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 News from Around the Americas | April 2007 
Big Mexican Drug Cartel Suffers Blow
 Kelly Thornton - San Diego Union-Tribune
| | A man (C) whom police say is a member of a Mexican drug cartel is presented to the media during a news conference at the headquarters of the Attorney General in Mexico City April 23, 2007. (Reuters/Daniel Aguilar) |
San Diego, CA – Two Mexican brothers have pleaded guilty to racketeering charges stemming from their senior positions in the Arellano Félix drug organization, and both have made the most sweeping admissions to date about their bosses and the cartel's violent methods.
Gilberto Higuera Guerrero, 39, and his brother, Ismael Higuera Guerrero, 46, acknowledged in plea agreements unsealed yesterday that they had been high-ranking cartel lieutenants until their arrests, and that they had bribed, kidnapped, tortured and murdered at the behest of the Arellano brothers, including fellow defendant Francisco Javier Arellano Félix.
“I would say in the history of prosecutions involving the Arellano Félix organization, to my knowledge these are the highest-level cooperators (authorities have) ever had, and if you're an Arellano, this would appear to be a sinister development,” said criminal defense lawyer Geoffrey Morrison, who has represented alleged members of various drug cartels. “The scope and gravity of their admissions are breathtaking.”
Prosecutors and defense attorneys declined to say whether the plea deals – which call for a 30-year sentence for Gilberto and 40 years for Ismael – require the Higuera brothers to cooperate with the government and provide testimony at the Jan. 22 trial of Francisco Javier Arellano Félix, who is in custody in San Diego.
At the government's request, U.S. District Judge Larry Burns kept portions of the two plea agreements sealed – an indication that cooperation is not only possible, but likely, legal experts said.
In any case, the brothers clearly provided some information to the government. During Gilberto's hearing yesterday, a prosecutor took the unusual step of reading aloud admissions contained in the defendant's plea agreement, then asked him to confirm each one.
Among the admissions:
The Higuera brothers carried out acts of violence and participated in drug trafficking upon orders from the Arellano brothers – Benjamin, Eduardo, Francisco Javier and the deceased Ramon. The prosecutor asked Gilberto Higuera whether Francisco Javier – the one in U.S. custody – became the boss, along with Eduardo, after Ramon's death and Benjamin's arrest in 2002. “Yes, it is true,” Gilberto told the court.
When asked whether he and others had arranged regular payments of bribes to government, military and law enforcement officials in Mexico in exchange for “protection and assistance,” Gilberto answered, “Yes, it is true.” The older brother, Ismael, made similar admissions during a secret hearing March 16, when he pleaded guilty.
The Higuera brothers carried out acts of violence and murder against enemies, rivals, law enforcement officers and traitors who, like them, turned on the cartel and provided information to the government.
The brothers said they and the Arellano bosses received multi-ton shipments of cocaine from Columbia and moved the drugs to the United States via commercial fishing boats, private planes, commercial airliners and cargo ships, convoys of vehicles and large commercial trucks and personal vehicles. The drug lords obtained military and law enforcement uniforms and credentials to operate with impunity.
The prosecutor's public questioning of Gilberto Higuera was not required, but “has a dramatic flair to it, and telegraphs a message – 'We're going to convict you' – to the other defendants,” said defense attorney Morrison, who is not involved in this case.
According to the terms of the plea deals, Gilberto also agreed to forfeit $1 million in profits from the drug trade, while Ismael agreed to a $5 million forfeiture. Each could have faced at least 60 years, and perhaps more than 100 years, in prison if convicted by a jury.
“The Higuera Guerrero brothers were leaders in what was once the towering Arellano Félix drug cartel that laid claim to and terrorized the Tijuana corridor leading into the United States,” said Karen Tandy, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration. “These pleas, along with the arrests of six other top lieutenants of this Tijuana cartel, are breaking the back of this once-terrifying network.”
The Arellano organization, famous for ruthless killings as it smuggled millions of dollars' worth of cocaine and other drugs to the United States, controlled the flow of illegal narcotics through the Baja California border for almost two decades, but they lost many top leaders through arrests or killings in recent years. Mexicali is no longer considered a stronghold for the cartel, which maintains a base in the Tijuana area.
Francisco Javier Arellano and Manuel Arturo Villarreal Herédia – an alleged Arellano lieutenant who also is being held in solitary confinement – were arrested by U.S. officials on a sport-fishing boat off Cabo San Lucas in August and indicted by a San Diego federal grand jury in December on drug, racketeering, conspiracy and money-laundering charges. The indictment says they and members of the cartel kidnapped, tortured and murdered rivals, police officials and informants. They could face the death penalty if convicted.
The Higuera brothers were indicted by a federal grand jury in San Diego in 1998. They were arrested a couple of years later in Mexico, and were extradited to the United States in January on the condition that U.S. officials would not seek the death penalty.
U.S. Attorney Karen Hewitt praised Mexican officials yesterday, saying the pleas “could not have occurred” without their cooperation.
Kelly Thornton: (619) 542-4571; kelly.thornton@uniontrib.com |
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