AFO (CAF) Leader Benjamin Arellano Gets 25 Years in Prison

BENJAMIN ARELLANO-FELIX GETS 25 YEARS IN PRISON;
Full Text of DEA Release follows first news post....Paz, Chivis

SAN DIEGO — Late last year, a strange scene unfolded several times a week on the roof of the private federal jail at the corner of Front and C streets in downtown San Diego.

There, sometime between midnight and 3 a.m., a stocky, 5-foot 10-inch man under heavy guard walked about the roof, breathing the night air and gazing at the stars above while most of the city slept.

For security reasons, the times he took his hourlong exercise were never the same two nights in a row.

FILE - In this March 9, 2002 file photo released by Mexico's Attorney General's Office, Benjamin Arellano Felix stands in his home the day of his arrest in Puebla, Mexico.

Arellano Felix will plead guilty to unspecified charges, the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego said Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2012. Spokeswoman Debra Hartman said she could not elaborate in advance of the filing. Arellano Felix is expected in federal court Wednesday afternoon. Arellano Felix headed a once-mighty cartel that came to power in Tijuana, Mexico, in the late 1980s. (AP Photo) — AP

The inmate was Benjamin Arellano Félix, once the feared leader of a Tijuana drug cartel that bore his family’s name.

Today, the 58-year-old Arellano will again be under heavy guard, this time inside a downtown federal courtroom for his formal sentencing. He will likely be sent to a super maximum security prison for 25 years — the term his defense lawyers and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego have agreed to under a plea bargain.

The hearing will be historic, marking the end of one era in the drug war, said David Shirk, director of the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego.

At one time, the Arellano Félix Organization was “the most feared and by some accounts most powerful criminal organization in Mexico,” Shirk said.

“And Benjamin was the face of that organization. In some ways this is the closure of a chapter in the drug war in Mexico,” he said. “That’s a book that is still being written, however.”

For years, U.S. authorities pursued Arellano and others in his cartel. In January, he finally pleaded guilty to racketeering and money laundering conspiracy charges.

He admitted being the leader of the organization that smuggled untold tons of drugs into the U.S., bribed and corrupted scores of public officials in Mexico, and controlled the cartel’s turf through kidnappings and murders.

It was a lucrative trade over the years. Part of the plea agreement calls for Arellano to forfeit $100 million in profits, probably a symbolic figure for a man who has been jailed for a decade in Mexico and the U.S.

The AFO came to power in the 1980s and distinguished itself with a ruthless brand of enforcement on a scale that had not been seen before among drug gangs in Mexico, said Peter Nuñez, a former U.S. attorney in San Diego.

“They racheted it up, no question about it,” said Nuñez. “They were game-changers.”

The cartel had caches of sophisticated automatic weapons it purchased from the U.S. and other countries, recruited street gang members for violent missions, and carried out targeted assassinations of rivals who threatened the AFO’s turf.

One mission in 1993 that used San Diego street gang members was meant to kill a rival cartel leader at the Guadalajara airport but ended in a violent shootout that killed Roman Catholic Cardinal Posadas Ocampo.

That kind of brazen violence was something largely introduced by the AFO, said Nuñez, and continues today.“Other cartels tried to adopt the same strategy,” he said. “You had this escalation.

AFN Photo

Source: UT San Diego
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AFO Leader Gets 25 Years in Prison

San Diego, CA – DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart today announced that Benjamin Arellano-Felix, nearly 60, the former leader of the Tijuana Cartel/Arellano-Felix Organization (AFO) was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in San Diego by the Honorable Larry A. Burns to serve 25 years in federal prison. Judge Burns also ordered Arellano-Felix to forfeit $100 million in criminal proceeds. The sentence followed Arellano-Felix’s conviction for racketeering and money laundering.

“The Tijuana Cartel was one of the world’s most brutal drug trafficking networks, but has now met its demise with leader Benjamin Arellano-Felix’s sentencingtoday,” said DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart. “It is a major victory for DEA and Mexico’s Calderon Administration. Together, we will continue our pressure on the Mexican Cartels whose leaders,members and facilitators will be prosecuted and face the justice they fear.”

“Today’s prison sentence virtually ensures that Arellano-Felix will spend the remainder of his life in custody. Following this sentence, he will be deported to Mexico to finish a 22-year sentence. This is a fitting end for a person who has caused so much suffering and destruction,” commented United States Attorney Duffy.

Duffy heralded the sentence as a landmark achievement in the United States and Mexico’s joint effort to dismantle drug cartels operating on both sides of

the border and stated that “Attorney General Eric Holder and Mexican Attorney General Marisela Morales are pleased with today’s result and that this defendant has finally been held accountable for his crimes. Today’s sentence, together with what remains of his sentence in Mexico, will go a longway in ensuring that Arellano Felix spends his remaining years in prison.”
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Long-reputed to be one of the most notorious multi-national drug trafficking organizations to ever exist, the AFO controlled the flow of cocaine, marijuana and other drugs through the Mexican border cities of Tijuana and Mexicali into the United States.

Its operations also extended into southern Mexico and Colombia. Arellano-Felix was taken into custody by Mexican authorities on March 9, 2002. A final order of extradition to the United States was granted in 2007 and after years of unsuccessful appeals, Arellano-Felix arrived in the U.S. on April 29, 2011, to face charges in the Southern District of California for narcotics trafficking, money laundering and organized crime-related offenses. On January 4, 2012, he entered his guilty pleas before Judge Burns.

San Diego FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge Eric Birnbaum commented, “Today's sentencing marks the end of Mr. Arellano-Felix's reign as the leader of one of the most dangerous drug and organized crime organizations our agencies have ever investigated. While there is still much work to do, it is particularly noteworthy that this culmination would not have been possible without the cumulative efforts of law enforcement on both sides of the border. We are pleased to stand united against the violence brought forth by the AFO and see this individual brought to justice.”

“The money laundering investigation conducted by IRS Special Agents contributed to the dismantling of one of the most notorious and violent drug cartels in Mexico,” commented Leslie P. DeMarco, Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation Los Angeles Field

Office. “Today’s sentencing is further evidence of the successful partnership that IRS Criminal Investigation has with other law enforcement agencies by using our financial expertise to unravel the money laundering component of this multi-national drug-trafficking organization.”

According to court records and the defendant’s admissions, Arellano-Felix was the leader of the AFO from approximately 1986 to until his arrest on March 9, 2002. During that time, Arellano-Felix served as the ultimate decision-maker for the AFO. Arellano-Felix issued directives to other members of the AFO, including his brothers, Ramon, Eduardo, and Francisco Javier Arellano-Felix, as well as his top lieutenants and drug-trafficking partners.

Arellano-Felix and other AFO members conspired to import and distribute within the United States hundreds of tons of cocaine and marijuana, for which the AFO obtained hundreds of millions in U.S. dollars in profits.

At Arellano-Felix’s direction, members of the AFO kidnaped, physically restrained and murdered numerous persons in furtherance of the AFO's illegal activities. Also at Arellano-Felix’s direction, members of the AFO bribed law enforcement and military personnel, and murdered informants and potential witnesses in order to obstruct or impede the official investigation of their activities.

Arellano-Felix conspired with other members of the AFO to launder proceeds of the above drug trafficking activities by directing other members to transport, transmit, and transfer hundreds of millions in U.S. dollars from the United States to Mexico.

This case was investigated by agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation and prosecuted in the Southern District of California by Assistant United States Attorneys Joseph Green, JamesMelendres, and Daniel Zipp.

The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs provided significant assistance in the extradition. The investigation was coordinated by an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF). The OCDETF program was created to consolidate and coordinate all law enforcement resources in this country's battle against major drug trafficking rings, drug kingpins, and money launderers.

“The Tijuana Cartel was one of the world’s most brutal drug trafficking networks, but has now met its demise with leader Benjamin Arellano-Felix’s sentencing today,” said DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart. “It is a major victory for DEA and Mexico’s Calderon Administration.

Together, we will continue our pressure on the Mexican Cartels whose leaders, members and facilitators will be prosecuted and face the justice they fear.” “Today’s prison sentence virtually ensures that Arellano-Felix will spend the remainder of his life in custody. Following this sentence, he will be deported to Mexico to finish a 22-year sentence.

This is a fitting end for a person who has caused so much suffering and destruction,” commented United States Attorney Duffy. Duffy heralded the sentence as a landmark achievement in the United States and Mexico’s joint effort to dismantle drug cartels operating on both sides of the border and stated that “Attorney General Eric Holder and Mexican Attorney General Marisela Morales are pleased with today’s result and that this defendant has finally been held accountable for his crimes. Today’s sentence, together with what remains of his sentence in Mexico, will go a long way in ensuring that Arellano Felix spends his remaining years in prison.”

Long-reputed to be one of the most notorious multi-national drug trafficking organizations to ever exist, the AFO controlled the flow of cocaine, marijuana and other drugs through the Mexican border cities of Tijuana and Mexicali into the United States. Its operations also extended into southern Mexico and Colombia. Arellano-Felix was taken into custody by Mexican authorities on March 9, 2002.

A final order of extradition to the United States was granted in 2007 and after years of unsuccessful appeals, Arellano-Felix arrived in the U.S. on April 29, 2011, to face charges in the Southern District of California for narcotics trafficking, money laundering and organized crime-related offenses. On January 4, 2012, he entered his guilty pleas before Judge Burns.

San Diego FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge Eric Birnbaum commented, “Today's sentencing marks the end of Mr. Arellano-Felix's reign as the leader of one of the most dangerous drug and organized crime organizations our agencies have ever investigated. While there is still much work to do, it is particularly noteworthy that this culmination would not have been possible without the cumulative efforts of law enforcement on both sides of the border. We are pleased to stand united against the violence brought forth by the AFO and see this individual brought to justice.”

“The money laundering investigation conducted by IRS Special Agents contributed to the dismantling of one of the most notorious and violent drug cartels in Mexico,” commented Leslie P.DeMarco, Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation Los Angeles Field Office. “Today’s sentencing is further evidence of the successful partnership that IRS Criminal Investigation has with other law enforcement agencies by using our financial expertise to unravel the money laundering component of this multi-national drug-trafficking organization.”

According to court records and the defendant’s admissions, Arellano-Felix was the leaderof the AFO from approximately 1986 to until his arrest on March 9, 2002. During that time, Arellano-Felix served as the ultimate decision-maker for the AFO. Arellano-Felix issued directives to other members of the AFO, including his brothers, Ramon, Eduardo, and Francisco Javier Arellano-Felix, as well as his top lieutenants and drug-trafficking partners.

Arellano-Felix and other AFO members conspired to import and distribute within the United States hundreds of tons of cocaine and marijuana, for which the AFO obtained hundreds of millions in U.S. dollars in profits.

At Arellano-Felix’s direction, members of the AFO kidnaped, physically restrained and murdered numerous persons in furtherance of the AFO's illegal activities. Also atArellano-Felix’s direction, members of the AFO bribed law enforcement and military personnel, andmurdered informants and potential witnesses in order to obstruct or impede the official investigationof their activities.

Arellano-Felix conspired with other members of the AFO to launder proceedsof the above drug trafficking activities by directing other members to transport, transmit, andtransfer hundreds of millions in U.S. dollars from the United States to Mexico.

This case was investigated by agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation and prosecutedin the Southern District of California by Assistant United States Attorneys Joseph Green, JamesMelendres, and Daniel Zipp. The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs providedsignificant assistance in the extradition. The investigation was coordinated by an Organized Crime.

Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF). The OCDETF program was created to consolidate andcoordinate all law enforcement resources in this country's battle against major drug trafficking rings,drug kingpins, and money launderers.

DEA NOTICE:

Source: DEA Press Release