilla group in Colombia.
Federal drug agents began preparing for the operation 14 months ago after learning that Arellano-Felix was planning to go fishing aboard the vessel off La Paz, Mexico, the U.S. officials announced. The agents enlisted the help of the Coast Guard in mounting the operation and were assisted throughout by Mexican law enforcement officers, McNulty said.
Arellano-Felix was among 11 individuals named in a federal indictment unsealed in California in July 2003. The indictment charged racketeering and money laundering and drug trafficking conspiracies. It sought forfeiture of $300 million in illegal profits. Some of the counts carried maximum penalties of life in prison.
The State Department has offered $5 million rewards for the capture of Javier or his brother Eduardo. McNulty said there was no indication whether anyone would receive the award for Javier's capture.
Javier Arellano-Felix was charged in Mexico in 1993 with conspiring to assassinate Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Posadas Ocampo, U.S. officials said.
The suspected Arellano-Felix assassins captured with Javier were identified as Arturo Villareal-Heredia and Marco "El Catoro" Fernandez, the law enforcement official said.
Alleged Mexican drug kingpin said to be cartel's 'violent hand'
By ELLIOT SPAGAT - ap
http://www.bakersfield.com/119/story/68065.html Francisco Javier Arellano Felix was a suspected strongman in one of Mexico's oldest and most notorious drug cartels until his capture aboard a U.S.-registered sport fishing boat.
"In the underworld, he was known as the enforcer. He was the violent hand, the one in charge of executions," said Victor Clark Alfaro, director of the Binational Center for Human Rights in Tijuana, Mexico, the home to the cartel.
"He was no financier, he was no businessman," Alfaro said.
Arellano Felix, 36, also known as El Tigrillo, was en route Wednesday to San Diego, where he will be formally arrested after being captured by the U.S. Coast Guard on Monday off Mexico's Baja California coast.
Jesus Blancornelas, co-founder of the Zeta newspaper in Tijuana, said Arellano Felix was overshadowed by other family members in the cartel.
"Francisco Javier was a sort of playboy," said Blancornelas, who has chronicled the Tijuana drug trade for decades. "He likes to spend money and enjoy his fame. He drives around in luxury cars."
Arellano Felix is believed to have ordered many killings but typically was not the triggerman, Blancornelas said.
Arellano Felix was charged in 2003 with 10 counts of conspiracy and racketeering. He allegedly conspired to assassinate Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo in 1993 at the airport in Guadalajara, U.S. officials said.
"We've taken the head off the snake," Michael Braun, chief of operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said at a news conference in Washington.
Other observers were more guarded about the influence of Arellano Felix and the drug cartel.
The gang is believed to have lost influence after the arrest of its leader, Benjamin Arellano Felix, in 2002 and the death of his brother, Ramon, that same year.
"Their golden age was in the '90s, but they have a remarkable capacity to reinvent themselves and confront adversity," Clark said.
Mexico's top drug gangs are now believed to be the Juarez cartel, based in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, and the Gulf cartel, based in Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas.
Benjamin Arellano Felix has allegedly formed an alliance with Gulf cartel leader Osiel Cardenas. Both are being held at the top-security La Palma prison, west of Mexico City.