![]() Associated Press Javier Arellano-Felix |
The federal law enforcement official added that Arellano-Felix, 37, was captured by the U.S. Coast Guard Monday while he was deep sea fishing abroad a sport fishing boat, the Dock Holiday, off the coast of Mexico's Baja California peninsula.
Two suspected assassins for the gang were among the eight adults and three juveniles on the boat, the law enforcement official said.
The drug kingpin, 37, 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 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, sophisticated drug tunnels discovered last January.
The tunnels ended in a warehouse in Otay Mesa, just south of San Diego. 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 Justice Department has 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.”
The Arellano Felix family gang was once Mexico's most powerful and feared drug cartel, running a vast smuggling operation out of the gritty border city of Tijuana.
| ||||||
Still, anti-narotics experts say the family is still very much in business and has cut deals with the Gulf cartel based in Mexico's northeastern state of Tamaulipas.
Members of the Arellano-Felix organization, including Javier, were indicted in the United States in 2003 for racketeering, conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine and marijuana and money laundering. The U.S. government had offered a reward of up to $5 million for information on Javier Arellano-Felix or his brother Eduardo.
Their gang is believed to be responsible for the massive, sophisticated drug tunnels discovered between Tijuana and San Diego 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.
Turf wars across Mexico claimed more than 1,000 lives in the last year.
Comments