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 News from Around the Americas | August 2006 
US Arrests Mexican Drug Tunnel Kingpin
 Michael J. Sniffen - Associated Press
| | Javier Arellano Felix in an undated photo. U.S. officials have arrested Felix, a leader of one of Mexico's most feared drug cartels, a federal law enforcement official said on Wednesday. (Reuters) |
Federal agents arrested Mexican drug lord Francisco Javier Arellano-Felix off the shore of Mexico, nabbing the leader of a violent gang responsible for digging elaborate smuggling tunnels under the U.S. border, officials said Wednesday.
Arellano-Felix, 37, was captured by Drug Enforcement Administration agents and the U.S. Coast Guard on Monday while he was deep-sea fishing about 15 miles off the coast of Mexico's Baja California peninsula, said Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty.
Arellano-Felix 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.
McNulty said the gang was blamed for 20 murders in the United States and Mexico.
Another law enforcement official said two suspected assassins for the gang were among the eight adults and three juveniles on the sport fishing boat, the Dock Holiday.
The Arellano-Felix gang is one of the three large Mexican drug cartels, along with the Gulf Cartel and the Federacion. The Arellano-Felix gang is believed to be responsible for the massive 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.
Federal 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 law enforcement official said. They enlisted the help of the Coast Guard in mounting the operation.
Arellano-Felix was named in a federal indictment that was unsealed in California in July, 2003. The indictment charged him with participating in a drug trafficking conspiracy. The State Department has offered $5 million rewards for the capture of him or his brother Eduardo.
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. |
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