Arellano Felix

SAN DIEGO —Two members of a Mexican organized crime group that terrorized border communities were found guilty Wednesday of taking part in the strangling deaths of two men whose bodies were later dissolved in lye and dumped at a ranch outside San Diego. The mens' ruthless tactics were the trademark of a gang that broke off from the drug cartel waging war in Tijuana nearly a decade ago, according to prosecutors. The Palillos, or Toothpicks, came to the San Diego area in 2003 after splitting from the notorious Arellano Felix drug cartel.

SAN DIEGO —Two members of a Mexican organized crime group that terrorized border communities were found guilty Wednesday of taking part in the strangling deaths of two men whose bodies were later dissolved in lye and dumped at a ranch outside San Diego. The mens' ruthless tactics were the trademark of a gang that broke off from the drug cartel waging war in Tijuana nearly a decade ago, according to prosecutors. The Palillos, or Toothpicks, came to the San Diego area in 2003 after splitting from the notorious Arellano Felix drug cartel.

He was the muscle for Mexico's most feared drug cartel, and he was looking to use it. As revelers filled the streets of Mazatlan for its annual carnival, Ramon Arellano Felix cruised the beach strip like a shark, hunting for a rival. Instead, he ended up the victim, killed in a shootout with police who had stopped his white Volkswagen for driving in the wrong lane. Officially, it was a chance confrontation: The officers opened fire after Ramon brandished a weapon and ran.

A federal judge sentenced Benjamin Arellano Felix to 25 years in prison Monday, rejecting a last-ditch plea by the former Mexican drug kingpin to reduce a punishment that has already been criticized as too lenient. Arellano Felix's rambling statement in federal court provided an unexpected climax to a historic case that targeted the cartel that bears his family name, once Mexico's most powerful organized crime group. Arellano Felix admitted in a plea agreement in January that he headed the cartel that terrorized rivals and turned Tijuana into a major drug-trafficking corridor into the United States.

Benjamin Arellano Felix, reputed to be one of Mexico's most notorious drug lords, was sentenced Thursday to five years in prison for arms possession. The sentence, reported by Mexican online media late Thursday, was the first passed on Arellano Felix since his arrest in 2002. He faces trial on other charges, such as organized crime activities and drug trafficking.

Mexico extradited drug kingpin Francisco Javier Arellano-Felix to the United States, making him the first major Mexican drug lord to be sent north to face drug charges. The extradition was a victory for U.S. officials who have been pushing Mexico to hand over more drug lords. After serving a 10-year sentence in Mexico, the former head of Tijuana's Arellano-Felix drug clan was turned over to U.S. authorities in Brownsville, Texas.

Authorities were trying to determine Friday whether a man killed in a shootout with police this month was Ramon Arellano Felix, the reputed leader of Mexico's most-feared drug cartel. The newspaper Noroeste in Mexico's Sinaloa state reported that Arellano Felix was shot dead Feb. 10 in the seaside resort of Mazatlan. Arellano Felix is on the FBI's 10 most-wanted list alongside Osama bin Laden, and the State Department has offered a reward of up to $2 million for his capture.

SAN DIEGO -- Mexican gangster Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, the alleged boss of a family-run drug cartel thought to be responsible for scores of murders in Mexico and the U.S., pleaded guilty Monday to charges that will put him in prison for life without the possibility of parole. Arellano Felix, who appeared wan and submissive, pleaded guilty to running a drug organization and money laundering. In exchange, federal prosecutors agreed to drop other charges and not seek the death penalty.

The Arellano Felix brothers used the papal nuncio as a personal emissary to request a meeting with President Carlos Salinas de Gortari to plead their innocence in the May 1993 killing of Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo at the Guadalajara airport, according to a new book.

If there is one man likely to fill the power vacuum that the crippling of the Arellano Felix cartel has created in the multibillion-dollar drug-trafficking trade, it is Ismael Zambada. A growing force in drug smuggling in northwestern Mexico, Zambada is the man Ramon Arellano Felix was thought to be gunning for when he himself was shot by police Feb. 10 in Mazatlan. The two were said to be sworn enemies, with Arellano Felix claiming Zambada had dodged a $20-million debt.

SAN DIEGO - For years, Benjamin Arellano Felix eluded U.S. law enforcement while running a Mexican drug cartel that terrorized rivals and poured hundreds of tons of cocaine into the country. So when the handcuffed kingpin arrived in San Diego aboard a government plane last year, U.S. authorities gathered on the tarmac, sharing hugs and handshakes as he was handed over to his longtime pursuers. But the sense of triumph has turned to disappointment in some quarters as Arellano Felix approaches his judgment hour in court Monday.

Reporting from San Diego -- Former drug kingpin Benjamin Arellano Felix pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal racketeering and money-laundering conspiracy charges, marking the end of a decade-old case that targeted what once was Mexico's most powerful organized crime group. Arellano Felix, 58, the former leader of the Arellano Felix drug cartel, transformed Tijuana into a major trafficking corridor into the U.S. during a 16-year reign that ended with his arrest in Mexico in 2002. The organization, also known as the Tijuana cartel, poured tons of drugs into California and generated profits that fueled a criminal empire that terrorized rivals, partnered with corrupt Mexican law enforcement officials and funded flashy lifestyles that became the template for Hollywood depictions of Mexican organized crime.

A federal judge on Monday disqualified the lead attorney for Mexican drug kingpin Benjamin Arellano Felix, ruling that his participation in the high-profile case was marred by potential conflicts of interests that could force him to take the witness stand. Federal prosecutors were attempting to get the attorney, Jan Ronis, kicked off the case in part because he allegedly worked on behalf of the Arellano Felix drug cartel to dissuade a witness from cooperating with U.S. law enforcement.

Reporting from San Diego -- Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to disqualify the lead defense attorney for Mexican drug kingpin Benjamin Arellano Felix, saying the lawyer once worked on behalf of the Arellano Felix drug cartel to dissuade a witness from cooperating with U.S. law enforcement. The accusations raise the possibility of the attorney, Jan Ronis, being called as a witness against his own client, who is charged with leading what was once Mexico's most feared organized crime group, prosecutors said in a motion filed in San Diego.

Reporting from San Diego and Mexico City -- The Mexican government Friday extradited to the United States drug kingpin Benjamin Arellano Felix, the former leader of one of Mexico's most feared and powerful organized crime groups, whose ruthless reign transformed northern Baja California into a major drug trafficking corridor into the U.S. Arellano Felix, who had been incarcerated in a Mexican prison since his arrest in 2002, was flown to San Diego...

Gunmen stormed a private drug treatment center in Tijuana and executed at least 13 men at close range, authorities in Baja California said Monday. The Sunday night attack was the first big assault on a clinic in the border city, where Mexican officials say their crackdown against drug gangs has weakened criminal groups and restored relative calm. Similar attacks have taken place on treatment centers in the northern state of Chihuahua, home to Ciudad Juarez, the country's most violent place.

SAN DIEGO -- A onetime leader of Mexico's notorious Arellano Felix narcotics organization asked for forgiveness in a courtroom here Monday as he was sentenced to life in prison for running what was once one of the world's most successful and violent drug cartels. "I am very remorseful and personally accept responsibility for my actions," Francisco Javier Arellano Felix said in a letter read aloud by his lawyer. "If I had the power to change and undo the things that I have done, I would."

Mexican officials cautioned Monday that any move to extradite notorious Tijuana drug cartel chief Benjamin Arellano Felix to face justice in the United States could take months, if not years. Arellano Felix, one of the most wanted men on both sides of the border, was captured over the weekend in an operation that one high-ranking U.S. official called a "sea change" marking Mexico's more aggressive tactics against drug traffickers who until recently operated with impunity.

The Mexican drug kingpin was shackled to the railing of a U.S. Coast Guard cutter cruising up the coast of Baja California when he saw a curious sight: A hovering helicopter lowering somebody by rope onto the deck of a nearby boat. The dangling person in the green flight suit was Laura Duffy, a federal prosecutor from San Diego. She had come after getting word that U.S. authorities had arrested the kingpin, Javier Arellano Felix, aboard his yacht on the Gulf of California. Duffy, a blue-eyed 47-year-old, questioned Arellano Felix that day, but it was her air-drop entry that made a lasting impression.

A top lieutenant in the Arellano Felix drug cartel in Tijuana pleaded guilty Thursday to drug conspiracy charges, the latest member of the once-powerful organized crime group to now face a long U.S. prison sentence. Jesus "Chuy" Labra Aviles, a wealthy, 62-year-old businessman who helped the Arellano Felix brothers smuggle hundreds of tons of cocaine and marijuana into the United States in the 1980s and '90s, was scheduled to go to trial in November, but changed his plea at a brief hearing in San Diego.