Gypsy Jan - 7-6-2012 at 08:52 PM
From The San Diego Union Tribune
By Sandra Dibble
Linked to ten-ton cocaine shipment intercepted in 1995 in Baja Sur
TIJUANA - "The Mexican military on Wednesday announced the capture of a suspected longtime drug trafficker linked to a 10-ton cocaine shipment found
in the state of Baja California Sur in 1995.
Julio César Salas Reyes, known as El M-4 or El Pilli, was detained on Monday in Tijuana, according to a statement from the Mexican Defense Secretariat
in Mexico City. In his possession were a high-caliber rifle, three handguns, ammunition, a vehicle and communications equipment.
The military statement said Salas is connected to an incident that occurred on Nov. 5, 1995 at the southern end of Baja California Sur, where
authorities found a passenger airplane carrying 10 tons of cocaine on a dry lake bed near the Pacific Ocean. The shipment was said to have belonged to
the Arellano Félix Organization, known as the AFO, named for the brothers that ran it for years.
Salas had worked as an assassin in the organization, reporting to an AFO lieutenant known as Efraín Pérez Areciniega, who was arrested in Tijuana in
2004 and extradited to the United States in 2009, the statement from the military said. He allegedly also had been close to two other members of the
organization, Javier Arellano Félix, detained in 2006, and Juan Francisco Sillas Rocha, arrested in 2011.
Salas had been wanted by Mexican authorities on charges of organized crime, drug trafficking and use of clandestine landing strips, the statement
said. He has been turned over to the SIEDO, the organized crime unit of Mexican Attorney General's Office.
Though decimated by the arrests and deaths of its original leaders, authorities say that the AFO has continued to operate under the leadership of an
Arellano nephew named Fernando Sánchez Arellano."
[Edited on 7-7-2012 by Gypsy Jan]
estebanis - 7-6-2012 at 10:57 PM
I seem to remember that story. Didn't they bury that airplane?
Esteban
bajajazz - 7-7-2012 at 09:05 AM
As I recall, they landed a French Caravelle jet passenger plane on a dry lake bed near Todos Santos. The operation soon turned into farce. Lumpers
had been hired to unload the aircraft and they either were members of some kind of police force or were disguised as cops.
Either way, they were interrupted by the arrival of a squad of cops who weren't in on the deal and arrested, briefly detained, later released. An
attempt was made to dynamite the plane before it was completely unloaded and while lumpers were still aboard. The idea was to bury the remaining
pieces of the aircraft. I heard that the majority of the coke was successfully loaded onto trucks and sent north.
This event goes back to around 1995. Anyone else recall its details? It all seemed pretty funny at the time.