Francisco Arellano Felix

A HOT DAY IN TIJUANA IS COOLING INTO A GOLDEN SUNSET. BUSINESSWOMAN Guadalupe Gonzalez is helping a customer select the perfect floral teacup from a china showroom that is a fantasia of fine figurines. Delicate swallowtail butterflies rest on china daisies. Mermaids hold out conch shells with tiny freshwater pearls. Porcelain brides and grooms painted in reassuring pastels gaze at each other with bland expressions of matrimonial joy.

Authorities knew the alleged Mexican drug kingpin didn't like to give up without a fight. In 1994, when police tried to arrest Francisco Javier Arellano Felix in Tijuana, a federal police commander and four other people died in a shootout that led to his escape. So on Tuesday, as a U.S. Coast Guard vessel edged up to a fishing boat off the coast of Baja California, about 30 heavily armed Coast Guardsmen prepared for a potentially bloody encounter.

Authorities knew the alleged Mexican drug kingpin didn't like to give up without a fight. In 1994, when police tried to arrest Francisco Javier Arellano Felix in Tijuana, a federal police commander and four other people died in a shootout that led to his escape. So on Tuesday, as a U.S. Coast Guard vessel edged up to a fishing boat off the coast of Baja California, about 30 heavily armed Coast Guardsmen prepared for a potentially bloody encounter.

A HOT DAY IN TIJUANA IS COOLING INTO A GOLDEN SUNSET. BUSINESSWOMAN Guadalupe Gonzalez is helping a customer select the perfect floral teacup from a china showroom that is a fantasia of fine figurines. Delicate swallowtail butterflies rest on china daisies. Mermaids hold out conch shells with tiny freshwater pearls. Porcelain brides and grooms painted in reassuring pastels gaze at each other with bland expressions of matrimonial joy.

A court-appointed attorney for an accused kingpin of one of Mexico's most notorious drug cartels said Monday that he would not seek bail. Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, 36, has pleaded not guilty to racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to import and distribute controlled substances and money laundering. "Even if he were granted bail he'd be held by the immigration authorities," said Arellano Felix's lawyer, David Bartick.

An accused leader of one of Mexico's most notorious drug cartels pleaded guilty Monday to federal charges of selling cocaine in a San Diego motel. Francisco Rafael Arellano Felix, one of seven brothers allegedly behind the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix cartel, admitted selling about half a pound of cocaine to an undercover police officer in 1980. He faces up to 15 years in prison, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Laura Duffy.

An accused leader of one of Mexico's most notorious drug cartels was sentenced to six years in federal prison Monday after pleading guilty to drug conspiracy charges. Francisco Rafael Arellano Felix, one of seven brothers allegedly behind the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix cartel, admitted selling about half a pound of cocaine to an undercover police officer at a San Diego motel in 1980. Arellano Felix, 57, fled to Mexico after being released on $150,000 bond in September 1980.

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.

Mexican authorities said they had captured a U.S. citizen believed to be a top member of a major drug cartel and that they would send him back to the United States immediately. Gustavo Rivera Martinez, 46, allegedly part of the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix cartel, will be turned over to the U.S. government, which wants him on drug charges, Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mourino said at a news conference. Rivera Martinez took over the cartel's operation after the 2006 arrest of Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, said federal Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna.

Federal prosecutors have filed additional charges against alleged Mexican drug cartel boss Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, making him eligible for the death penalty if convicted of one of the new counts. The indictment, unsealed Tuesday, includes the original charges that accused Arellano Felix, 37, of heading a major drug-trafficking organization that used torture, bribes and murder to import marijuana and cocaine into the United States.

A convicted drug cartel boss has been freed on parole and returned to Mexico just weeks after he began serving a six-year U.S. prison sentence, U.S. and Mexican officials said Wednesday. Francisco Rafael Arellano Felix, 58 and the eldest of the brothers who ran the Tijuana cartel, was deported Tuesday and crossed to Ciudad Juarez from El Paso.

Federal agents called in the Mexican army to arrest one of the nation's most powerful drug barons, a man wanted in the 1993 murder of Guadalajara's Roman Catholic cardinal, during a late-night raid that also snared 33 federal agents who were protecting him, authorities said Saturday. Mexico's attorney general said Hector Luis Palma Salazar, reputed leader of the Sinaloa cartel, was arrested in an exclusive neighborhood of Guadalajara and charged with several murders and drug-related crimes.