Final Arellano Félix brother extradited to U.S.
From The San Diego Union Tribune
By Sandra Dibble
SAN DIEGO - "Eduardo Arellano Félix, one of a band of brothers who once dominated drug trafficking on the California border, was flown to San Diego
today to face charges in U.S. federal court.
The extradition makes him the fourth - and last - of the Arellano brothers who have faced charges in the United States.
Arellano's extradition comes nearly four years after his arrest by Mexican soldiers and federal agents in a well-to-do enclave in Tijuana.
Arellano, 55, faces charges of racketeering, money laundering and narcotics trafficking. He is scheduled to make his first appearance in federal court
in downtown San Diego on Tuesday.
U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy in a written statement called the extradition "a milestone in our fight against the Mexican drug cartels."
"This extradition is a significant step in our effort to bring another key figure in the Arellano Félix organization to answer in an American court of
law to very serious charges," Duffy said.
William Sherman, acting special agent in charge in San Diego for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said that the extradition "marks the end of
a 20-year DEA investigation into this vicious drug cartel."
Arellano's younger brother, Benjamin Arellano Félix, the group's onetime leader, was extradited from Mexico in April 2011. He received a 25-year
sentence in April in San Diego federal court. Another brother, Francisco Javier Arellano Félix, is serving a life sentence following his capture in
2006 by the U.S. Coast Guard off the coast of Mexico. An older brother, Francisco Rafael Arellano Félix, was deported to Mexico in 2008 after serving
a six-year sentence in the United States for selling cocaine.
Another brother, Ramon, was killed in a gunfight in Sinaloa in 2002.
With the detentions and deaths of the brothers and other top leaders, the Arellanos have lost much power, though vestiges of the group are said to
still be operating in the region under the leadership of an Arellano nephew. The Sinaloa cartel is widely acknowledged by law enforcement officials as
the dominant drug organization in the state."
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.”
—Mark Twain
\"La vida es dura, el corazon es puro, y cantamos hasta la madrugada.” (Life is hard, the heart is pure and we sing until dawn.)
—Kirsty MacColl, Mambo de la Luna
\"Alea iacta est.\"
—Julius Caesar
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