Ramón Arellano Félix

Ramón Arellano Félix (born August 31, 1964 in Culiacán , † February 10, 2002 in Mazatlán ) was a Mexican drug trafficker and a leader of the Tijuana cartel , which is also known as the Arrellano Félix organization .

Criminal career

The Arellano brothers set up an organization in Mexico that smuggled hundreds of tons of cocaine from Colombia into the United States and murdered many hundreds of people. In the early 1980s, the eldest brother, Benjamin , established himself in Tijuana , where he and Ramón began planning the multi-million dollar business that would eventually expand to the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America. At the height of their network during the 1990s, they were responsible for supplying between 40 and 70 percent of the cocaine trade in the United States. The brothers are charged with a wide variety of crimes, including the assassination of the Archbishop of Guadalajara , Cardinal Juan, in May 1993, and the assassination of the journalist Jesús Blancornelas in late 1997.

Ramón, who is considered the most violent brother, reportedly coordinated the organization's security and often recruited staff from violent street gangs. The organization's security forces, labeled as paramilitary by Mexican law enforcement agencies, were well trained and well armed. One of Ramón's jobs was to plan the murders of rival drug dealers, uncooperative law enforcement officers, and any cartel members who fell out of favor with the cartel leadership.

Ramón has been on the FBI's top ten most wanted criminals list since September 1997. In absentia, he was charged with money laundering and drug trafficking by a grand jury in San Diego . The US authorities also opened a ten-point charge against him and his brother on May 11, 2000, accusing them of running a drug smuggling organization and kidnapping and murdering rival drug traffickers, informants and police officers. The US State Department has offered a $ 2 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Ramón Arellano-Felix.

On June 2, 2000, both brothers were listed by the United States Department of the Treasury as being involved in drug smuggling under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act . This prohibits US citizens and companies from doing business with them and has frozen virtually all of their assets in the US.

assassination

On February 10, 2002, Ramón was killed in a shooting in Mazatlán , where he was stopped in a traffic stop by a Mexican police officer who at the time did not know who Arellano Félix really was. Arellano Félix drew his gun and shot the policeman who was able to return fire, killing him before he died. It has been speculated that Arellano Félix was in Mazatlán to kill his bitter rival, Ismael Zambada García, of the Sinaloa cartel .

An official in the administration of President George W. Bush , who asked for anonymity, said the murder of Arellano Félix was the result of a trap by Zambada García. The official said that Zambada García staff and state police from Sinaloa staged the control to make Ramón stop and then execute him with four bullets. However, a spokesman for the Sinaloa State Police denied the US government's version, saying that Ramón was killed as a result of routine checks related to the shooting.

Until the arrest of Benjamin Arellano Félix in March 2002, the authorities were unsure whether it was actually Ramón, because other ID cards had been found on the dead person and the body had been collected by alleged relatives and immediately cremated. Benjamin confirmed Ramón's death after his arrest. The brother Francisco Javier took over the management of the organization.

Movie and TV

• 2017: Portrayal in the film character Ramón Avendaño by Rolf Petersen, in the series El Chapo .
• 2018: Representation in the series Narcos: Mexico , by Manuel Masalva.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Vice News - Last Link to the Tijuana Cartel Gets Arrested While Celebrating Mexico's World Cup Win
2. ↑ Focus on Latin America - New speculations about the murder of Cardinal Posadas ( Memento of December 26, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ NoticiasYa - Atentado contra periodista Blancornelas, 19 años de impunidad: ZETA
4. ^ Frontline - The Business - Arellano-Felix Cartel
5. ↑ World 24 - Mexico's Most Powerful Drug Boss Arrested
6. ↑ United States Department of the Treasury - An overview of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act
7. ↑ Carmen Boullosa & Mike Wallace - ¡Enough! The Mexico Case: Why We Need a New Global Drug Policy
8. ↑ El Blog del Narco - Photos fuertes, Así ejecuto “El Chapo” Guzmán a Ramón Arellano Feliz
9. ↑ The Standard - Most important drug boss in Mexico captured
10. ↑ 20 minutes - This is the most dangerous woman in Mexico