Eduardo Arellano Félix Arrested On Re-Entry to Mexico, Sent to Altiplano Prison

"HEARST" for Borderland Beat

On the afternoon of Monday, August 24, 202,1, the United States officially handed over former Tijuana drug cartel boss Eduardo Arellano Félix to Mexico, where he was re-arrested upon re-entry. 

Eduardo Arellano Félix, after serving time in a Pennsylvania prison in the United States, was released from custody on an unspecified date. 

Eduardo’s release had previously been listed as an expected date of August 18, 2021 however his federal prison registry later changed the given date to “unknown”. This led to some speculation that he might be entering into the US Witness Protection Program however that evidently did not turn out to be that case.

Following his prison release, he was taken into the custody of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) pending his deportation.

He then was escorted across the US-Mexico border on the Brownsville-Matamoros International Bridge where he was received by members of the Mexican Army (SEDENA) and the Attorney General’s Office (FGR).

The FGR released a statement saying: 

"At 5:15 p.m. today, at the Brownsville-Matamoros International Bridge, the Attorney General's Office (FGR) and the Mexican Army received Eduardo 'A' for the execution of an arrest warrant against him, granted by a Federal Judge, for his probable responsibility in the crimes of organized crime, against health and criminal association.

Eduardo 'A', was arrested in 2008 in Tijuana, Baja California, to be later extradited to the United States of America in 2012, for numerous accusations of various crimes, for which the authorities of that country offered a reward of five million dollars.

Eduardo 'A', was sentenced to 15 years in prison and, due to his cooperation with the authorities in that country, was convicted on only two of the seven charges for which he was indicted upon his extradition.

After serving that part of his sentence in a low-security federal prison in Allentown, Pennsylvania, the immigration authorities of the United States of America (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) handed him over to the Mexican authorities.

The Special Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime (FEMDO), which processed and obtained the corresponding arrest warrant, executed it and will proceed to place him before a judge at the Federal Center for Social Readaptation Number 1 'El Altiplano', in the State of Mexico."

As affirmed by the FGR statement above and previously covered on Borderland Beat, Eduardo’s extensive cooperation with the authorities in the US led to him only being convicted of two of the seven charges and he was eventually released from jail without completing his full prison sentence.

The FGR confirmed that Eduardo was made available to comply with the arrest warrant issued by a federal judge "for his probable responsibility in the crimes of organized crime, crimes against health and criminal association."

Please note that "crimes against health" are drug trafficking charges as defined by the Mexican penal code. 

In addition to an official statement, the FGR also released a video of the process of Eduardo being handed over and being processed, as seen above. In the video Eduardo can be seen being escorted while wearing what is presumed to be a “bulletproof vest”, or rather a tactical vest with ballistic plates.

Eduardo is also seen in the footage to be reviewing paperwork, sitting near a desk in an office, making a phone call. He is then seen being escorted across an aircraft runway, then being led into a plane, presumably to be flown to federal maximum security prison Altiplano, in the state of Mexico. Altiplano has long been used to house infamous kingpins and was notably escaped from by Sinaloa Cartel’s El Chapo in 2015.

Sources: Official FGR Statement, Jornada, Reuters, BBC, El Economist