MEXICO CITY — The alleged leader of a violent Tijuana crime family accused of smuggling hundreds of tons of cocaine and marijuana into the United States was captured by the U.S. Coast Guard while deep-sea fishing off the southern tip of Baja California, officials said Wednesday.
Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, 36, nicknamed "the Wildcat," was taken into custody aboard a U.S.-registered boat, the Dock Holiday, in international waters about 15 miles off the Baja peninsula, U.S. authorities said. He was traveling under an alias but acknowledged his identity to his captors, officials said.
The arrest was based on a 2003 U.S. indictment that charged him with conspiracy, smuggling and murder. A $5-million bounty had been offered for his capture as the reputed leader of the Arellano Felix organization.
At its height in the late 1990s, the cartel was believed to be responsible for supplying nearly half the cocaine sold in the United States.
U.S. and Mexican authorities blame the cartel for at least a score of slayings of police officers, journalists and rivals, as well as the accidental killing of Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo at the Guadalajara airport in 1993.
Authorities say the Arellano Felix gang, though weakened by the killing of one brother and the imprisonment of another, remains one of Mexico's largest drug-smuggling organizations since joining forces last year with the Gulf cartel.
Prosecutors say the gang hired assassins to kidnap, torture and kill adversaries in a struggle to dominate lucrative smuggling routes that link Mexico and California.
"The Arellano Felix organization is the largest and most violent drug-trafficking operation in the Tijuana, Baja California, area," U.S. Deputy Atty. Gen. Paul J. McNulty said at a Washington news conference where the arrests were announced.
Acting on a tip, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration asked Coast Guard officers to board the Dock Holiday on Monday, McNulty said. Seven other adults and three juveniles were also taken into custody, he said.
U.S. authorities had hoped to delay announcement of the arrests until they brought Arellano Felix to San Diego today, but Mexican news reports surfaced Wednesday.
"This was a perfectly planned and perfectly executed operation," said U.S. Atty. Carol C. Lam of San Diego, whose office filed the 2003 indictment. Authorities gave no details of how they knew about the fishing trip or what was found aboard the vessel. Mexican government officials declined to comment.
