Drug Lord Francisco Arellano-Felix Sentenced to Life in Prison

The youngest of the Arellano-Felix brothers, Francisco Javier Arellano-Felix, 37, received a life sentence for his crimes of running drugs through Tijuana and other Mexican border towns in addition to money laundering and other more heinous crimes. As part of his sentence, Arellano-Felix will also forfeit $50 million and his private yacht. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the sentencing today in a press release.

Arellano-Felix was apprehended in August 2006 aboard his yacht, the Dock Holliday. At the time, Arellano-Felix was the acting head of the Arellano-Felix Organization (AFO), a criminal enterprise said by US authorities to have brought hundred of tons of cocaine and marijuana across the US border since the 1980's. At the time of his arrest, the US State Department had been offering a $5 million reward for his capture.

Arellano-Felix effectively took over the operations of the AFO after his brother Benjamin was arrested in 2002. His other brother, Ramon, was killed in Mexico a month before Benjamin's arrest. Another brother, Eduardo, remains a fugitive at large. There is a $5 million reward for his capture as well. The US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) maintains a hotline explicitly for the remaining members of the AFO, which includes three other men each of whom carries a $2 million reward for their capture.

Francisco Javier became an active member of the AFO in 1991, and soon took over "enforcement" practices for the cartel. He has admitted to murdering rivals and others, participating in other murders and directing still more. Additional details of his admission of crimes includes, but is not limited to, obstructing investigations, bribing law enforcement officials, and witness tampering that included murdering potential witnesses. Kidnapping rivals and others for ransom was also an activity that the AFO used to intimidate competitors and others. The DOJ press release also makes mention of the AFO training "assassination squads" as well as impersonating the Mexican military and imposing its own taxes on those trafficking drugs and conducting other criminal activities.

The DOJ credits the help of the Mexican Government in bringing down Arellano-Felix. Some of the other federal agencies that were instrumental in the investigation, capture and prosecution of Arellano-Felix include the DEA, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Federal Bureau of Investigations. The US Marshals Service and the US Coast Guard were the two organizations that arrested the drug kingpin.

"Francisco Javier Arellano-Felix was once a symbol of the power and dominance of his family's violent drug cartel. Today, as he is sentenced in a U.S. court, he is a symbol of the strength of collaboration between the DEA and Mexican law enforcement, and of the supremacy of excellent investigative work," said DEA Administrator Karen P. Tandy in the DOJ press release announcing the sentence.

Source: US Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Agency