U.S. posting millions in attempt to capture 7 in Tijuana cartel
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20030911-9999_2m11...
By Jeff McDonald
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
September 11, 2003
Two months after winning new indictments against the top leaders of a violent Tijuana-based drug cartel, the U.S. Justice Department is ratcheting up
pressure on the traffickers by offering huge rewards for their arrest.
Authorities said federal drug agents in San Diego will announce today that they will pay $5 million each for information leading to the capture of
brothers Eduardo and Javier Arellano F?lix and $2 million apiece for five lieutenants in the notorious cartel.
The multimillion-dollar incentives place the Arellano brothers and their gang in territory previously reserved for the world's most-wanted terrorists
and dictators.
The Bush administration, for example, has a standing reward of up to $25 million for tips leading to the arrest of Saddam Hussein. This summer it
approved a $30 million payout to the person who provided details about the Iraqi dictator's sons, Odai and Qusai, who were killed in a July shootout.
The United States also is offering $25 million for information leading to the capture of Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11,
2001, terror attacks.
Federal law enforcement officials have used cash rewards in the past to collect intelligence about members of the Arellano cartel.
At one point the government offered $2 million each for information about Benjam?n and Ram?n Arellano F?lix, and several years ago it paid about $1
million of the reward money to two sources, Drug Enforcement Administration officials said. Benjam?n was eventually arrested and is being held in
Mexico, and Ram?n was killed in a shootout with Mexican police.
The new rewards are intended to lure informants who may otherwise not be willing to risk informing on the drug-runners. The cartel has been linked to
hundreds of killings in recent years, including the deaths of rivals, police officials and journalists.
"Obviously, if they feel they face some danger, they have to somehow feel the risk is worth it," said Assistant U.S. Attorney John Kirby, who is
co-prosecuting the case locally.
Any information provided to the government is kept confidential and can be passed along by telephone or over the Internet, officials said.
In a 34-page indictment unsealed in July, the Department of Justice named 11 men suspected of smuggling thousands of tons of cocaine into the United
States over the past decade. Several of the accused are in custody in Mexico.
Among other things, the indictment accuses brothers Benjam?n, Eduardo and Javier Arellano F?lix and eight others of recruiting and training an army of
bodyguards and assassins to protect the smuggling operation. The cartel leaders also are accused of bribing law enforcement and military officials to
safeguard drug shipments and of brokering a cocaine-for-weapons swap with a group of Colombian rebels.
Some of those named were previously indicted in the United States. The July action was designed to comply with Mexican extradition rules, which
prohibit transferring prisoners who face the death penalty or life prison terms.
"In the drug business, it's very difficult to make cases and find some of these people we're looking for without the human intelligence factor," said
Jack Hook, assistant special agent for the DEA.
"As distasteful as some people find paying sources for information, that's how the big cases are pretty much done."
Hook said the rewards are aimed at the people who work under the top cartel officials. "All we're asking for is to know their whereabouts so we can
pass that on to law enforcement authorities and they can be arrested."
The potential rewards will be publicized on both sides of the border, primarily through posters placed at the ports of entry.
The practice of paying people for information that leads to the arrests and convictions of various suspects is decades old. The FBI regularly pays
cash awards for details about its Ten Most Wanted suspects, although most of those rewards are pegged at $50,000.
Only in recent years have the cash incentives become so substantial.
Experts say offering cash for information about unsolved crimes and the whereabouts of wanted men and women is a long-standing and effective way to
generate tips and jump-start investigations.
"History speaks for itself," said Thomas Gitchoff, a professor emeritus at San Diego State University who teaches occasional courses in criminal
justice.
"Ever since the FBI started rewards for the most wanted, going back to the 1930s or early 1940s, people have been willing. Some do it out of good
citizenship, but it doesn't hurt to put that carrot out there."
In addition to the rewards for the Arellano brothers, the U.S. government is offering $2 million each for details about Gilberto Higuera Guerrero,
Gustavo Rivera Mart?nez, Efrain P?rez, Manuel Aguirre Galindo and Jorge Aureliano F?lix.
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