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Violent Drug Kingpin Nabbed While Fishing Coast Guard, DEA Catch Him Aboard Boat
POSTED: 1:19 pm MDT August 16, 2006 UPDATED: 1:34 pm MDT August 16, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Federal law enforcement agents have arrested Mexican drug lord Francisco Javier Arellano-Felix, a leader of a major violent gang responsible for digging elaborate tunnels to smuggle drugs under the U.S. border.
* DEA Site: ARELLANO-FELIX ORGANIZATION
A Justice Department official said the 37-year-old Arellano-Felix was captured by the U.S. Coast Guard Monday while he was deep-sea fishing aboard a sport fishing boat, the Dock Holiday, off the coast of the Baja California peninsula.
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 law enforcement official said two suspected assassins for the gang were among the eight adults and three juveniles on the boat.
The Justice official and the federal law enforcement official requested anonymity because the arrest has yet to be officially announced.
Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Washington — The Coast Guard caught Mexican drug lord Francisco Javier Arellano Felix deep-sea fishing off Mexico, decapitating a murderous cartel 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. local time 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. However, he added, “much more remains to be done.”
Braun said, “We're piling on this organization because they are extremely vulnerable right now.”
The cartel 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 is towing the fishing boat, the Dock Holiday, back to San Diego where DEA agents will 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 today.
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 U.S. and Mexico.
The Arellano Felix gang is believed to be responsible for the massive drug tunnels discovered last January.
The longest tunnel stretched 2,400 feet from a warehouse near the Tijuana airport to a warehouse in San Diego's Otay Mesa industrial district.
More than 2 tons of marijuana were found in the tunnel.
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