BajaNews
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Suspected cartel figure denied bail in San Diego court
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/15383813...
Aug. 28, 2006
ALLISON HOFFMAN
SAN DIEGO - A man suspected of a being a top figure in a Mexican drug cartel is a U.S. citizen who attended high school in San Diego, his defense
attorney said Monday.
Arturo Villarreal Heredia, 30, grew up in the San Diego suburb of Chula Vista and attended Southwest High School in San Diego through his sophomore
year, said attorney Eugene Iredale.
The biographical nugget emerged during a hearing at which U.S. District Judge Larry A. Burns ordered Villarreal held without bail.
Villarreal is being held as a material witness in the government's case against Francisco Javier Arellano Felix and has not been charged with a crime
in U.S. court. Arellano Felix, Villarreal and six others were captured on a fishing boat this month by the U.S. Coast Guard in international waters
off the coast of La Paz, Mexico.
U.S. and Mexican authorities say Villarreal - also known by his nickname "El Nalgon," or "Big Butt" - was a major figure in the Tijuana-based Arellano
Felix gang, which emerged as a drug trafficking powerhouse in the 1980s.
Villarreal is wanted in Mexico on charges of drug trafficking, kidnapping, assault, murder and importation of military-grade weapons, said Assistant
U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy.
Iredale said his client was unlikely to testify against Arellano Felix without a guarantee of immunity. Duffy indicated in court that prosecutors
might be willing to consider such an offer. Arellano Felix is being held without bail.
The Mexican government has initiated extradition proceedings against Villarreal, Duffy said.
"For the past several years, Mr. Villarreal Heredia has been a member of the Arellano Felix organization and has had responsibility for individuals
who have carried out assaults, kidnappings and murders," Duffy said.
Mexican warrants tie Villarreal - to the 2004 ambush and murder of the journalist Francisco Ortiz Franco in Tijuana, Mexico, Duffy said. Ortiz was an
editor of Zeta, a weekly newspaper that often reports on the drug trade.
Villarreal Heredia appeared in court with a shaved head and wearing a standard-issue jumpsuit - a marked change from the scruffy haircut and yellow
Izod polo shirt he wore when he arrived in San Diego 10 days ago.
Five other men who were found traveling with Arellano Felix aboard the U.S.-registered sport-fishing boat Dock Holiday are also being held without
bail as material witnesses.
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BajaNews
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Top Arellano aide held for Mexico
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20060909-9999-7m9ca...
Villarreal refuses to talk to grand jury
By Onell R. Soto
September 9, 2006
Hours after refusing to testify before a grand jury yesterday, the man authorities say was No. 2 in the Arellano Félix cartel was brought into court
and was told he was wanted in Mexico in connection with murder and kidnapping.
U.S. prosecutors yesterday dropped a bid to hold Manuel Arturo Villarreal Herédia, 30, as a material witness.
Instead, they are having him held pending extradition to Mexico, where he is charged with racketeering.
The Drug Enforcement Administration considers Villarreal the right-hand man to Francisco Javier Arellano Félix, who they say headed the Tijuana cartel
until his arrest on a sport fishing boat Aug. 14 off the Baja California Sur coast.
For the past 12 years, Villarreal, who was born in Chula Vista, headed a cell of about 30 henchmen that organized murders and kidnappings on behalf of
the cartel, prosecutors said in court papers filed yesterday.
The racketeering charges in Mexico involve ordering the assassination of a Tijuana journalist and kidnapping a Colombian drug trafficker for a
$750,000 ransom, according to the court filing.
It's unclear whether Villarreal will face criminal charges in the United States, said one of his lawyers, Kerry Steigerwalt.
Other people suspected of being in leadership positions within the cartel have been charged here with racketeering and conspiracy, often involving
incidents in Mexico.
Villarreal was aboard the 43-foot Dock Holiday when the Coast Guard boarded it at the climax of a four-month operation to arrest Arellano.
Five other men also on the boat are being held as material witnesses and were brought, one by one, before a San Diego federal grand jury yesterday,
dressed in orange coveralls and shackled hand and foot.
Lawyers for some of the men said they refused to testify on Fifth Amendment grounds that they might incriminate themselves. Prosecutors wouldn't
comment on the secret grand jury proceedings.
The five men include Villarreal's nephew and another man – both linked in court documents to the cartel's leadership – plus the boat's captain, a crew
member and a man whose relationship to the boat is not publicly known.
They are due back in court Monday.
In court yesterday, Villarreal said little when Magistrate Judge Jan M. Adler advised him of the extradition request by Mexico.
In the court filing, prosecutor Peter Ko said Villarreal was charged in Mexico City in 2004 with racketeering.
Members of Villarreal's cell told authorities that he ordered the hit on journalist Francisco Ortiz Franco, who was gunned down June 22, 2004, after
his newspaper, Zeta, published articles naming Villarreal as responsible for the death of an assistant attorney general, according to the court
filing.
Villarreal told his lawyer he wasn't involved in either killing.
“He professes absolute innocence as to both,” Steigerwalt said.
The prosecutor also said a man who had worked as a bodyguard for Ramon Arellano Félix told authorities he joined Villarreal's cell in 2000. (Ramon
Arellano, Javier Arellano's brother, was killed in a shootout with police in 2002.)
The former bodyguard told authorities that Villarreal ordered him to kidnap the Colombian drug trafficker, and he later showed the trafficker a
suitcase full of U.S. currency, according to the court filing.
After that, Villarreal ordered the Colombian into a vehicle, and the former bodyguard didn't know whether he was released or killed, the prosecutor
said.
Steigerwalt said Villarreal had nothing to do with that kidnapping.
“He doesn't know who that is,” the lawyer said.
Villarreal is charged in Mexico under the name Arturo Villarreal Albarran.
Steigerwalt said yesterday that he expected identity to be an issue if the case gets to an extradition hearing, which is required within 60 days.
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JESSE
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Villareal is considered far more powerful than Javier, prosecuting arellano is more of a political prize because of his last name, but Villareal is
really the main guy.
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