Latin
America:
US
Feds
Bust
Major
Mexican
Trafficker,
Expect
Violence,
Continued
Drug
Trafficking
as
Result
8/18/06
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/449/arellano_felix_capture_not_expected_to_change_things.shtml
Javier Arellano-Felix, a major player in one of Mexico's powerful and violent drug trafficking organizations, was arrested by the US Coast Guard in international waters off the coast of Mexico's Baja California. But even as federal law enforcement officials risked serious injury from all the back-patting going on at their celebratory press conference Thursday, they acknowledged that his arrest would amount to little.
|
|
DEA poster |
|
The Arellano-Felix organization controls the Tijuana drug trade franchise, or "plaza" as it's called in Mexican slang. It grew in the 1980s into a major cocaine trafficking group, but was dealt a harsh blow in 2002 when one older Arellano-Felix brother was killed and another arrested. In the past two years, since the most recent disruptions of the Mexican cartel structure, the Arellano-Felix organization has been a key player in the bloody vendettas among traffickers that have left more than 1,500 people dead.
"El Tigrillo" ("The Little Tiger"), as he is known in Mexico, was one of several organization members indicted by a federal grand jury in San Diego in 2003 on charges they conspired to smuggle tons of cocaine into the US. He faces life in prison here.
"In the world of drug law enforcement, it doesn't get any better," John Fernandes, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's San Diego office, sat a mobbed news conference. "This is huge. The opportunity to capture a drug lord the caliber of Javier Arellano Felix is a unique event." His capture marks "the end of two decades of the most... powerful and violent drug-trafficking organization," he added.
And what that means in Mexico is a new round of violence as competing trafficking organizations fight to take advantage of the opening. Fernandes acknowledged as much, saying that violent jockeying for power is the likely result of Arellano's arrest.
Nor do authorities expect his arrest to make any significant difference. "In drug trafficking we're not naive enough to think that drug trafficking is going to stop," said FBI Daniel R. Dzwilewski, special agent in charge of the FBI's local office.
Still, it was a nice photo-op.
-- END --
Issue #449
-- 8/18/06
Editorial:
There's
Always
Another
Drug
Cartel...
|
Feature:
Colorado
Marijuana
Possession
Legalization
Initiative
Makes
the
Ballot
|
Feature:
"Beyond
Zero
Tolerance"
Conference
Aims
to
Provide
New
Paradigm
for
Educators
|
Feature:
SSDP,
Drug
War
Rant
Blog
Score
Media
Hit
With
Attack
on
DEA
Drug-Terror
Exhibit
|
Law
Enforcement:
This
Week's
Corrupt
Cops
Stories
|
Latin
America:
US
Feds
Bust
Major
Mexican
Trafficker,
Expect
Violence,
Continued
Drug
Trafficking
as
Result
|
Harm
Reduction:
Global
Harm
Reductionists
Issue
Urgent
Declaration
Calling
for
Action
on
Drug
Use
and
HIV
|
Methamphetamine:
One
Month
in
One
Texas
County
Courthouse
Opens
a
Window
on
the
Drug
War
Version
2.006
|
Methamphetamine:
Third
Murder
Trial
for
Woman
in
California
Methamphetamine
Poisoning
Infant
Death
Case
|
Southwest
Asia:
Afghan
Opium
Cultivation
Jumps
to
Record
Level
|
Europe:
British
Public
Supports
More
Rational
Drug
Policies,
Survey
Says
|
Weekly:
This
Week
in
History
|
Weekly:
The
Reformer's
Calendar
|
This issue -- main page
This issue -- single-file printer version
Drug War Chronicle -- main page
Chronicle archives
|
PERMISSION to reprint or
redistribute any or all of the contents of Drug War Chronicle (formerly The Week Online with DRCNet is hereby
granted. We ask that any use of these materials include proper credit and,
where appropriate, a link to one or more of our web sites. If your
publication customarily pays for publication, DRCNet requests checks
payable to the organization. If your publication does not pay for
materials, you are free to use the materials gratis. In all cases, we
request notification for our records, including physical copies where
material has appeared in print. Contact: StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network,
P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 293-8340 (voice), (202)
293-8344 (fax), e-mail [email protected]. Thank
you.
Articles of a purely
educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of the DRCNet
Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
|