Washington – The Coast Guard caught suspected Mexican drug lord Francisco Javier Arellano-Felix deep-sea fishing off Mexico, decapitating a murderous gang that dug smuggling tunnels under the U.S. border, officials said Wednesday.
Arellano-Felix, 36, was apprehended when the crew of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Monsoon boarded a U.S.-registered sport fishing boat at 9 a.m. local time Monday about 15 miles off the coast of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen told a news conference.
“We’ve taken the head off the snake,” said Michael Braun, chief of operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration. DEA agents discovered Arellano-Felix’s fishing plans and asked the Coast Guard to seize the boat in international waters.
“This is a huge blow” to one of the three largest Mexican drug cartels, Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty said.
However, he added, “much more remains to be done.”
The cartel was once led by seven brothers and four sisters, Braun said, but he noted that Javier’s brother Ramon was killed in a shootout with police in 2002, his brother Benjamin is in a Mexican prison and brother Eduardo, while at large in Mexico, is not considered “capable of leading the organization at this time.”
“That’s not to say that there aren’t one or more others capable of stepping up and running it,” Braun said.
The Coast Guard is towing the fishing boat to San Diego where DEA agents will formally arrest Arellano-Felix and others among the eight adults and three juveniles on board.
Officials anticipated announcing additional charges against the group in San Diego today.
