BajaNomad - Anybody know the boat Dock Holliday out of La Paz?

Anybody know the boat Dock Holliday out of La Paz?

The Sculpin - 8-16-2006 at 12:07 PM

Associated Press
Feds Arrest Mexican Drug Kingpin
By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN , 08.16.2006, 01:41 PM

Federal law enforcement agents 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, a Justice Department official said Wednesday.

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.

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 had not yet been officially announced.

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 Otey Mesa, Calif., 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.

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.

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 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.

Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

Cincodemayo - 8-16-2006 at 01:08 PM

Should have just sent a drone with a hellfire missile to erradicate the scum....but nevertheless congrats to law officials!

[Edited on 8-16-2006 by Cincodemayo]

Cypress - 8-16-2006 at 01:56 PM

Hellfire missles? Good idea Cinco! Other than having the juvies onboard it would be a simple solution. Talk about a chum slick!

JESSE - 8-16-2006 at 02:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Cincodemayo
Should have just sent a drone with a hellfire missile to erradicate the scum....but nevertheless congrats to law officials!

[Edited on 8-16-2006 by Cincodemayo]

I think the live capture was better, it will send an example, it will provide tons of intelligence, and it will be nice to see him in orange jumpsuits for a change.

JESSE - 8-16-2006 at 02:09 PM

I should add that even more important than capturing the young Arellano Felix, is capturing his top enforcer Arturo Villareal-Heredia alias "el nalgon", HE is the man, the muscle, the guy that controls the crews. Take Arellano down alone and Heredia would keep the show running, but take Heredia AND Arellano down, and you got a cartel in deep trouble.

Bob H - 8-16-2006 at 02:23 PM

Arellano-Felix is in the custody of the U.S. Coast Guard on board the cutter Monsoon. He will be brought ashore in San Diego, where he has been indicted and will be arraigned.

Drug lord arrested deep-sea fishing off Mexico coast

BajaNews - 8-16-2006 at 03:45 PM

http://www.dailynews.com/ci_4191052

08/16/2006
BY MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN

WASHINGTON (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. 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 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 were to 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 U.S. 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 the list of passengers was officially released.

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 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 two tons of marijuana were found in the tunnel. The DEA says the gang is responsible for smuggling of tons of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines over the last decade.

In addition, 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 Coast Guard's help in mounting the operation and were helped 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.

bajajudy - 8-16-2006 at 05:20 PM

"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. "

I am sorry but I find it hard to believe that someone in his position would make plans 14 months in advance to do anything. Wasnt he on the run?

JESSE - 8-16-2006 at 05:58 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bajajudy
"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. "

I am sorry but I find it hard to believe that someone in his position would make plans 14 months in advance to do anything. Wasnt he on the run?

I am with you on that one.

bancoduo - 8-16-2006 at 06:13 PM

Quote:

federal agents! :cool:

The Sculpin - 8-16-2006 at 08:21 PM

That's why I used the boat byline.
If this guy - who can get anything he wants - had to wait 14 months to get on this boat, that must be one hell of a capitan!

aldosalato - 8-16-2006 at 09:37 PM

This morning Sudcaliforniano newspaper reported Mexican Navy detained the boat out at sea before any other newssource. WHat probably happened is Arellano and compadres were handed over to the US coast guard in international waters.

Dave - 8-16-2006 at 09:48 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by JESSE
it will provide tons of intelligence

I'll bet there are certain politicos in TJ who are just a little bit nervous.

And speaking of TJ:

It would be wise to cancel a casual Sunday drive for the next few weeks. Things are liable to get dicey.

Better Alive than Dead

MrBillM - 8-17-2006 at 09:11 AM

As much as he richly deserves a slow and painful death, killing him would have accomplished little. It was pointed out last night that the Cartels have been quick to replace any leaders caught or killed without any noticeable slowdown of their activities. There are an abundance of deputies eager to assume the top spot. We can only hope that he will provide some worthy intelligence and be satisfied knowing that he will never again in his life see a day of freedom.

Cincodemayo - 8-17-2006 at 10:42 AM

So was the boat siezed and conviscated or was it hired by the dipchit?
Curious to see if Felix starts ratting on all the other scumbags.

Bob H - 8-17-2006 at 11:43 AM

I saw an article that said the 43-foot fishing vessel "Dock Holiday" (only one L) is a U.S. flagged ship. It also stated that it was "privately owned"
Bob H

Cincodemayo - 8-17-2006 at 11:49 AM

Curious how the information got out to the authorities...hope the boat owner doesn't get snuffed out thinking it was them. Time to rename the boat Felix the Cat....

toneart - 8-17-2006 at 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by MrBillM
As much as he richly deserves a slow and painful death, killing him would have accomplished little. It was pointed out last night that the Cartels have been quick to replace any leaders caught or killed without any noticeable slowdown of their activities. There are an abundance of deputies eager to assume the top spot. We can only hope that he will provide some worthy intelligence and be satisfied knowing that he will never again in his life see a day of freedom.

Don't be too sure...cartel kingpins at this level have escaped prison in the past. Too many connections, inside and out. It would be great though, if this could be their unravelling.... Just wishful thinking.

JESSE - 8-17-2006 at 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dave

Quote:

Originally posted by JESSE
it will provide tons of intelligence

I'll bet there are certain politicos in TJ who are just a little bit nervous.

And speaking of TJ:

It would be wise to cancel a casual Sunday drive for the next few weeks. Things are liable to get dicey.

The dogs might be nervous at Caliente.

Dave - 8-17-2006 at 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by JESSE
The dogs might be nervous at Caliente.

And their master.

bancoduo - 8-17-2006 at 05:59 PM

The boat is registered to Tom Zeluff of Point Loma; says the world boating news from France. :?:

[Edited on 8-18-2006 by bancoduo]

[Edited on 8-18-2006 by bancoduo]

Capture of drug lord: 'It doesn't get any better'

BajaNews - 8-17-2006 at 10:03 PM

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20060817-1415-bn17c...

By Angelica Martinez and Greg Gross
August 17, 2006
Associated Press

SAN DIEGO ? U.S. and Mexican authorities said Thursday the arrest of drug lord Javier Arellano Felix was a major coup that hit the Tijuana-based cartel hard, but one that could lead to more violence.

Arrellano arrived Thursday morning in San Diego to face drug conspiracy charges a day after his arrest aboard a fishing boat off the Baja California coast was announced.

Arellano was brought into San Diego Bay aboard a U.S. Coast Guard cutter just after 8 a.m. and taken to the Coast Guard base on Harbor Drive near the Lindbergh Field escorted by federal authorities.

Security was heavy as U.S. Coast Guard cutter Petrel docked across from Lindbergh Field. A high-speed runabout from the Department of Homeland Security, as well as several small Coast Guard craft armed with machine guns, stood by in San Diego Bay.

Arrellano was taken to San Diego's federal courthouse, again under heavy security, to begin his legal proceedings.

?In the world of drug law enforcement, it doesn't get any better,? said John S. Fernandes, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's San Diego office, said at a crowded news conference at the U.S. District Attorney's offices downtown

?This is huge. The opportunity to capture a drug lord the caliber of Javier Arellano Felix is a unique event.?

Fernandes said Arellano's capture signals ?the end of two decades of the most. . . powerful and violent drug-trafficking organization.?

Authorities, however, said they don't expect an immediate cease in drug trafficking or violence related to the cartel, on either side of the border.

?In drug trafficking we're not naive enough to think that drug trafficking is going to stop,? said FBI Daniel R. Dzwilewski, special agent in charge of the FBI's local office.

Fernandes said violence will likely result as members of the organization and competing cartels fight for control of the lucrative drug trade.

Arrellano's long-awaited capture came Monday after a tip led authorities to international waters 15 nautical miles from La Paz, Mexico where Arellano and 11 others, including three children, were aboard a deep-sea fishing boat.

Two of the seven other men aboard the boat were identified by U.S. officials as assassins for the cartel, Arturo ?El Nalgon? Villareal Heredia and Marco ?El Catorro? Fernandez.

U.S. Coast Guard officers said they trained and prepared for the arrest, running through potential scenarios, before they stopped the fishing vessel and arrested those onboard. The group gave little resistance, officials said.

One of the children aboard is believed to be Arellano's son, another his nephew, officials said. The relationship of the third child to the men on the boat was not known. The children were being sent back to Mexico to be reunited with relatives.

Known as ?El Tigrillo,? or ?little tiger,? Arellano, 37, is one of seven leaders in the Arellano Felix organization named in a U.S. indictment unsealed in San Diego in 2003.

The indictment charges Arellano and others with racketeering, conspiracy to import tons of marijuana and cocaine, and conspiracy to launder money. Mexican authorities have also linked the cartel to the killings of Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo of Guadalajara in 1993 and of Tijuana Police Chief Federico Benitez in 1994.

DEA agents kept close watch on the Federal Building downtown as officials announced Arellano's arrest inside. They said his capture makes the drug cartel a defunct organization.

For the better part of two decades, the Arellano drug cartel engaged in open drug trafficking, ?becoming rich by feeding off of the addiction of others and wielding the power to murder, corruption, threats and violence,? U.S. Attorney Carol Lam said in the news conference.

Jose Luis Santiago Vasconselos, Mexico's deputy attorney general for organized crime, thanked U.S. authorities for their collaboration and said his country's fight against drug trafficking will continue.

Speaking in Spanish, with an interpreter, Vasconselos said authorities will now focus their attention on corrupt police officers in Tijuana who are suspected of helping the cartel conduct its operations.

He also said authorities will work to maintain peace in Tijuana, where countless homicides often involved individuals involved in drug-trafficking.

Arellano is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday afternoon. He faces life in prison if convicted of the charges in the 2003 indictment, but prosecutors could add charges that could result in the death penalty.

[Edited on 8-18-2006 by BajaNews]

Suspected drug kingpin pleads not guilty

BajaNews - 8-17-2006 at 10:20 PM

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/4125040.html

By ALLISON HOFFMAN

SAN DIEGO ? Suspected drug kingpin Francisco Javier Arellano Felix pleaded not guilty to racketeering and conspiracy charges Thursday after arriving on U.S. soil in a Coast Guard boat and being whisked to a downtown jail under heavy security.

Arellano Felix did not speak during the brief hearing. His court-appointed attorney, Leila Morgan, pleaded not guilty on his behalf to racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to import and distribute controlled substances, and money laundering.

Arellano Felix, 36, had been captured on a sport boat in international waters Monday along with seven other men, including Arturo Villarreal Heredia, who U.S. authorities said was probably his second-in-command.

"There is no discernible leader left to fill the void" in the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix cartel, said John Fernandes, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's San Diego office. "I don't consider this organization disrupted. I consider this organization defunct."

The men arrived on a U.S. Coast Guard boat at the agency's harborside facility around 8:15 a.m. The group was escorted to a waiting motorcade of police vehicles and unmarked Chevy Suburbans as snipers watched from atop a nearby hangar.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Leo S. Papas scheduled a bail hearing Monday for Arellano Felix. After the defendant left the courtroom, the seven others entered and were ordered held as material witnesses.

Arellano Felix's son was among three children ages 5 to 11 who also were on the 43-foot yacht, said Carol Lam, the U.S. attorney in San Diego. One was apparently a nephew, and the third child's identity was unclear.

The children were brought to the United States and will be returned to Mexico, Fernandes said at a news conference.

Coast Guard Rear Adm. Jody Breckinridge said that Mexican authorities did not participate in the arrest and that Arellano Felix showed little resistance.

In Mexico, Attorney General Daniel Cabeza de Vaca said Thursday that the arrest "totally devastated" the cartel. Some experts, however said it would not mean much to the organization or to the larger fight against drug trafficking in Mexico.

Cabeza de Vaca also said Mexico would seek Arellano Felix's extradition to Mexico, but perhaps not until he had been tried and sentenced for crimes in the United States.

Arellano Felix was among 11 people charged in 2003 with 10 counts of conspiracy and racketeering. He is suspected of conspiring to assassinate Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo in 1993 at the airport in Guadalajara, U.S. officials said.

The indictment accuses Arellano Felix, 36, and others of moving tons of Colombian cocaine and Mexican marijuana to the United States along the California-Mexico border. The Arellano Felix gang is believed to be responsible for large border drug tunnels discovered last January.

They are also accused of kidnapping, torturing and killing rivals and bribing Mexican officials. The indictment links Arellano Felix to a 1996 killing in Coronado, Calif., near San Diego, and a 1992 shootout at a disco in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

The Arellano Felix gang emerged as a drug powerhouse in the 1980s in Tijuana, Mexico, across the border from San Diego, but its influence has waned lately. It recently ceded control of Mexicali, an important drug corridor about 120 miles east of Tijuana, said John Kirby, a former federal prosecutor in San Diego who worked on the 2003 indictment.

Kirby said Arellano Felix led the Tijuana clan almost by default in 2002 when the gang lost two of his older brothers: Benjamin, who was jailed, and Ramon, who was killed.

Benjamin Arellano Felix has continued to issue orders from jail in Mexico, but his younger brother was the top lieutenant in the field, said Kirby.

The State Department had offered $5 million rewards for the capture of Francisco Javier or his brother Eduardo. Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty said there was no indication whether anyone would receive the award for Francisco Javier's capture.

Federal drug agents began preparing for the latest operation 14 months ago after learning that Arellano Felix was planning a fishing trip. The agents enlisted the Coast Guard's help and were helped throughout by Mexican law enforcement officers.

Federal authorities learned of the fishing trip four months ago, said DEA spokesman Dan Simmons.

U.S. authorities identified others arrested on the boat as Marco Villanueva Fernandez, Edgar Omar Osorio, Luis Raul Jiminez Toledo, Francisco Javier Mesa Castro, Ernesto Gonzales Fimbles and Jose Luis Betancourt Espinoza.

Alleged Mexican Drug Lord Pleads Not Guilty

BajaNews - 8-17-2006 at 10:23 PM

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-felix18aug18,0,72353...

By Richard Marosi
August 17, 2006

SAN DIEGO -- Authorities knew the alleged Mexican drug kingpin didn't like to give up without a fight. In 1994 when police tried to arrest Francisco Javier Arellano Felix in Tijuana, Mexico, a federal police commander and four other people died in a shootout that led to his escape.

So on Tuesday, as a U.S. Coast Guard vessel edged up to a fishing boat off the coast of Baja California, about 30 heavily armed coast guardsmen prepared for a potentially bloody encounter.

Instead, the alleged drug cartel leader let them board, and he and 10 others were escorted off the Dock Holiday without incident. On the two-day sail to San Diego, Arellano Felix's son and nephew played video games while crew members kept a close watch on the stunned Arellano Felix.

"He was surprised," said John Fernandes, special agent in charge of the Drug and Enforcement Administration office in San Diego. "They went out fishing, and they ended up being the fish."

Despite Arellano Felix's meek surrender, authorities weren't taking any chances when he arrived here Thursday morning. Sharpshooters stood by as a police motorcade drove Arellano Felix, 36, from the port to the downtown federal detention facility.

At his afternoon arraignment, the gaunt-looking Arellano Felix -- still dressed in his orange flip-flops and checked green shorts -- grimly pressed his lips and nodded when his court-appointed attorney entered a not guilty plea to charges of smuggling, murder and conspiracy.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Leo Papas scheduled a bail hearing for Monday.

According to the indictment, filed in 2003, Arellano Felix is a member of an organization that during its height in the late 1990s was believed to be supplying nearly half the cocaine sold in the U.S. The cartel is blamed for scores of slayings of police officers, journalists and rivals, as well as the accidental killing of Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posados Ocampo at the Guadalajara airport in 1993.

U.S. and Mexican authorities, whose joint investigations have at times been marred by mistrust, held a news conference in San Diego, where they emphasized the close cooperation between the countries on the case.

Authorities, citing the ongoing investigation, released few details but said a key break in the 3-year manhunt came four months ago when Mexican authorities shared information with DEA agents that Arellano Felix had bought a fishing boat.

Acting on a tip, U.S. authorities sent a Coast Guard vessel to intercept the boat in international waters off the tip of Baja California. Arellano Felix was apparently on a fishing trip with three children, ages 5 to 11.

Among the seven men also aboard was Arturo Villarreal-Heredia, an alleged assassin for the Arellano Felix cartel. Mexico's attorney general, Daniel Francisco Cabeza de Vaca, said that the men may have been heading for a meeting with other cartel members.

The guardsmen on the U.S. Coast Guard vessel had prepared for all possible scenarios, said Rear Admiral Jody Breckenridge, commander of the 11th Coast Guard district in San Diego. But when they boarded, the men surrendered without incident.

There were no drugs or weapons found, she said. On the way back to San Diego, the men were not handcuffed. There are no holding cells in the vessel, but the suspects were kept in a "controlled environment," Breckenridge said.

The children chatted with crew members and played video games, she said. They have been flown to Mexico City, where a social services agency will care for them until family members claim custody.

Cabeza de Vaca, in an interview in Mexico City, said it appeared that Arellano Felix had had plastic surgery performed on his face to change his appearance. He said the alleged drug kingpin traveled routinely to San Diego under a false identity, and that the boat excursion started in the U.S.

Authorities could only speculate why one of Mexico's most wanted men went down without a fight. Some said he didn't want to endanger the lives of the children. Others said he may have grown tired of running and having a $5 million reward hanging over his head.

"Sometimes you're just relieved that it's over," said Dan Simmons, a DEA spokesman in San Diego. "I wonder if he said to himself, `What's the use?' "

Arrest of a suspected mastermind in Ortiz Franco murder

BajaNews - 8-17-2006 at 10:25 PM

http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/americas/mexico17aug06na.html

New York, August 17, 2006?The Committee to Protect Journalists today urged Mexican authorities to investigate the suspected involvement of Arturo Villarreal in the 2004 killing of a Tijuana newspaper editor. Villareal was picked up as part of a drug sweep by U.S. security services on August 14.

A Mexican prosecutor last year identified Villarreal, who is known by the nickname ?El Nalg?n,? as one of two masterminds in the June 22, 2004 shooting of Zeta editor Francisco Ortiz Franco.

?We are encouraged by the prospect of justice in the murder our colleague Francisco Ortiz Franco,? said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. ?We urge U.S. and Mexican authorities to work together to ensure that Villarreal?s involvement in the Ortiz Franco murder is fully investigated.?

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty said yesterday that U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrested suspected members of the Tijuana drug cartel controlled by the Arellano F?lix family. They were stopped in a fishing boat off Mexico?s Baja California peninsula.

Prosecutor Timothy Coughlin, Chief of the Narcotics Unit for the U.S. Attorney?s Office in San Diego, Calif., told CPJ that Villarreal was among those arrested.

Villareal and suspected drug boss Francisco Javier Arellano F?lix were brought today to San Diego, the San Diego Union Tribune reported. The cartel leader faces drug conspiracy and racketeering charges, the newspaper said.

Villarreal and Jorge Brice?o (known as ?El Cholo?) masterminded the Ortiz Franco murder, according to Mexican prosecutor Jos? Luis Vasconcelos, who leads the organized crime division of the Mexican Attorney General?s office. The actual gunman, Jorge Eduardo Ronquillo Delgado, was killed by fellow cartel members on October 2004, Vasconcelos told CPJ last year.

The Zeta editor was short in broad daylight in a quiet neighborhood near downtown Tijuana.

Mexican federal authorities, who took over the probe in August 2004, believe that Ortiz Franco was killed because of his work as a journalist, and they consider stories he wrote about the Arellano F?lix drug cartel as the probable motive.

In September 2004, a CPJ delegation visited Tijuana to look into Ortiz Franco?s murder. With information gathered during the trip, CPJ published a report in November that year titled ?Free-Fire Zone,? describing how feuds between rival drug cartels over lucrative drug smuggling routes have endangered the lives of journalists, turning the Northern Mexican border into one of the most dangerous places for the practice of journalism in Latin America.

CPJ?s investigation into the Ortiz Franco slaying is at: http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/2004/tijuana/tijuana.html

BajaNews - 8-17-2006 at 10:38 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bancoduo
The boat is registered to Tom Zeluff of Point Loma; says the world boating news from France.

http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=15921

:?:

Bob H - 8-18-2006 at 08:46 AM

This kingpin is kinda short, no? :wow:

Cincodemayo - 8-18-2006 at 10:15 AM

The "Napoleon" syndrome. Kim Jong Ill and the Pres. of Iran...both have it.

JESSE - 8-18-2006 at 12:00 PM

The first guy is not Arellano Felix, its probably an american who worked on the boat.

BajaNomad - 8-18-2006 at 02:16 PM

Jesse,

I think that's him...

Quote:

Originally posted by BajaNews
...At his afternoon arraignment, the gaunt-looking Arellano Felix -- still dressed in his orange flip-flops and checked green shorts...

From the Houston Chronicle article, an artist's rendition from the court proceeding:

Cincodemayo - 8-18-2006 at 03:55 PM

This guy was a real dirtbag...wonder how many holdings he had as in homes and money stashed away. Here is a PBS profile on the scumbag.
A real Al Capone wannabe....actually he was there.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/mexico/etc/are...

bajajudy - 8-18-2006 at 04:24 PM

Rumors are flying around here that this guy has a house in Rancho Leonero. Right on the beach, of course. Built about 2 years ago.

bancoduo - 8-18-2006 at 04:34 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dave

Quote:

Originally posted by JESSE
The dogs might be nervous at Caliente.

And their master.

Mayor Rhon? :cool:

:moon:

[Edited on 8-18-2006 by BajaNomad]

Planning, persistence paid off

BajaNews - 8-18-2006 at 06:17 PM

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20060818-9...

After 14-month operation, cartel leader is arraigned in S.D.

By Onell R. Soto
August 18, 2006

The arrest of the leader of the Arellano F?lix drug cartel this week was the result of intensive police work, international cooperation and more than a year of planning, law enforcement officials said yesterday.

Francisco Javier Arellano F?lix pleaded not guilty to racketeering, conspiracy and other charges in San Diego federal court yesterday, hours after coming off a Coast Guard cutter wearing a bulletproof vest and walking in flip-flops.

?It doesn't get any better,? said John Fernandes, special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration office in San Diego, where agents hatched the plan that led to the arrests.

The notorious Tijuana cartel is accused of moving tons of drugs, paying millions of dollars in bribes and killing scores of rivals and law enforcement officials.

With Arellano behind bars, Mexican and U.S. officials said, his family's drug cartel was ?defunct? and chaos would ensue among those seeking to control narcotics smuggling through Baja California.

Catching its leaders was a priority on both sides of the border.

?These kinds of operations take surveillance, surveillance, surveillance,? Fernandes said. ?That's boots on the ground, or in this case, boots on the water.?

Arellano's top lieutenant, Arturo Villareal Heredia, and Marco Villanueva Fernandez, who the DEA says controlled operations along the California-Mexico border, were among the 11 people aboard the 43-foot boat named Dock Holiday when armed Coast Guard officers approached it Monday in international waters off Baja California Sur.

Agents have been looking for ways to arrest Arellano, 37, and other top cartel leaders for years.

About 14 months ago, they began ?Operation Shadow Game? in a concerted effort to find Arellano and his brother Eduardo, both of whom were indicted in San Diego federal court in 2003.

They put out a $5 million reward for information that would lead to either brother's arrest.

In April, they learned the cartel leaders were planning to use the Dock Holiday, a well-appointed sport-fishing boat that had been purchased in the United States.

Mexican officials said that information came about from interviewing some of the more than 120 members of the Arellano F?lix cartel they have arrested in recent years.

After learning of the boat's existence, the DEA contacted the Coast Guard, which runs cutters along the Pacific coast of Mexico and Central America on drug-interdiction missions, and came up with a variety of scenarios for a high-seas arrest of cartel leaders.

They planned for the possibility the Dock Holiday could have innocent family members aboard.

Agents were aware of the boat's movements. Fernandes wouldn't say how, but he hinted it wasn't from an informant seeking the $5 million.

?No one will be collecting that reward,? he said.

All the while, the DEA was working with Mexican officials on the operation.

?This yacht had made several trips as a test,? Daniel Francisco Cabeza de Vaca Hern?ndez, Mexico's attorney general, told a television interviewer yesterday about the Arellano arrest. ?They became confident after about four trips, and that's when he started to operate on the yacht.?

On learning the boat was in international waters Monday, the DEA notified the Coast Guard. The Monsoon, a Navy ship on loan to the Coast Guard, sent a detachment aboard the Dock Holiday to determine who was aboard.

Agents back in San Diego didn't know for sure whom they would find, Fernandes said.

Eight men and three boys ages 5 to 11 were on the U.S.-flagged Dock Holiday and posed no resistance when approached.

The Monsoon crew questioned the men, asking them for identification and taking their pictures, which they sent back to DEA agents in San Diego.

Although the men used false identities ? a common practice among drug traffickers ? the agents knew they had Arellano, Villareal and Villanueva in custody, according to court filings made public yesterday.

Arellano and Villareal, described as No. 1 and No. 2 in the organization, eventually admitted their true names.

Of the other five men, only one was known to the DEA agents, although only by his nickname. Agents suspect the other men are using fake names.

But they must be important to the cartel, a DEA agent said, simply because the organization wouldn't let them get on a boat with Arellano if they weren't.

Arellano probably wasn't just fishing off the coast when he was caught, said Cabeza de Vaca, the Mexican attorney general.

?We think that he was trying to extend his activities toward the south of the peninsula so it's probable that he was interviewing people,? he said. The eight men and three boys were put aboard the Monsoon and a Coast Guard crew took over the Dock Holiday. The two vessels then started to San Diego several hundred miles away and soon were joined by other Coast Guard cutters, Coast Guard Rear Adm. Jody Breckenridge said.

The Monsoon got to San Diego yesterday morning, and the prized party was taken off in a cordon of security as rooftop snipers looked on and then put in government SUVs for a short trip down Harbor Drive to the federal courthouse.

There, Arellano, still dressed in flip-flops, plaid shorts and a faded orange shirt, appeared before federal Judge Leo S. Papas. A temporary lawyer entered a not guilty plea on Arellano's behalf to racketeering and drug and money-laundering conspiracy charges. He faces decades in prison if convicted.

The lawyer, Leila Morgan of Federal Defenders of San Diego Inc., told the judge that Arellano was unemployed and asked for a government-appointed lawyer. The judge appointed Inge Brauer, a criminal defense lawyer with 30 years of experience, pending a hearing to determine if Arellano can afford to pay his own lawyer.

Prosecutor Laura Duffy told the judge that Arellano is dangerous and would flee if allowed to go free, and the judge set a hearing for Monday to determine whether to grant bail to him or the seven other men who are in custody.

In any case, immigration officials have put a deportation hold on all eight, meaning that they would go into their custody if they tried to post bail.

The boys ? one was Arellano's son, another his nephew, while the third's relationship wasn't spelled out ? were expected to be reunited with family members soon.

Two of the boys are Mexican, one is a U.S. citizen.

Earlier yesterday, during a news conference, authorities said they don't expect an immediate halt in drug trafficking or violence related to the cartel.

?We're not naive enough to think that drug trafficking is going to stop,? said FBI Daniel R. Dzwilewski, special agent in charge of the FBI's local office.

Fernandes said violence will likely result as members of the organization and competing cartels fight for control of the lucrative drug trade.

For the better part of two decades, the Arellano drug cartel engaged in open drug trafficking, ?becoming rich by feeding off of the addiction of others and wielding the power to murder, corruption, threats and violence,? U.S. Attorney Carol Lam said.

Jos? Luis Santiago Vasconselos, Mexico's deputy attorney general for organized crime, thanked U.S. authorities for their collaboration.

Vasconselos said Mexican authorities will now focus their attention on corrupt police officers in Tijuana who are suspected of helping the cartel conduct its operations.

He also said authorities will work to maintain peace in Tijuana, where hundreds of homicides have involved people linked to drug trafficking.

Meanwhile, Arellano's brother Eduardo, who authorities say plays a diminished role in the cartel but who experts on the drug trade say is the real power of the organization, remains at large.

?We're always looking for Eduardo,? the DEA's Fernandes said.

The $5 million reward is still available.

Mexico to request extradition of drug gang boss

BajaNews - 8-18-2006 at 06:19 PM

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20060817-2258-crim...

REUTERS
August 17, 2006

MEXICO CITY ? Mexico will ask the United States to extradite Javier Arellano Felix, the Mexican drug cartel boss captured by U.S. agents this week, the attorney general's office said Thursday.

Arellano Felix ? leader of one of Mexico's most feared cartels ? was arrested by the U.S. Coast Guard, along with 10 other people believed to be part of his organization, on a ship off the coast of La Paz, Mexico.

?The Mexican authorities have the legal obligation, and we are already doing it, to request the extradition of Francisco Javier Arellano Feliz so he also answers for crimes committed in our country,? Attorney General Daniel Cabeza de Vaca said in a statement.

Arellano Felix, nicknamed ?El Tigrillo? (The Wildcat), is wanted in Mexico for murder, possession of illegal weapons and organized crime.

He was taken to San Diego this week to face U.S. charges of racketeering, conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine and marijuana and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

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.

It lost some of its power in 2002, when its enforcer, Ramon Arellano Felix, was killed in a shootout with police and his brother, Benjamin, the gang's mastermind, was arrested.

The family continued to do business, however, and cut deals with the Gulf cartel in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas.

Mexico has intensified its war on drugs crime under President Vicente Fox. There has been a savage wave of killings along the U.S. border and in some Pacific resorts as gangs battle for control of the multibillion dollar cocaine, marijuana and amphetamine trade.

Cabeza de Vaca said investigators were hunting for other cartel members in Tijuana and the nearby port of Ensenada, in the border state of Baja California.

Dave - 8-18-2006 at 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by BajaNews
Cabeza de Vaca said investigators were hunting for other cartel members in Tijuana and the nearby port of Ensenada

Maybe they should look at the stockyards. :rolleyes:

BajaNews - 8-18-2006 at 07:00 PM

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BajaNews - 8-18-2006 at 07:39 PM

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BajaNews - 8-18-2006 at 07:40 PM

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Felix Arrest Said Won't Affect Drug Cartel

BajaNews - 8-18-2006 at 07:41 PM

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/17/ap/world/mainD8JI3...

Capture of suspected drug lord unlikely to be death blow for Tijuana cartel

Aug. 17, 2006
By E. EDUARDO CASTILLO

The capture of suspected drug lord Francisco Javier Arellano Felix is unlikely to deal a death blow to the Tijuana cartel that bears his family name, partly because his reputation had little to do with his leadership abilities, experts said.

Although U.S. authorities announced Wednesday that they had "taken the head off the snake" with the arrest of Arellano Felix aboard a boat off Mexico's Pacific coast on Monday, the gang has effectively lost much of its influence over the years.

"For the war against drugs, this means nothing, since Francisco Javier was not an important part of the organization," said Jesus Blancornelas, a Tijuana journalist who has chronicled the city's drug trade for decades and was wounded in a 1997 assassination attempt linked to the cartel.

"Francisco Javier was a sort of playboy," said Blancornelas. "He likes to spend money and enjoy his fame. He drives around in luxury cars."

Even the nickname of the 36-year-old suspect suggested his secondary status: "El Tigrillo," or "The Little Tiger."

Arellano Felix is more of a thug than a leader, others said.

"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.

At its bloody peak in the 1990s, the gang was led by brothers Ramon and Benjamin Arellano Felix. But Ramon died in a shootout in 2002, and Benjamin was arrested the same year.

The Tijuana gang then began to weaken and is believed to have joined a loose alliance with Mexico's Gulf Cartel to protect their turf against an onslaught by a rival bloc _ sometimes known as "the federation" _ led by Mexico's most-wanted drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

Although Gulf Cartel leader Osiel Card##as was arrested in 2003, Guzman had escaped from prison two years before, leaving President Vicente Fox with a mixed record in collaring major drug lords.

"This is the first time in a few years that they have arrested one among the more famous (drug traffickers), but he isn't really a big-time trafficker," Blancornelas said.

Experts say the real brains behind the cartel's operations may be a surprise: one of the men's four sisters, Enedina Arellano Felix, or possibly a fourth brother _ among seven _ Francisco Eduardo.

Francisco Eduardo is still at large in Mexico, but U.S. officials say he is not considered "capable of leading the organization at this time."

The Arellano Felix cartel is believed to be responsible for massive drug tunnels discovered in January, the longest of which 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 was found in the tunnel.

Still, Mexican analysts doubted the significance of Arellano Felix's arrest.

"It's not like the U.S. government says, that it has 'taken the head off the snake,'" said Jorge Fernandez Menendez, a writer for the newspaper Excelsior. "This is unlikely to dramatically change the distribution of drugs in the United States."

Yet the impervious wall that surrounded the cartel in the 1990s appears to have been broken.

Jerry Speziale, a former investigator for a federal narcotics task force who spent much of the 1990s undercover in Central and South America, said the Arellano Felix cartel was notoriously difficult to penetrate.

Speziale, now sheriff of Passaic County, N.J., recalled a meeting in the early 1990s in which DEA agents presented detailed charts of the cartels they were investigating.

"Everyone has nice charts with lots of information," Speziale said. "The guy who was doing the Arellano Felix organization opens up a blank piece of paper. He said, 'I'm working on the Arellano organization, but this is what I know about them.'"

The cartel's success came from the loyalty of its members and the ability to find a niche in the international drug market, Speziale said.

Colombian drug cartels would pay shipping charges to the Arellano Felix cartel as well as pass along 50 percent of their load. In exchange, the Mexican cartel would set up and maintain airstrips to allow transportation of the wholesale drugs into Mexico, arrange for the drugs to cross into the lucrative U.S. marketplace and establish a distribution network there, Speziale said.

Mexican prosecutors charge two policeman with protecting Arellano Felix gang

BajaNews - 8-19-2006 at 10:43 PM

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20060819-1223-mexi...

By Ioan Grillo
August 19, 2006

MEXICO CITY ? Mexican prosecutors announced Saturday that they have charged two policemen with protecting the Arellano Felix drug trafficking gang, whose alleged kingpin was nabbed this week by U.S. coastguards.

Officers Jorge Alberto Perez and Salvador Cebreros face organized crime charges and are also being investigated for involvement in the killing of four of their colleagues, who were shot dead in July, the Federal Attorney General's Office said in a statement.

Both Perez and Cebreros work in the police department of Rosarito, about 25 km (15 miles) south of the Mexican border with San Diego.

?They received money from members of the Arellano Felix criminal organization in exchange for giving them protection,? it said in the statement.

Investigators say large numbers of Mexican police officers have worked to help the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix gang move tons of Colombian cocaine and Mexican marijuana to the United States, but few have corrupt officials have been brought to justice.

U.S. coastguards captured Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, 36, when he was deep sea fishing in international waters Monday. On Friday, he was taken to a court in San Diego and pleaded not guilty to racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to import and distribute controlled substances and money laundering.

Known in Mexico as ?El Tigrillo? or ?The Little Tiger,? Arellano Felix is accused of leading the Tijuana clan almost by default in 2002 when the gang lost two of his older brothers: Benjamin, who was jailed, and Ramon, who was killed.

The Arellano Felix gang emerged as a drug powerhouse in the 1980s in Tijuana but its influence has waned lately as a new generation of gangsters in a cartel known as the Federacion have risen to prominence.

The State Department had offered $5 million (euro3.88 million) rewards for the capture of Francisco Javier, but it is unclear if anyone will receive that money.