US News
Mexican drug kingpin arrested by US (Roundup)
By DPA
Aug 16, 2006, 19:00 GMT

Washington - US federal authorities captured alleged Mexican drug kingpin Javier Arellano-Felix in international waters off the Mexican peninsula Baja California, a senior law enforcement official said Wednesday.

Arellano-Felix, 37, suspected of leading the infamous Tijuana cartel, has been one of the most-wanted suspects by US authorities. He was indicted in July 2003 on charges of conspiring to smuggle and distribute cocaine and marijuana in the United States, said Paul McNulty, deputy US attorney general.

'This is a huge blow to the organization,' McNulty said. 'The head of the snake.'

McNulty said the arrest will have a 'significant impact on a powerful drug trafficking organization,' but that there were still difficult challenges in trying to wipe out the well-organized and infamously brutal cartel.

Arellano-Felix could face a life sentence if convicted on all charges, McNulty said. The indictment accuses the cartel of up to 20 murders in the United States and Mexico and of negotiating shipment with cocaine traffickers in Columbia, namely communist rebels.

The indictment also alleges that Arellano-Felix's organization trained and armed body guards to carry out assassinations of rival drug lords, law enforcement collaborators and personnel and journalists, McNalty said.

'Javier was one of the most ruthless thugs that was involved in drug trafficking around the world,' he said.

The US government had offered a 5-million-dollar reward for information leading to Arellano-Felix's arrest but could not say if any tipster is eligible to receive the money.

The US Coast Guard moved in on Arellano-Felix while he was deep- sea fishing on a US-flagged ship called the Dock Holiday.

The US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) received information that the Dock Holiday was around 24 kilometres off the coast of La Paz, Mexico. The US Coast Guard boarded the ship and found Arellano-Feliz.

Also on board were seven other adults and three children, McNalty said. None of the other adults was wanted in connection with drug trafficking but they remained in detention in San Diego, California.

'One of the individuals aboard the vessel who was travelling under an alias later identified himself as the same Francisco Javier Arellano-Felix that I have described in this indictment,' McNalty said.

Arellano-Felix was expected to be arraigned in 'the very near future,' McNalty said.