In one of his books, Jesús Blancornelas, the founder of the weekly Zeta, described the Poster of the Arellano Felix brothers as “the most powerful mafia in the history of Latin America.” That’s how he cataloged them in 2002, when Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán He had little free time after escaping for the first time from a prison, and the US government ratified that claim.
–
For several years, the criminal activities of the so-called Tijuana Cartel constantly appeared on the pages of Zeta. until deaths, arrests and internal struggles They were diluting the power of this narcofamily. Now they are counted the times they mention them in that medium. One of the most recent confirms that there is very little left of that powerful criminal organization.
–
On February 20, the ghost of the Arellano Felix returned to haunt that border city by the arrest of Octavio Leal Hernández, aka ‘Chapito Leal’, who was one of its main operators and who later joined the Sinaloa Cartel. That day, military and police guarded the facility where they had him in custody, even though he had become A petty criminal.
–
He fell by chance in a police operation. ‘Chapito Leal’ maintained his criminal career as Head of a band of car thieves. That day they broke into a business dedicated to selling used cars, located on the Tijuana Oriente Fast Track, when someone reported to the authorities.
–
The early reaction of the police resulted in a chase in which there was an exchange of shots. Without knowing that they were following the dreaded Leal Hernández, the agents followed him to the offices of a business group. In the middle of the evacuation of those who were there, the officers found the criminal, who I was trying to hide under a desk. Later they discovered that it was ‘Loyal Chapito’.
–
“That day thanks to the immediate response of the police forces, the capture of 9 people involved in the criminal group was achieved, including the alleged operator of a drug cartel, known as ‘Chapito Leal'”, indicates the Prosecutor’s Office of Baja California in a statement.
–
“These detainees were found in the possession of various firearms, as well as drugs, so they were initially referred to the federal authority, in the Attorney General’s Office, ”he adds.
–
This week, two men who were members of the Tijuana Cartel were sentenced to almost 135 years in jail in a Mexican federal court. It was determined that Iván Rodríguez and Omar Moreno are responsible for the crimes of aggravated kidnapping and illegal carrying of weapons of exclusive use of the Army of that country.
–
They were arrested on March 6, 2006 in an operation that was carried out in a safe house in that city. That day, an anti-kidnapping command from the Baja California Prosecutor’s Office rescued four victims. These kidnappers were taken to a federal prison in the State of Mexico, where they have remained all these years.
–
The end of a criminal era
It is believed that the remnants of the Tijuana Cartel were left to Enedina Arellano Felix, aka ‘The Narcomami’ and who in his best time had the reins of financial operations. It is not clear if it is still immersed in organized crime. Tijuana is now a battlefield. Gunmen of the Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG) they fight neighborhood by neighborhood to control one of the main narcotics accesses to the United States.
–
Enedina Arellano Felix is not one of the main objectives of the Administration for Drug Control (DEA), which in 2013 ended the bloody chapter of the Tijuana Cartel. This was indicated on June 24 of that year, with the sentence to 15 years in prison that Eduardo Arellano Felix received, aka ‘The Doctor’, for the laundering of “tens of millions of dollars from drug trafficking”.
–
He was the last of four members of this clan to be convicted in the US. Benjamin was sentenced to 25 years in prison and his younger brother, Francisco, to life imprisonment. While Ramón died in a shooting with gunmen of the Sinaloa Cartel in Mazatlan in 2002 and Rafael was killed by a hitman who dressed up as a clown during a party in Baja California Sur in 2013.
–
“The sentence that Eduardo Arellano Felix received today (that day) marks the end of an era in the history of the cartel. The Arellano Felix drug trafficking organization Is finished, others have moved and are trying to take their place, ”said the head of the DEA in San Diego, William R. Sherman.
–
The three Arellano Felix brothers who are in US prisons they agreed to cooperate with the DEA offering information that eventually buried his poster, getting them to reduce their sentences. The beginnings of this narcofamily have been told in the Netflix series Narcos Mexico I and II.
–
