Former Tijuana Cartel boss released from US prison, deported to Mexico
A former leader of the Tijuana Cartel was deported to Mexico
by the United States on Monday after he was released from a U.S. federal prison
early last week.
The Attorney General’s Office and the army took Eduardo
Arellano Félix, 64, into custody at the Brownsville-Matamoros International
Bridge at 5:15 p.m. Monday, the former said in a statement.
A federal judge had issued a warrant for his arrest on
charges of organized crime, drug trafficking and criminal association.
Arellano, who was detained in Tijuana in 2008 after a
shootout and extradited to the United States in 2012, was transferred from
Tamaulipas to the Altiplano maximum security prison in México state.
After his release from a prison in Allentown, Pennsylvania,
last Tuesday and prior to his deportation to Mexico, the former financial
operator for the notoriously violent Tijuana Cartel – also known as the
Arellano Félix organization – was held in the custody of U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement.
Nicknamed “El Doctor,” he spent less than 10 years in jail
in the United States even though he was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment
after pleading guilty to money laundering charges. He qualified for early
release as a result of his cooperation with U.S. authorities, who indicted him
on drug trafficking and laundering charges in 2003 and offered a reward of up
to US $5 million for his capture.
Arellano Félix became leader of the Tijuana Cartel in 2006
after his younger brother, Francisco Javier Arellano Félix, was captured by
U.S. authorities while fishing in international waters off the coast of Baja
California Sur. However, he subsequently ceded the leadership to a nephew.
Arellano Félix was the last of four brothers to be killed or
sent to prison in connection with the Tijuana Cartel’s illicit activities.
The organization – which was founded in the late 1980s and
continues to operate in alliance with other cartels – smuggled hundreds of
millions of dollars’ worth of narcotics into the United States at the height of
its power, Reuters said.
“… It’s a criminal organization whose capacities have been
reduced but it hasn’t disappeared,” said security analyst Javier Oliva Posada.
He told the newspaper La Jornada before Arellano Félix’s
deportation to Mexico that his release “could generate an increase in violence”
if he decides to rejoin the ranks of the Tijuana Cartel.
Veteran journalist José Reveles said the cartel appears now
to have an alliance with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which is generally
considered Mexico’s most powerful criminal organization.
“It’s a territorial alliance that only has effect in the
[Baja California] peninsula,” he said.
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